I have been in the creative industry in Kenya as an actor, creator and writer for the past 13 years and I have seen its growth and along the way, lost the rose-colored glasses I saw it through. I have gone from being fascinated by the artistry of it, to wanting to shelve it completely and take a different career path.
When I first started, I was excited and I couldn’t wait to get home and show my sister the scripts for the show I was acting in, it wasn’t a major part but I was still excited to see myself on television and that grew to wanting to know how everything worked behind the scenes, thus my journey into creating and writing and here I am 13 years later and completely jaded.
Here’s how I feel my experience has been; it was a slow death of my spirit.
I know I sound a bit, maybe a lot, dramatic, but I have been offered as little as Ksh. 5,000 to flesh out a story and write a whole script. To put this in context, a production company that is making TV shows will sell an episode anywhere from Ksh. 250,000 to Ksh. 800,000, depending on who they are selling to but they will still insist on paying the least amount of money to me, a writer. It’s ridiculous and if you think about it for a little longer, it’s criminal. The worst part is that some of us are really desperate for work so we end up taking these jobs because they will pay some of the bills and then we are stuck.
A few months ago I was on the phone with the accountant for the production company I was freelancing for for the fourth time in as many weeks and as I listened to the phone ring, I reflected on my time with this company that I was now demanding payment from.
It felt like I was in an abusive relationship because I would get really nervous when every time I had to bring up the issue of pay, it felt like a taboo subject with the executives and I would be dismissed or referred to the accountant. I also did not have a contract because the digital migration in Kenya had happened and I remember a vague reference to new contracts that never materialized. The next time I asked, I was told that the TV station we were producing a show for was giving them new contracts every season and it was too expensive to do the same with us so we had to have a gentleman’s agreement; it didn’t hit me, until it was too late, that I had been had, and it felt like I was drowning.
The problems with payments started soon after and I tried to understand at first but then when I hadn’t been paid for almost a whole year, I had to get out of my own way and look at my situation pragmatically; I was working for free.
There I was, no contract, no pay and no idea how I was going to deal with the situation.
The pandemic hit and the budget was reduced so we, the writers and crew were made to take the brunt of the pay cut and the production company tried to backdate these pay cuts but since they had not paid us for almost a whole year, most of that work had already aired, so they couldn’t explain that. They still tried and that was the first time we went over their heads and to their bosses at the TV station. They were not amused but we didn’t care, we wanted out as a group and it took rallying forces for a bit of action to be taken, the TV station’s higher up’s were roped in and they pushed and a payment plan was put together.
Here’s how I see it; they saw a bunch of shmucks that they could take advantage of because they didn’t have contracts with us and instead of paying us, they used our money to run other projects and shows and, I hear, put the rest in a fixed deposit account.
There I was, listening to the phone ring.
The accountant was the only one who picked calls, the executives hung up on you with those preset text messages that they were not able to pick your call for one reason or the other. They texted back though; when you texted asking about pay, they said to call the accountant as if all of a sudden, they were not in charge of their own company. It was infuriating. She picked and gave me an excuse about delayed payments from the TV station; I asked for a firm date for payment, she didn’t like being cornered so she said she would ask and text me. I wasn’t going to hold my breath so I agreed and planned in my head to call her again after a week.
A few days later, after we had, basically, laid down our tools, one of the company executives called me and convinced me to go back and work with them and I naively thought that things would be different just because he said it would be, until I found myself a couple of months later holding work that was supposed to go into production hostage.
It was a little bittersweet feeling of satisfaction when they called and I hung up with a preset text reply. We’ll call that a cheap thrill. I held their work hostage and said I would only send it in when they cleared my payment. That didn’t go over very well with them and they had to get a different writer to do a rush job on the work I was holding and there ended our relationship.
I sigh as I think about it, partly because I’m relieved that its over but we’re still connected because they haven’t cleared what they owe me in back pay and every so often I have to call and remind them about my direct deposit.
One of my friends works in ad agency and they are plied with alcohol that is available in the office so that they don’t really have to leave.. It might seem like a lot of fun, but really, they are being sucked dry and deadlines that requires them to be on call or available for 20 hours a day are being imposed on them. They feed your vices and now you are in a position where you feel like you owe them; you experience burnout but more is still expected of you so you drink a little more so that you can stay a little longer in the office, working, and you end up depressed because the mind, that you use for creating the magic that they need, is an organ just like your legs and it gets tired and it will shut down.
And then you drink some more.
Sad reality we live in
I feel like, we, as creatives, get short changed and taken advantage of and the owners of production and advertising companies reap the most benefit. Ask anyone in the industry and they all have a harrowing story to tell. You get overworked, over imposed on, underpaid and underappreciated.
This month I learned that the production company is going to stagger our payments so now I can expect to be paid every other month. It feels like a horrible situation that just won’t end.
What is my take away from this experience?
I no longer work without a contract and when I’m in doubt I speak to other creatives and a lawyer to get guidance on any work I want to do before I agree to anything.
Before I end this, if you read this and you want to hire a creative or you are working with one, please be a decent person and pay them their worth; our love language is M-pesa, direct deposits and current checks that don’t bounce.
To all my fellow creatives, please keep at it, you are magic and you make magic.