Diaspoman: How Solome introduced the famous String

Recently, I was deep in the village on one of my usual visits. I was quite surprised to note that some people are still living in dire conditions. Small kids running around with long shirts that reach just above the knees. Then there was this boy who happened to be donned in underwear that resembled a string! Wow, I had always thought that those days had long gone! I remember way back when kids in our villages used to play football on the dusty village streets dressed in such strings. Actually, all of us under the age of 10 used to dress up in strings – save for one lucky boy who was known by the names of Mambo Leo. He had earned this name due to his unquenchable love for music and dance. He used to stop at the trading centre and pull off some incredible dancing strokes which left onlookers amused. Anyways, little Mambo Leo one day received a gift all the way from Amsterdam airport. That certain gift, which was delivered by the Dutch school chaplain, was none other than a panty. It was a red panty. Mambo immediately went wild with excitement. His mind made somersaults because he had never had that rare golden opportunity to dress up in a panty. That is why Mambo was seen all over the school compound showing off his red underwear. That is also why Mambo developed this idea of visiting the toilets and then always forgetting to button up his fly. During those days, school boys dressed up in pair of shorts which never had zips. Those were the days when zips were regarded to be special products for the rich alone. As for the poor folks such as Mambo, their shorts were decorated with several multi-coloured buttons to keep the fly shut. But for Mambo, the buttons that were meant to protect his fly were always open for everyone to see. In fact, he even got to an extent of simply plucking off the buttons so that the colour of his underwear could shine bright. So, as he boasted around the school compound, his friends became envious. They felt left out by their colleague who, prior to this present, had shared everything with them. Now, they felt that he had taken a serious leap forward by abandoning the “Original” panty that all the other lads were used to. The “Original” panty that Mambo and his friends had been used to was in a combination of boxers and a string. The material used was Nylon, which was sometimes referred to as ‘Solome’. Those were the days when the only shopkeeper in the village used to import rolls of Nylon tissue all the way from Mombassa. Apparently this shopkeeper also hailed from that coastal town and he was so famous for his Nylon sales that he earned himself a nickname; Mr. Solome. Villagers would trek from all corners of the village to Solome’s shop so as to buy themselves a few meters of the Nylon cloth. It was not everyday that the villagers visited Solome’s shop for Nylon tissue. Their calendar was well known to Solome and that explains why his shop was always out of stock during the months of January and February. Then in March or April, Solome stocked his shop with more Nylon as the Easter days approached. Thereafter, the shop would remain half empty until the Christmas days came knocking at the door. After buying the products from Bwana Solome, the villagers would carry their Nylon rolls from Solome’s shop and cross the valley in a bid to visit yet another monopolist. This other monopolist was none other than village tailor. Here, the tailor would wrap the measuring tape around the villagers so as to arrive at the right sizes. As for Mambo and his fellow playmates, it was real fun visiting the tailor. He would play with the kids as he measured the size of their waists and their small bums. Then he would patch up some makeshift panties for Mambo and his fellow small gangsters. As I said before, those panties were a combination of boxers and strings. This is because the tailor thought that a boy’s underwear should stretch all the way to the knees. He claimed that such fashions hailed from America . Then he would slice off chunks from the sides so that they resembled today’s most popular G-string. So now we know where the famous G-strings originated from… diaspoman@yahoo.com