Kigane Traditional Dancers Group
… Kigane Traditional Dancers, from Kigane Kithurini and Ngatia villages, Suri Location, Bogeta Division. They are 11 men, 12 women, led by Cyrus Kirigia. Their style is Kwimbo, and the songs ares sung to celebrate the harvest mostly in August and March. They are from the Ameru ethnic community and use the Kibere (leg shakers) and Vilingi (whistle)….
Ekhunjwe Musical Group Group
…ya Abasamiawas formed in April 2008 with common focus on using music as a tool for community development. The group promotes traditional African values and acts in both education and local economy. Members also engage in traditional crafts like basket weaving and jewellery making for exhibition and sale. Their Chairman Mr. Bwire also chairs the County Culture Committee and says he is “biased towards ethnomusicology” because “that’s where the beau…
Day Four: February 19, 2020 (Maruhabi Palace) Story
We drove back towards Stone Town and stopped at the Maruhubi Palace ruins. This palace was built by the third Sultan of Zanzibar from 1980-1982 for his secondary wives. It is now in ruins but you can still see the main buildings with baths inside, a massive overhead aqueduct that supplied water to the palace and circular ponds with lily pads. It’s set in a beautiful location along the coast surrounded by mango trees. We met the first group there…
Camera Group
…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….
Ayub Ogada Group
…e Nyatiti story. We spent the day at his home in Nyahera location, not far from Kisumu town, and conducted a long yet free of form type of interview. Although a Luo himself, Ayub had never learned how to play the nyatiti 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 t…
Day One: 7 March 2022 (Shikangania and Mukumu) Story
…irges. This dramatic twist of events threw us off guard and we were forced to stop our program temporarily. As required by local custom, we dutifully went to commiserate with the family of the bereaved. We paid our last respects to the unknown dead in the sealed coffin and donated some money to the family to assist with the burial activities on the following day. Seeing that we had appeased the spirit of their departed, the mourners quieted down a…
Day Three: January 20th, 2019 Story
…! We recorded five performances: Busumabuno Kulima: A song about farming Watoto wakalime Freestyle on Kulima Magic Moment Busumabudo, focus on percussion https://youtu.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 bl…
Elgon Ngoma Troupe Group
…aced – either has orphans or from severely disadvantaged homes. He started to go to University but found that gathering the funds for tuition each time extremely difficult. He had raised the funds for another semester and then asked himself, “Do I want another semester of education, with no promise I will be able to fund another, or can I take this money and start to make a difference?” So he took the money and invested in instruments for children…
Here for Research? Page
…stain and celebrate the extraordinary cultural music heritage of the region and to help make this legacy relevant and fresh to today’s audiences.”…
Day One: February 16, 2020 (Ngawala Hotel) Story
…t girls becoming women. The singers come from the Wagindo people, who came from Malawi to Zanzibar, probably through the slave trade. When the British stopped the slave trade they then stayed. This band has a strong African influence. The main leader, Amina Abdalla, studied and sang with Madam Bi Kidudi, a legendary singer in Unyago style (a chain-smoking rebel!). She followed Siti Binti Saad as a major Taarab vocalist and was considered queen of…
Day Three: 9 March 2022 (Kisumu) Story
…ba (or Maddo, as the cartoonist is popularly known). After taking a few photos to prove to the award-winning cartoonist that we actually visited his ancestral home, we continued with our journey. Our location for recording that day was Dunga Hill Camp, right by the shores of Lake Victoria. After a quick survey, our camera crew settled for a spot indoors, next to the fireplace. Lined up were three musical acts and the first to arrive was Peter Akwa…
Makunga Group
…ty, which they argued is the main indigenous community of Tanzania (always from the land, never migrated into Tanzania. The group was formed in 2018, but was built on a much older group. They perform in the Wuyina style. Their instruments/costumes include the: Ndulele (Horn), the Nindo (Shakers), the Mbega: (Animal Skins), the Muheme (Drums), the Kabati (Shakers), the Kalimba (Thumb Piano), the Zeze (Orutu), the Izeze (5 string large instrument),…
Day Four: 10 March 2022 (Rongo) Story
…eing that most of the musicians we interacted with were immediately trying to put into practice some of the suggestions we made to them on ways of improving their performances. Most of them were ready to experiment with new ways of playing their traditional musical instruments, as well trying to devise standard tuning for them. Furthermore, we appreciated the fact that our intentions were well received and that the musicians did not consider us to…
Day Two: February 17, 2020 (Stonetown) Story
Our second day we drove into Stone Town. We recorded the first two groups at the Emerson Spice Hotel along the seaside. This hotel is an Arab style hotel, reminiscent of the rhiads in Marrakech with lots of small courtyards. In the Emerson Spice Hotel we filmed the first two groups in a courtyard usually used for meals in the hotel. While it became very hot as the sun hit the stage for the second group, the overall setting was beautiful –…
Day Zero: 6 March 2022 – Travel To Stream Story
…he musicians via M-pesa and Pay-Pal contributions. Another possibility was to sell tickets with the use of online access codes that admit ticket holders into the virtual performance. The result was that a number of live streaming studios where performers book sessions to perform and stream their concerts sprung up in Nairobi. Some venues also adapted to hosting online performances, directly streaming shows to mobile devices and computers of audien…
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…