Kenyan blogger Biko-Bikozulu talks blogging, life and Eddie Kenzo

 

How does he really look like? Does he even have the forehead he claims to have? Is he as funny as he writes?

He makes fun of people with posh accents, does he speak with one? Is he balding? Does he have a paunch? I hope he has no paunch. He says he works out. No paunch.

All this, I silently asked myself, as I waited for Biko.

Jackson Biko, the famous Kenyan blogger whose blog, Bikozulu, has scooped Best Creative Blog in Kenya for three consecutive years.

I am at Serena Hotel, Kampala, to meet him. The receptionist tells me to wait from the hotel lobby as he prepares himself. I take my seat as I ask myself, "Does he really have to apply makeup?" I stare down at my shoes and wonder whether he will make fun of them when he comes. Finally, he is here.

He is tall. Taller than me. Taller than the receptionist, too. I tilt my head, raise my eyes and look up at him as he firmly shakes my hand.

"You're quite early. You must be a focused journalist," he says as he takes his seat.

I don't know what to reply him. I am star-struck, I guess, which is not a bad thing, if you ask me.

He looks different from what I thought. For some reason, he can easily pass as a male model.

He's clean-shaven and thick-rimmed designer glasses sit at the bridge of his nose.

No, his nose is not too big, as he always claims. He looks like he takes care of his goatee like a pet.

And, I notice, he doesn't look 38. "You look 29. What's the secret?" I ask him. He smiles and says that everyone tells him the same thing. I tell him that he must be William Pharell's lost cousin from Kendu Bay.

He laughs hard, revealing his teeth, for the first time.

"Tell me. How did all this start?" I ask, fumbling with my notebook. He fishes out his iPhone and takes a picture of one of the artifacts in the lobby area.

He says he was a Laboratory Technologist in Nairobi, Kenya.

In 1999, he realized he was in the wrong path career-wise. "I had the artist in me banging on the door," he quips.

He quit his Laboratory job and headed West, to Uganda and studied Mass Communication at Kampala International University (KIU).

He finished his degree in 2005 and started writing for the Daily Monitor. Though, as he puts it, he wanted to swim with the sharks in Nairobi.

"I left Uganda and started writing for Adam Magazine in 2007. This is where I met Oyunga Pala," he explains.

Biko actually speaks with a posh accent. An accent of a person who often climbs planes and, at some point, gets his visa denied.

His blog

He started blogging in 2010. What pushed him to blog? Could it have been heartbreak like most bloggers?  "Joblessness pushed me to start blogging," he says.

Adam Magazine had folded its pages and closed business. And blogging was a barren land in Kenya.

He picked his quill, oiled it and wrote to faceless readers.

Suddenly, the blog-Bikozulu-started to grow.

Traffic to the blog increased. And he kept on writing, an intimate relationship with his readers started to take shape eventually.

He says he is an observer. And I notice him observing me, observing the artifacts, observing the people that walked by, in the lobby.

"I am more of an observer. I get stories from observing. I like stories about people, about my kids, about fatherhood," he says.

This is evident on his popular blog. His stories about fatherhood have gone viral.

His stories about people are not only captivating, but sprinkled with wit. And for his kids? Well, he writes about his two kids with a passion of a doting father. He never writes about his wife, though.

His blog, he says, has opened doors for him. It has given him discipline. It has paid him friends and enemies. And of course, it has put food on his table and paid a bill or two.

"Young writers say I look up to you. This humbles me," he says.

There are tons of bloggers in Kenya. Blogging, in Kenya, is a big thing. And his blog has won three consecutive times at the BAKE awards in Kenya.

I asked him what it makes him feel. "It's flattering. Winning is a validation to your art," comes the answer.

He chuckles. I notice a tattoo on his arm and point at it admiringly. "Oh, this? I want to get another one for my mum," he says, staring at it for about 3 seconds.

His take on blogging in Uganda

He, admittedly, says he is not acquitted to blogging in Uganda.

He thinks for a bit, trying to remember any blogger of note in Uganda, I think.

Later, he says he loves Ugandan music instead. "I love Eddie Kenzo," he retorts.

I wanted him to dance to Sitya Loss, but he looked down at his watch and said he had to run to the airport.

He didn't dance. "In Uganda, I read Ernest Bazanye. I used to read him from his Bad Idea days when I was still at the University here.

I also used to read the Old Fox.

Lately, I read this woman, too. This…Stella Nyanzi," he says.  

In the next 5 years

Looking at the success his blog has brought him, he seems like he arrived already, doesn't he? He says he hasn't yet. He has plans. Big plans. He wants to be an authoritative voice. He wants to learn, he wants to make people laugh, to make people entertained. To be a better person.

I asked him whether he is successful, or calls himself successful. He looks at me and says, "This is the best question you have asked me so far." I silently swell with pride. It's hard to ask questions to someone who has been asking questions to people for a long time. I look at him as he labours to answer back

"Succ…successful?..well," he stammers for a bit, slightly restless. "No, I am not. Not really. But by certain standards, I am successful. Though, success is not a destination.

Being known is not success. Success is like the Jadudi story I wrote. Success should be measured by the impact you create," he explains.

Advice to young people

It has been raining graduation gowns the past few weeks. This actually meant the streets will be flooded with more job seekers.

I asked Biko what advise he would want to leave with these young people. "Be unique. Everybody has a degree in something. Curve your own niche. There are no boundaries," he says.

For writers, he says, "Just write. Consistently. Beautifully."

Jackson Biko, besides blogging at Bikozulu, is a freelance journalist.

He writes for True Love Magazine, Msafiri, Travel Africa, Business Daily, Saturday Nation, et al.

What's the trick? He loves it.

He looks down at his watch for the umpteenth time and says he's late for his flight.

I nod as we both get to our feet.

I ask him whether we can take a selfie and he says no pictures. He repeats, "No pictures, Edward." We shake hands and he's off.

Off to Kenya. Off to write.