21-year-old Muctar Inkindi uses his poems to address mental health and issues such as drug abuse, alcohol addiction, and so forth, especially among the youth. He recalls writing his first poem titled, “The African Cries” in Senior Six, and it was after watching the news where Somalian girls were being forced into early marriage. This disturbed him, questioning why innocent girls were denied education and abused. He knew many African children were facing similar issues, some even worse. He wanted to address this in his poems. At first, he would jot down what was on his mind. He actually didn’t intend to do poetry until a friend who was fascinated by his writing gave him a nudge. In 2020, he started writing about mental health illnesses. Inkindi didn’t know how real it was until many of his friends started confiding in him about the issues they encountered. One of his friends was in a broken family, his parents had gotten divorced—a thing that left their home ‘empty’ and ‘depressing’, and so he sought solace in alcohol. This, with time, turned into full blown addiction, and he eventually reached out to Inkindi for guidance. Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act.. Photo/Net Others opened up about the pressure to fit in society, creating ‘fake lives’ to try and keep up. During this time, he took an online course in psychology from University of Washington, and through the knowledge he acquired, he became more aware of mental health—types, signs, ways to cope—among other things. After completing the course, he wrote a poem called “Gene-pression”, designed to create awareness on mental health, for example, solitude that could result in alcohol or drug abuse, or even suicide. He wants anyone affected by this to know that they are not alone, and urges friends and family to offer support in case one’s behaviour changes. Inkindi has written about 350 poems altogether, 25 of them are about mental health. And he has recorded about nine poems. Writing is a hobby that occupies him. When he is not writing, he is watching comedies or chatting with friends. He gets ideas from people around him, and books. He wants to inspire the young generation to write because their poems or stories will be relevant even in the years to come. His role model is Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, a Kenyan writer and academic who writes primarily in Gikuyu. His work includes novels, plays, short stories, and essays, ranging from literary and social criticism to children’s literature, as he resonates with his traditional life and way of writing. Inkindi encounters challenges like conflict of generation because some people don’t understand the creative way of mixing different languages in one poem, as they think that the point for which the poem is written, is lost. “Other challenges are little pay, most of the time I write and perform my poems for free. But also, people attach my writing to my life,” he says. He has performed at the Parliament, national stadium, Impact Hub, and Infura Heritage (a platform that boosts youth talent). Poetry, he says, is one way to entertain himself and the people around him, express his thoughts, and also act as therapy. He mostly writes about love, mental wellness, Africa’s problems, inspiration, commemoration, and culture. “I want to leave a legacy where my poems will be insightful and healing to everyone,” he says. Inkindi is currently pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Public Health at Mount Kenya University, Rwanda.
