Life Onboard LAST UPDATE  February 27, 2009
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February 3, 2009 As the Ship Sails Toward Kenya, Kenya comes to the ship
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Kenyan musicians Sengenya Stars perform onboard
When guest educator Hayakawa Chiaki boarded the Peace Boat in Singapore, she brought a little bit of Africa with her. For the next two weeks, until the Mona Lisa moored in Mombasa, Kenya, Ms Hayakawa hosted a series of lectures, workshops, and performances related to African culture. She was accompanied by the Kenyan musical group the Sengenya Stars, who taught participants daily how to play traditional African instruments such as the drums and kayamba, a rattle made from reeds and seeds or small beads. Through their workshops, a group of participants even formed an onboard acrobatic group. Ms Hayakawa’s lectures illuminated many issues facing Africa today, particularly the continent’s struggle to mesh the traditional tribal cultures with the creeping influences of big cities and foreign countries.
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Hayakawa Chiaki, a Japanese activist who has lived in Kenya for 21 years
Ms Hayakawa also discussed the issues faced by those living in extremely impoverished slums on the fringes of big cities, such as the Kibera slum just outside of Nairobi where Ms Hayakawa works. Peace Boat participants were sickened to hear about the realities of slum life. “I never thought that children as young as two or three could get raped,” Ms Hayakawa said. “But things like that happen everyday in Kibera.” Ms Hayakawa told the audience that often no one goes to the police to report such crimes, because they have lost all confidence in the idea of justice. “They just have to continue living day-to-day,” she explained. “If someone leaves the slums, what are they going to do? They have no job or skills. That’s why the cycle continues.”
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Ms Hayakawa with the children of Magoso School (Photo: Hayakawa Chiaki)
Despite the shocking reality of life in the slums, Ms Hayakawa has proven through her activism work that change is possible. Ten years ago, Ms Hayakawa started a school with a Kibera resident named Vivian. It was the first school ever in Kibera, and it began as twenty children in a single room. Now, the Magoso School has 300 students from preschool to standard eight. There are 14 teachers at the school, all of them from Kibera themselves and graduates of Magoso. “They come back and teach the younger children after they graduate,” Ms Hayakawa said proudly. The school has strengthened the community and provided a refuge for children like Tony, a young boy who showed up at the school begging Ms Hayakawa to take him in and teach him how to read and write. Tony had been living on the streets since he was only two years old, returning home once in a while only to be beaten and thrown out again by his father. Thanks to Magoso’s efforts and his own incredible desire to learn, Tony has graduated from middle school and this month will be taking his high school entrance exams.
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Children studying at Magoso (Photo: Hayakawa Chiaki)
Children are often the biggest victims in times of conflict, and although Kenya is a relatively peaceful nation, devastating violence erupted upon suspicion that the December 2007 presidential election had been rigged. At the time, the violence was so serious that the Peace Boat was forced to forego a scheduled stop in Mombasa for the first time. The Kibera slum was greatly affected by the election aftermath, as police surrounded the perimeter so that no one could escape. Trapped in the slum, friends and neighbors rediscovered their ethnic affiliations and suddenly became bitter enemies. During her time onboard, Ms Hayakawa displayed drawings and paintings made by Kibera schoolchildren. The pictures depicted camouflaged men bearing AK-47s and machetes, crayon-red flames pouring out of buildings, and stick figures scribbled with furious blood as children recorded their lives during the post-election violence.
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Onishi Masaya leads participants in an African drum workshop
“Each of these children has a story to tell,” Ms Hayakawa told participants. She and a member of the Sengenya Stars, Onishi Masaya, help these stories to be heard by recording music played by the children and selling it, along with handicrafts, to raise money for school supplies and other necessities for Kiberian children. On the Peace Boat, Ms Hayakawa’s “African Market,” a sale of handmade jewelry, textiles and artwork, raised over one million yen for youth causes in the slums. On Ms Hayakawa’s last evening onboard, she and the Sengenya Stars held a final performance, joined by participants who showed off their newly found skills in singing, drumming, dancing and acrobatics. Although the ship had only just sailed into Kenyan waters that night, participants had been learning so much from Ms Hayakawa and the African musicians about community and culture that it felt like they had already been in Africa for days.

Guest Educator Profiles

Hayakawa Chiaki, Writer/Activist
 Hayakawa Chiaki runs the Magoso School, located in Kibera, one of Africa’s biggest slums. The school is aimed at helping street children, children suffering from poverty and orphans by supplying food, shelter and education. She also organizes recycling projects and eco-study tours.

Sengenya Stars, Musicians
 This music and dance group plays traditional African music. They brought an African mood onboard and showcased wonderful and energetic performances. Besides live performances, they hosted African drum workshops, Swahili lectures, and dance events. Onishi Masaya, one of the members of Sengenya Stars, is a supporter of Hayakawa Chiaki’s projects.