Am not sober, Odiero, am not sober Am not sober becoz I’ve taken Guinness.
I’ve taken Guinness that has got Michael Power.
Bibi yangu (my wife), Am not sober; watoto yangu (my children), Am not sober; wazazi yangu (my parents). Am not sober yawa (people).
So goes the chorus of the Jamnazi Afrika band’s huge 2002 Kenyan hit “Am not sober”, which came to their frontman, Awilo (Michael Atieno Ooko), on the way home from a gig at Club Sesia in Eldoret one night. Earlier, during his customary midnight break after a set when he meets and greets members of the audience, a regular came up to him and offered him a Guinness, both their favourite stouts. Awilo declined because, as he told the fan, he was not sober. The phrase stuck in his head and after composing the chorus himself his band came up with the rest. It is still a popular song with revellers in a country with a pronounced drinking culture.
The Michael Power referred to in the chorus is the name of a character created by Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide for use in advertisements in Africa on behalf of their client, Guinness. Played by Jamaican-born and British-raised actor Cleveland Mitchell, he has been featured in a series of short commercials on TV and radio as an action hero who saves the world and then later rewards himself with a Guinness, the drink that “brings out the power in you”. He was even the subject of a 2003 feature film called “Critical Assignment” set in an African country where a corrupt politician has been diverting funds from a clean water campaign to some nefarious arms dealers. Michael Power plays the heroic journalist who discovers the plot and saves the day. Some of the film was shot in Nigeria and Cameroon, which are, according to the BBC, Guinness’s fourth and fifth largest markets in the world, respectively.
A film that Guinness won’t be associated with is the music video for “Am not sober”. Jamnazi approached Kenya Breweries Limited, a subsidiary of East African Breweries Limited, to see if they wanted to chip in financially for the making of a video to accompany the song that continually mentions their product. They declined, Awilo says, because they didn’t want to be associated with a song they felt was not in line with their marketing policy of responsible drinking. This also could have meant getting in trouble with the National agency for the Campaign Against Drug Abuse (NACADA). NACADA, which falls under the Office of the President of Kenya, has been campaigning against tobacco and alcohol advertising, which is part of a larger effort by the government to crack down on Kenya’s drinking culture. Not all its efforts have been successful though, with the recent attempt to introduce the “Alcoblow”, a breathalyser test, being thwarted in the High Court. For his part, Awilo says that he, like the still popular song, is against excessive drinking. As recently reported by Franklin Awori of Kenya’s The Nation about the writing of the song:
Together with his Ja-mnazi Band he decided to fine-tune the song after seeing wheat farmers and teachers in the North Rift squander their earnings and loans in bars.
“A farmer would walk in with more than Sh100,000 and a few days later, the man would be flat broke and asking for fare home,” recalls Awilo.
“Am Not Sober is a warning to those who drink recklessly while neglecting their families and forgetting that there is tomorrow,” he explains.
“My song is not about the feel-good effect of alcohol. It tells you that there is a price to pay if you are not careful.”
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