THE DANGER THAT IS THE MBOKO GANG (simplified version).
Mboko Gang members usually remind me of the Dothraki horsemen from the HBO series “Game of Thrones.” In just about every one of their social media outings, they seem wild, untethered and out for every drop of blood that goes contrary to something to what Jovi may have said or done.
Some other times they remind me of a character from the book “The Da Vinci code.” This character is an albino practising corporal mortification; a catholic sectarian practice that has to do with whipping yourself as an act of contrition, asking forgiveness for sin. The whip he uses to do this act seems to him like the only symbol of truth and of reality as it ought to be. This act/truth for him is like a single mixture of baptism, redemption and canonisation in a gospel he considers to be the one true one. Mboko gang people, like the albino, seem to have whipped themselves into believing a truth in what we can aptly call a Mboko gospel.
But here’s the thing about truths. A lie can be repeated so often that it becomes the truth.
I’ve always tried to refrain from arguing….sorry debating with members of the Mboko Gang. I’ve since discovered it to be a futile and task and quite simply a waste of time. One of the reasons why I consider it to be so is because of their stoicism that I think does not have a foundation on any philosophical or aesthetic conviction exactly, but which is primarily driven because they act like sheep, incapable of reasoning for themselves and are just about the best crown followers you can find on the internet streets. It does help that the fear of missing out (FOMO) which is a huge epidemic on social media today is helping to drive this behaviour
I had previously been open to a lot of their convictions and had given some leeway, telling myself that I, perhaps, was the problem and that my own views were a bit ben. But the debate around the greatest rapper in Africa has made me realise that the doubts I had about them were quite true. Almost as if my doubts were a compass that was pointing south but has now been recalibrated and is pointing north once again. It’s not even about the fact that they argue that Jovi is the best rapper. I have had too many arguments with people over who is the better rapper between Tupac and Biggie to know that these arguments are really just a waste of time. It is, however, some of the outright ridiculous arguments that some people put forth in that infamous GOAT in favour of Jovi ( that M.I didn’t even bother responding to) that make my balls itch.
When Ambe, for example, went on Twitter to say that “after listening to MI’s preachings to Vector i finally reconfirmed JOVI is not only G.O.A.T in Africa but a visionary G.O.A.T in Africa cus MI just did to Vector what JOVI did to MI. MI took lesson from Big Bang to address Vector. Or I’m i the only one who noticed that? (sic)”
… you either begin to ask pertinent questions about the breadth and the depth of his personal convictions and that of anyone else that agrees with him. Or you begin to question our if our value system as generation only stretches as far as doing everything to make people in our culture relevant by every means possible by making them gods, when this deification comes not as a result of a real spiritual or philosophical bearing but because we just generally lack power and principle; and in this particular case of the Mboko gang, wherever the Mboko wind blows
If that isn’t just ridiculous, then I don’t know what else is. In a way, I can’t really blame any such person. I mean, we are all products of the same educational system; no doubt the bug in our code. An educational system that is in actual fact, a large factory assembly line through which we all pass, one generic product after the other, built for the mass market, with the only differentiation being etiquettes stamped unto our foreheads saying that we either did the arts or the sciences. An educational system that neither moulds us as individual products, encourages critical thinking, nor teaches us that because one believes in something, one must not necessarily always agree with it.
Mboko Gang members sometimes remind me of those literature students that would only read Tah Protus’ summary of the Sheldon Book of Verse in preparation for the GCE, never once opening the original text to see if they could, themselves, get a different interpretation.
BUT, it would be intellectually dishonest for me to tie all self-proclaimed Mboko Gang members into that bundle. All of them are definitely not like that. I actually met with three of them over the weekend, who do not have that herd mentality and follow the Mboko wind like sheep with no sense. We had a bomb-ass conversation for over three hours. One of them was even wearing a Mboko Gang tee-shirt. Our conversation was deep and it was quite edifying. For most of the time, they spoke, while I listened and learned. We spoke about the one-sided Jovi-M.I beef and let’s just say Ambe will not like their opinion on the topic.
But unfortunately, that’s where the problem lies.
The loudest voices in the Mboko Gang are, unfortunately, not like these three guys. They are, instead, the ones I had once described as newly-minted converts. Especially the ones with little or no hip-hop culture. They are the ones who tarnish the name of what is unarguably the strongest artist community in Cameroon and what has the potential to become a true urban movement (whenever they figure that out).
They are the ones who are eager to jump on any Jovi bandwagon that passes by without wondering in which direction the bandwagon is going, forgetting that it is the same shepherd that is caring the sheep that is driving that wagon. That shepherd is called Herd mentality, lack of critical thinking and the fear of missing out. Their noise on social media is sometimes so loud that my phone sometimes vibrates without a call or a notification coming in. Ok… that’s a lie. But you get the picture.
And it doesn’t help that they want everyone else to get onto that wagon, handing down their support and opinion as diktats. Basically, sentencing that put you in Mboko prison because you wanted to go into the direction opposite the one that the famous Mboko shepherd is driving the flock to. They want you to get on board or get on board.
Vernyuy Tina was right. Freedom is really a type of prison after all.
Ko-C found himself in such a prison not too long ago. You remember the feud he had with Jovi? The Dothraki horde fell on him like the hammer of Thor and smashed his balls so hard that he apologized. When that M.I-Jovi non-event was happening, he proclaimed his support for Jovi and has now made it to the bandwagon too. I’m not sure if it’s a PR move for him or if it’s really his personal conviction. All I know is, I feel all kinds of sorry for him. And not in a good way.
All of this reminds something carl Jung wrote : He said that as much as we like to think we choose between what we think is right and wrong, our ethical scales are actually weighing what we consider to be sense and nonsense. And for the loudest people in the Mboko gang, our educational system’s failures and the pressures of FOMO has rubbed off on their perception so much so that sense for them is what is said to be the truth in the Mboko bible. And it doesn’t help that like our albino above, they have been sedated by whatever narrative they have whipped themselves into believing; which in this case is, you are either with Jovi or you are with Jovi. And that is the dangerous extreme. Ko-C paid the price already.
That’s the danger we all face. And if someone doesn’t rein in the horses I fear it will only get worse. In all honesty, I don’t even bother so much about the Mboko Gang. I fear for the replication of such communities and for the adoption of such behaviour on individual levels. That in the age of information and open learning, we are so stoic on our convictions and brandish the most ridiculous arguments to advance our positions, and not only that, having a crowd applauding and egging us on is cause for concern.
That is the real danger. And while no one is holding you from loving and supporting Jovi, you have to be wary of the extent to which you are ready to do that and the propensity to which you are willing to drag others into whatever delusions your internal albino must have whipped himself into believing.
Jovi said in the song, Lapiro, that : “I mouf ma mpang shit for road, wona go halla swag.”
He just didn't mention that Mboko gang will be there, stooping behind him, catching the shit with their hands and smiling like well-fed sheep.
- Wandji Wilfred.
(I've made it simple now. Those who hid behind the big grammar excuse should come and read)
Picture credit: Posted by Pius Berry on Twitter