Larry madowo was accused of Drug trafficking.. narration.

NTV’s Larry
Madowo has narrated how he was
held up for hours in an American
Airport after he was accused of drug
trafficking.
The popular anchor had carried
Royco Cubes in his bag and he had to
undergo intensive screening in the
laboratory to confirm that they were
not hard drugs.
Read Larry’s awful experience in the
US simply because he was the only
black in the plane.
If you’re ever travelling abroad,
please pack clean underwear.
Know-it-alls will tell you to never
lose sight of your passport or to
keep your return tickets nearby,
but this is the single most
important advice you’ll hear from
anyone.
The last thing you want is a
uniformed stranger disapprovingly
rummaging through your soiled
undergarments while the passing
masses judge you on their way out.
In case any of that was confusing,
let me summarise: pack clean
underwear! Very important. Even
more important, though, never
bring Royco cubes into the United
States. Royco and Ujimix.
Let me explain.
I mostly fly cattle class, with all the
crying babies, smelly-mouthed seat
neighbours, and food so bad no self-
respecting pig would eat it. This is
not to complain, because I suffer
from an acute form of wanderlust
that I don’t even need a fully
formed excuse before jumping into
a plane and heading somewhere
cold and much too expensive for
me.
I had a moderately complicated
flight routing last week: Nairobi—
Amsterdam—San Francisco—
Minneapolis—London—Amsterdam
—Nairobi. I was heading to Silicon
Valley to watch former Apple CEO
John Sculley launch his new baby,
the Obi worldphone, and then head
to London to co-host Kenya In the
Park, an outdoor celebration of our
culture in the British capital.
If you’re ever travelling abroad,
please pack clean underwear.
Know-it-alls will tell you to never
lose sight of your passport or to
keep your return tickets nearby,
but this is the single most
important advice you’ll hear from
anyone.
The last thing you want is a
uniformed stranger disapprovingly
rummaging through your soiled
undergarments while the passing
masses judge you on their way out.
In case any of that was confusing,
let me summarise: pack clean
underwear! Very important. Even
more important, though, never
bring Royco cubes into the United
States. Royco and Ujimix.
Let me explain.
I mostly fly cattle class, with all the
crying babies, smelly-mouthed seat
neighbours, and food so bad no self-
respecting pig would eat it. This is
not to complain, because I suffer
from an acute form of wanderlust
that I don’t even need a fully
formed excuse before jumping into
a plane and heading somewhere
cold and much too expensive for
me.
I had a moderately complicated
flight routing last week: Nairobi—
Amsterdam—San Francisco—
Minneapolis—London—Amsterdam
—Nairobi. I was heading to Silicon
Valley to watch former Apple CEO
John Sculley launch his new baby,
the Obi worldphone, and then head
to London to co-host Kenya In the
Park, an outdoor celebration of our
culture in the British capital.
FLYING WHILE BLACK
I happened to be travelling in the
upper deck for once, so was among
the first people out of the plane in
San Francisco. I may have come
from a small village in Siaya and
didn’t even get on a plane until I
was 20, but I know how to fake
being posh when I end up in the
business cabin.
So I didn’t take to it kindly when
the customs officer asked me to
proceed to Counter 2 so his
colleague could “process” me
further. A humourless African
American gentleman in his late 20s
called Long took my bags and
proceeded to unpack them. He
didn’t ask for my permission, just
started removing stuff and putting
them aside.
I only remembered that I had three
one-kilogramme bags of Ujimix for
some friends in London when he
got to them.
“Why don’t you just mail it to
them?” he asked after I had
explained what they were.
“You have much to learn about us
Africans,” was the appropriate
answer. “We’ll tie and lead a live
goat through international airports
and into America if we could.”
But I just kept quiet because he
still had my landing card and could
send me back.
It is then that he discovered I had
several sachets of Royco cubes —
the star that lifts every Kenyan
meal from the bland category. He
put them aside as well as he asked
me questions that suggested he
wouldn’t stop until he had my DNA
samples.
He left me standing there while he
went to channel his inner Walter
White with my flour and seasoning.
“Is this a random search or have I
been flagged for something?” I
asked his colleague. “It’s totally
random for compliance issues,” he
assured me.
Except it wasn’t, because I was the
first black person out of the plane
and only one to be stopped. Just
like I had been “randomly” selected
for a secondary search at
Amsterdam 12 hours prior to this
episode.
Meanwhile, Long had broken into
my Ujimix and Royco and was
testing them for heroin, marijuana
and opium. “I just want to make
sure that they are what you say
they are,” he said with the
seriousness of a mortician. His little
Chemistry experiment complete, he
plastered the broken ends of my
gifts with the world’s most
conspicuous blue tape and handed
them back to me.
SMUGLER OR SOMETHING
If you think the walk of shame on
the morning after a one night stand
is repulsive, there’s nothing worse
than repacking your bags in full
view of half of India entering San
Francisco. My only consolation is
that it was still better than being
taken into custody for being a drug
dealer. “Larry Madowo arrested in
America with drugs” isn’t a
headline that I want to see.
A young black male travelling
internationally always raises
eyebrows and you get racially
profiled in our post-911 world.
Travelling while black is to accept
indignity, racism and delays
because of the colour of your skin,
even in a post-Obama world. Those
of us village boys who grew up
dreaming of faraway cities and now
have opportunities to visit are
resigned to that ugly downside to it
all. Sometimes you’re temporarily
suspected of being an international
smuggler or a drug dealer.
It is all worth it when the Ujimix
and Royco cubes make their way to
the UK and to grateful hands.
LARRY MADOWO