KAKUMA SOUND

Kakuma Sound, Conserving the Past Composing the Future.
At almost three decades old and with over200, 000 inhabitants, Kakuma Refugee Camp is one of the Africa’s – and the world’s – oldest and largest refugee camps, and Is truly a unique place with a unique identity and heritage. Kakuma also holds one of Africa’s least known treasures, one with the potential to improve the lives of residents of the Camp while also putting Kakuma on the global map for something other than the well-documented plight of its refugee inhabitants. That treasure is the numerous musicians from a dozen countries that live in the camp and routinely play together, creating previously unheard hybrids of Congolese, South Sudanese, Sudanese, Burundian, Ugandan, Somalian, Ethiopian, and other traditions, instruments, sounds and styles. We believe this treasure trove of musical experiences and styles has the potential to create a “sound” (KAKUMA SOUND) to rival the great sounds of the past—Muscle Shoals, Motown, Accra, Mogadishu, and other locations where in the last fifty years musicians from different walks of life have come together to create the foundation for a distinct musical style that went on to define their era.
Kakuma Sound seeks to provide the Kakuma Refugee Camp with one of the most important cultural resources that is dearly missed by most of the artists in the camp – access to the traditional instruments from their home regions and countries most of them were forced to leave behind as they fled the violence engulfing their homelands. It’s not surprising that even the most dedicated musicians will have little chance to bring their instruments with them when fleeing violence ,Discussions with numerous musicians and other refugees, some of whom have spent almost two decades here, reveal that these traditional instruments were crucial cultural tools whose absence has severely weakened their ability to maintain their cultures, histories and identities. And because traditional instruments are not commercially produced their absence is not easily or inexpensively remedied at or near the Camp.
Goals and Plan of Action
We believe providing the musicians of Kakuma with both modern and traditional instruments they so desperately miss will not just help them preserve the cultures and traditions they’ve been forced to leave behind, but catalyze new cultures and new sources of income for the future. Moreover, we are confident that in providing these instruments and a bit of support (such as using the demonstrable filmmaking talent in the camp to create a series of documentaries on the musicians who, far more than local singers and rappers, are ignored by the media that is a regular presence there), we can empower and enable the artists to create a unique fusion and sound that will literally rock Africa and the planet.
1 – With our partners, sponsors and individual donors and volunteers, raise money to purchase and then begin to bring the traditional instruments from the list to the camp
2 – As a baseline of instruments are at...