Irimbene Cultural Dancers and Self-Help Group Group
… Irimbene Cultural Dancers and Self-help Group, formed in 2000 with 21 young men, and is led by Edward Kiogura. They play in the Authi style and are from the Ameru ethnic community, from the Irimbene Village, upper Kiungone Sublocation, Abogeta West Division. The group uses Mbere (shakers) worn by Bernard Nkonge, Ginfold Mbae, Amos Munthi and Fraras Ikunda. They also use a flute, Coro, which is performed by John Mwiti….
Mr Bado Group
…oastal town of Watamu in Malindi. He was born Mohamed Said Ngana. He comes from a very musical family, who have been singing and performing Mijikenda dance and music for generations. He is the son of the legendary mwanzele singer and composer, Nyerere wa Konde. He was greatly influenced and inspired as a child by his father’s Mwanzele playing as well as by Maulid Juma’s Taarab, and Bhalo’s Chakacha. He started singing in 1994 while studying in Mom…
Day Zero: 6 March 2022 – Travel To Stream Story
…r mission to travel and stream in Western Kenya was made possible by funds from Hivos, with the additional support from the Abubilla Foundation. Travel to Stream After one week’s training and familiarization with the new software and equipment, we took the road to Western Kenya on the morning of Sunday, 6 March 2022. The Ketebul Music team met at our new offices at the GoDown Arts Centre on Kayahwe Road off Dennis Pritt by 9:00am. It took us an ho…
Ayub Ogada Group
…in a traditional setting. He picked it up later in his career and studied from a player/teacher at the national cultural centre of Bomas of Kenya in the 1980s. He remembers he had gone for 6 lessons (at a 100 shillings) only and then continued practicing and experimenting by himself. It was equally interesting to hear his theory of the name nyatiti, which he translated from the Luo word nyar as queen and titi, making it “the queen of the clan”. T…
Day Five: January 22, 2019 Mwanza Continued Story
…with Mizengo Kayanza Peter Pinda. He was the Prime Minister of the United Republic of Tanzania, from 2008-2015. He is now a Patron of the Cultural Yamnyausi Foundation. That evening both Ministers hosted a fund raiser for the Foundation and invited Singing Wells members as special guests. We were greatly honoured to be part of such an important evening and enjoyed the entertainment and the MC’s skill as a fundraiser! Meeting with Mizengo Kaya…
Aynu Traditional Group Group
…lothes in their culture. In the early days, the Lugbara were a mainly chiefdom-based community. They did not have kingdoms and kings presiding over them as like other ethnic groups in Uganda. They mainly had chiefs who were their leaders. They formed friendly alliances with neighbouring chiefdoms to ensure their security against attacks from other ethnic groups. Rather than an army, every able-bodied man had the duty to protect his village hence a…
Watmon Cultural Group Group
…he had learnt when he was young, both from grandfather in his village and from watching dancers at village events. He went around his district in Kampala, telling people he would like to start a dance troupe, and was met with a positive reaction. Eventually he had people coming to him asking to be a part of it, and from that point the group became an institution. In the fallout of the war against Idi Amin’s regime, many people were looking for an…
Global Influences Project: Loop Library Page
…Hiari Ya Moyo was formed in 1957 by their grandfathers and is located in Dodoma. They are from the Wanyamwezi Community and performed in the Ngoma Style. Their instruments include: Ngoma (drums) and Njuga (bells). You can find out more about the band here. You can watch the full visual performance of this song on our Youtube channel by clicking here. Download the loop Ekhunjwe Musical Group – 153BPM Ekhunjwe ya Abasamia was formed in April 2008 wi…
Day Three: February 18, 2020 (Stonetown, Mpendae, Maungani) Story
…ule to Tarajazz. He combined African rhythms such as Msewe and Kyaso (both from Zanzibar) with Singeli (a new tribal rhythm). Taarab came from early 1800’s as Egyptian music. In Zanzibar the Mother of Taarab, Siti Binti Saad, made Taarab more popular in the 1920’s to 1950’s. We spoke to Hassan Mahenge, the assistant director of this band. He is a teacher at the DCMA. He teaches the Oud and plays the saxophone. All the students at the DCMA study tr…
Day Four: January 21 2019 Mwanza Story
…RfFn7ZgUrU Group 2: Camera: Camera, who has been performing since 1999, is from Nzega and from the Sukuma community, playing in the Kadete style. Camera plays the Kadete (like the Zeze from earlier and Orutu from Kenya). He is an extremely cool cat, who we actually discovered walking the streets with his instrument during the RECCE. We recorded five performances: Changamoto: This is about life’s challenges Mawazo Gakwira: About deep worries Nkewan…
Day Zero: February 15, 2020 – Assemble in Zanzibar Story
…music by women by women and was used during rites of passage as the women prepared the bridge. Originally, these were ‘secret songs’ and filled with metaphors that would explain about sex and love and all the wonderful and difficult parts of marriage. As this music moved from the secret rites to more public performance, you find the audience laughing at all the double meanings. To be more specific, the women are laughing and the men are scratch…
Day Four: 10 March 2022 (Rongo) Story
…usic in 1985 and recorded his first song ‘Bikundo Obaba mbono’ in 1994 and from then on he has been the main star of the obukano music genre from the region. Ontiri has performed in most entertainment venues within Kenya and is among the few Kenyan musicians with a huge fan base in the US and Canada, where he has also toured extensively. Ontitri has been invited to perform in South Korea and Germany, not mention that he was one of the leading perf…
Day Three: January 20th, 2019 Story
…be/dHeTdA5m5gQ Group 3: Awilo: The group, which is a comedy circus act, is from Ikungu lya nkoma and performs in the Bununguli style. They are from the Sukuma community and were formed in 1981. They played the Ng’oma and entertained the kids with circus acts involving fire, razor blades, knives, etc… It wasn’t really part of the Singing Wells Field Visit but we were thrilled to stumble across it! From the village, we then drove a little over three…
Day Three: 9 March 2022 (Kisumu) Story
…Mamano Daa which enjoyed massive radio airplay locally. However, earnings from royalties accrued from the song could not sustain him in the city and a disillusioned Olith Ratego went back to his village in Siaya County. He came back to Nairobi two years later and signed up with Ketebul Music where he released the album osuga in 2003. Olith Ratego has performed in many European cities and collaborated with internationally acclaimed musicians such…
Support Singing Wells Page
…oject is funded by the Abubilla Music Foundation, the below link will direct you to make a donation to the Abubilla Music Foundation: — CLICK HERE TO DONATE NOW — Donate your time, products or services We are always keen to hear from people who are happy to offer their time to help the project and from companies which may be able to support us with products or services free of charge. If you can help out in this respect please contact: info@singin…
The Revival of the Entongooli Page
…e look at how to shape these trees to create and tune each note on the Xylophone. From Embaire to Entongooli: Part 2 In this video, we continue to learn about the process of building the Embaire, also known as the xylophone, to help educate our young music scholars about music, melody and instrument building. We are shown how they finish off their Embaire and then talk to some young students about what they have learned. What is clear from our tri…