Like I mentioned before, competition in our industry is becoming stiff as a result of uneven distribution and the alcohol laws.You know how many of the cheap downtown bar cum brothels have been turned into exhibition halls and how the bars are not open during the day. Until recently the competition has been with prostitutes proper; yeah, the stereotype of a downtown or street prostitute—not very well educated, with a kid or two, ‘tired’, rough, and all those other things. As much as these brought competition, it was nothing disruptive. Maybe the biggest consequence of their flooding was accelerating the fall of the street from the place men find girls with panache at a fair price to just any other place.
But now there is new competition coming in—the one that may actually be disruptive. There are more educated girls coming in, yet its not only about their education but also their attitude, style, and, well, their aura. And they are not exactly young, certainly not in college. They act and look like they are done with college and have probably hit more than a year out of school. They have the maturity, freshness, and that other unexplainable thing that especially the older and more loaded men look for.
The new girls are coming in every day; its as if they are being mobilised. My guess is an upmarket brothel was closed, and the girls decided to come this way to ‘liberate’ themselves. And they hate us as much as we hate them. Us the veterans and old school girls. They know each other and will cluster together, talking in their Nairobi-girl English and laughing out loud. They are very confident and street smart; thus, it has become impossible for us to intimidate them into following the ground rules. So they are getting the men as we are left frustrated, letting it out in insults. I know I should probably be on their side, what with my education and all, but no, my heart and loyalty are with Cheupe and all the roughies.
We the veterans are angry because we feel these girls should not be on the street; they should be in classy brothels, clubs, or lanes in Westlands, Hurlingham, and those mtaas. That is if they are not trading on Facebook and the many other local hookup sites. Why they chose to come here is beyond reason. It’s as if they want to irritate and frustrate us. But this state of things won’t last for very long; not here. Something will have to give in a big way.
On a different note, I have made a strippers club to be my local bar, where I will dash for a drink in the evening when I am not working. I go there to have a taste of a different version of our work. The club is the Super Mambo. This must be the lowest of the strip clubs in this city. It looks like a bad version of one of those nude club scenes in old Van Damme movies. The girls look tired and disturbed. Last week when I was there, only one of the girls seemed to enjoy herself. The others didn’t even pretend to be having fun. And when it came to baring, all one of them could not even look straight at the audience. These are not like the strippers I saw in some brothels. A reader recently asked me why I should not be a stripper, which according to him is more respectable.
Really?Is stripping a more honourable version of our trade? I don’t think so. But then it depends on a personal definition of self-dignity. To the strippers, showing what you got in public is better than giving your all. But to us, showing almost all of what you got and then going all the way in private is more dignified. The debate can go forever.
I will be writing more about the new competition, strippers, and some other recent experiences later. For now, I have to read. I enrolled for a short course to improve my skills here and elsewhere and now its exam time.