“They once made a makmende toilet paper, but there was a problem: It wouldn’t take sh*t from anybody!!!” wrote one Kenyan blogger. “After platinum, albums go Makmende,” wrote another. “For me, this is the Olympics come early,” said one YouTube user.

So who is this Makmende?

A still from the video shows its tongue-in-cheek, '70s stylings. Photo Credit: YouTube

There could not be a more kicka$$ answer to that question. Makmende is Kenya’s latest superhero — both literally and figuratively. He could literally take you down in a kung fu fight. And he’s the happy figurative symbol for a new fleet of Kenyan bloggers, excited to see one of their home-brewed memes go internationally viral for the first time. Sure, getting a meme is a tested way for a band to get exposure (see Die Antwoord), but crafting a viral meme is also, of course, a great way to show the other side of a country. Said one YouTube user:

“This is one of those things that makes me proud to be Kenyan. I’ts not CNN coming over to Kenya filming starving babies and corrupt politicians. This is simply some young dot com generation Kenyans doing it right.”

So let’s get back to the facts. Makmende is the character crafted by Just a Band — an as-of-yet unsigned Kenyan group — in their latest music video for the track “Ha-He.” Directed by Jim Chuchu and Mbithi Masya, the video shows an a$$-kicking character — inspired by equal parts Chuck Norris and Blaxpoitation films — who isn’t averse to wearing aviators and tying the occasional necktie around his head in a kung-fu-esque move. We follow Makmende through a day of crime-fighting that unfolds in settings that are an equal mix of sunny Nairobi and 1970s LA.

The tone of the video is cheeky and self-aware, a mockery of gangster culture and Hollywood stereotypes. Characters are frozen in Tarantino-esque freeze-frames that give their names as “Taste of Daynjah,” “Wrong Number” and “The Askyua Matha Black Militants.”

The villain wears what appears to be a Christmas ornament around his neck, en lieu of bling, and carries an afro-pick turquoise as a peacock feather. Kidnappers shroud their victim in a flowery bedsheet. And when she gets free, she thanks Makmende with overly-academic English subtitles:

“I feel really like, engaged in this active process,” she says, swooning.

“It’s not passive to not respond verbally,” his subtitles read –though he doesn’t say much!

Kenyan blogger archer explains the importance of Makmende’s name:

Makmende was a term used way back in the early to mid 1990s to refer to someone who thinks he’s a superhero. For example, if a boy who’s watched one too many kung-fu movies on TV decides to unleash his newly acquired combat skills, he would be asked “Unajidai Makmende, eh?” (Who do you think you are, Makmende?) Trust me, there was a Makmende in every hood!

These cartoonish fights and snarky cultural references are more than the sum of their parts. The internet is often referred to as a borderless land — but rarely does content made in one language cross into another. Here, the world has evidence of Kenya’s creativity. And it’s interesting that the character who has caught on is an underdog with spunk — whose dreams of himself, though they initially appear too grand, he eventually proves. Of course, this would catch on with Kenyan bloggers, musicians, and artists — who can feel like underdogs in the eyes of Western media.

With 60,000 YouTube hits and counting, nearly 20,000 Facebook fans, and a website of thousands of viewer testimonials to his awesomeness (“Makmende uses viagra in his eyedrops, just to look hard”) — this is a character who clearly has a bigger place outside of some two-minute video.

Check out the band’s website.

Photo Credit: YouTube