Music Video Postings Additional Posts
Wafalme (the Kings) live in Nairobi (Kenya) in the slum area of Mathare
Valley. They are
already hip-hop stars in Kenya and now they want to speak to kids all
over the world. Dandora and Korogocho are two slums that totally lack trash
collection, despite the fact that houses, shops and hotels from all of
Nairobi dump roughly 1.5 tons of trash there every day. Research by the UNEP shows that residents of Mathare, Dandora and
Korogocho are dying because of this dump. A total of 328 children and
adolescents living and schooling there were examined. Half of the
children tested had concentrations of lead in their blood exceeding
internationally accepted levels.
Yet, the the youth of the slum say "trash is cash." Plastic, iron, paper, glass, and organic waste (80 percent of the total
trash) can be recycled and become a source of income for thousands of
the inhabitants. Some have invented work for themselves and are actually producing
water-purification systems, compost, bio-fuel from coffee seeds and
paperboard... all developed with self-constructed machines. The results are that recycling creates a source of income for a
big number of people in a slum where joblessness and surplus trash
cause major problems. The music video was written and developed by the young hip-hoppers themselves.