#MsingiFound
A phone conversation with ‘missing’ Msingi Sasis yesterday confirms he is okay and for the past couple of days has been crashing at a friend’s place. Though, by his own admission, he his headed back on the streets again today, back to CBD and the grand hustle that is homelessness in Nairobi and with no real plan in mind apart from survival.
On May 8, he left a cryptic message on his Facebook page outlining a series of events that conspired to bitterly wreck any resemblance to his life as an artist.
“Right now I am not even thinking about being an artist,” says Msingi. “I mean, if it hasn’t produced anything for me, why should I give a fuck about it?”
He was evicted from his home in Rongai, his possessions – including life-giving camera equipment – were taken from him as supposed recompense for past due rent and a mountain of creditors, though the specific details of this are still unclear.
What was perfectly clear at the time (and still is), however, was that he was penniless, fairly hopeless about his situation and obviously still mentally plagued by being labeled a terrorist over a year ago. Following his general cry for help was what appeared to be a self-imposed exile to Nairobi’s shadows. Nothing, for now, has really changed.
“I try to mostly sleep during the day in parks and in libraries, so I won’t get mugged…at night I am on the street.”
It was only when a friend bumped into him in CBD early this week that Msinigi became aware of the heightened concern of his absence, including calls to this office received from friends and family looking for news of his whereabouts. A story we wrote about Msingi’s situation broke records for reach and shares of any one story UP Nairobi has ever written. A large number of people locally and internationally have apparently latched on to what Msinigi’s disappearance may represent—a broken life-support system that is not able to sustain the beating heart of a community’s creativity.
He has survived (and continues to survive) on the streets, according to Msingi, by selling books for informal newsstand traders and acting as a sort of ‘city tout’, helping people transiting through Nairobi unfamiliar with downtown to get from point A to point B.
“Sometimes if I sell a book for 350 to 400 schillings, I can keep a little for myself and buy food,” Msingi says.
He also says his perspective of Nairobi in darkness has changed from a practitioner of portraiture to active participant—a character in a nourish landscape of his own making; perhaps grittier, more animated, more alive, more frightening and alone than anything he could capture through a lens.
What will happen next for Msinigi is an evolving story. His experience may well propel a new phase in his art, or he may walk away from it forever. He is man, seemingly with nothing to lose and perhaps nothing, immediately, to gain.
He mentioned the possibility of acquiring equipment on loan from the Photographers Association of Kenya, but seems unsure how and when this may take place; or even if there is the will to continue.
Organizers of Art@TheBus Wknd, including co-sponsors UP Nairobi, are hoping to exhibit some of Msingi’s work for purchase during the festival weekend at The Yard/Alchemist, June 3rd, but no firm plans have been made with the artist at this point.
Stay tuned to UP Nairobi for more details.
