Sali Oyugi's musical comeback with a difference

Although they were doing Gospel music, they were not your average gown-clad, pious Christian musicians. They were shockingly different. They donned flashy designer clothes and moved with the verve and style of rock stars on stage. The music too was not too far from the popular R n’ B style of the time, save for the lyrics. Little wonder that the conservative church leaders were uncomfortable.

After a long stay in the US, Sali is back on Kenya’s live music scene, but this time not just as a professional musician, but as a mentor of other musicians and performers as well. She is back to give back to society through two initiatives that she has started; a community-based project called Leko Arts Initiative and a bi-monthly festival, Footprints Concert Series.

 “Leko’ is a Luo word that means ‘to dream’,” said Sali. “Leko is relevant to this initiative because we are helping the young people we work with to actualize their dreams. We are giving them something that they can use to uplift themselves economically in future.”

The programme is rolling out in different parts of Nairobi, mostly in the ghettos where they feel there’s a lot of talent which is being put to waste compared to the more affluent neighbourhoods. The flagship project is in Dandora in Nairobi’s Eastlands, a populous rough part of town. They are working with children from St Benedict’s Community Centre, an orphanage housing about 100 kids.

“I’ve come to realize that there’s a lot of talent in the poor neighbourhoods and that these kids get exposed to a lot of damaging activities if they are not kept busy, especially after school. We set up the programme such that it is an after-school programme to keep them out of trouble and gangs.”

They staged their first show this year on April 22 at the Phoenix Players Theatre in Nairobi’s CBD. “The kids had been working the whole of May and April. It was their first time to be on stage. After that performance some other talented kids from the community heard about the programme and enlisted. There were those who wanted to dance or to sing or to do acrobatics. We opened our doors to them.”

The programme incorporates kids ranging from as low as 8 years up to 15 years, and they are placed into programmes according to what they can handle. As a musician, Sali is the core of the musical programme. She emphasizes on culturally-based music and dance. “I want them to be very strong culturally, to understand who they are as Africans and as Kenyans.”

Other than music the project also incorporates acrobatics, naturally because the kids are at a stage where they are very energetic. There is a very well-trained and respected acrobat handling that.

The project has a whole drum ensemble and a very good trainer called Robert Owino, popularly known as Robbo, who is actually in the Guinness Book of Records for playing the djembe drum the longest. He set the record at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre in 2006 where he played the drum nonstop for 24 hours.

They also have Joseph Mwanzia, a former acrobat with the Sarakasi Trust, handling choreography. Although he is a good musician, Joseph’s area of specialization is choreography, specifically African dance.

“During performances we merge all these performing arts. There are those kids in the group who sing and dance, those who do acrobatics and dance. We’ve created a melting pot of music, dance and acrobatics and that makes it very interesting. People are used to going to a music concert or a dance show or an acrobatics show, so we’ve brought all those and put them in one show. That makes our show very dynamic and new. Keeping in mind that they are kids you really don’t know what to expect next. It’s a whole mix. We call it ‘kachumbari’(chopped raw onions, tomatoes, dania and pepper usually served with cooked food in East Africa). If you need onions, tomatoes, pili pili (pepper) they are all thrown in there.”

Although the current emphasis is on teaching African musical instruments, eventually the project will branch out to encompass other modern instruments as it grows. The reason, according to Sali, is so that the students are grounded in African culture before they can explore other cultures. They have also opted to introduce the students to percussion instruments first because this is a good way for the kids to learn the African rhythms and also they are easier to learn compared to string instruments, which take longer.

“We want these kids to be well grounded in African culture because that way, by the time they graduate to Western instruments like the guitar they will want to play the guitar in a unique African way; a unique sound that they can offer to the world and not something copied. They will be able to create from a deep sense of who they are. Authenticity and uniqueness is what we want to have.”

Sali believes that the East Africa region has diverse musical styles that, unlike the case with other African regions, have largely not been exploited. She partly attributes this to the Media, who do not play enough ethnic music on air. “There have to be policies by the government to force the Media to give us our music.”

Ultimately Leko intends to be self-sustaining, generating revenue from their paid-up events. The same applies to the kids participating in the project. Once they gain the requisite skills the plan is for them to leave and start their own initiatives but without cutting links with the project.

Regarding her comeback on the professional music scene Sali will largely be bringing back what she learned abroad to her African audience. “I’m going to perform not just in Kenya but in the region as well. I usually do the big band thing, and I’m looking forward to doing that at festivals within Africa. There’s the Rift Valley Festival and Ongea East African Music Summit here at home,  Sauti za Busara in Zanzibar, there’s Bayimba in Uganda. There are a lot of good local cultural or Afrobeat festivals that I’m looking to joining and connecting with. I have found a very vibrant scene locally that I want to be involved in. But over and above that within the Leko mentorship programme, with every performance that I do I am imparting skills in the people I work with. I’ve started a concert series called Footprints Concert Series that’s going to be based in Kenya but I’ll be working with my international contacts from Tanzania, Uganda and the US. At every Footprints concert I want to perform with someone that I am mentoring to be able to give them that international experience and package them such that they are able to perform on any stage anywhere on the international scene. It will be my way of giving back to my home which has given me so much in terms of culture. I’ve toured the world and been able to meet a lot of amazing people because of it.”

So far the only thing that is set is that Footprints is going to be a bi-monthly festival. Every three months there will be a concert. Otherwise regarding the details, like whether it will be a rotating festival going from town to town all that is still open to change.

So far they have held two festivals. The first edition of the festival was at the Goethe Institut in 2009 shortly before she left for the US. According to her this was a small event that was meant to test the waters. “I had been away for such a long time (over 10 years) I didn’t even know who was doing what. It was more like a test run.” The second edition is what she really considers the first major edition of Footprints. This is because she had now made up her mind to come back home officially and put a pause on international tours. It was staged at the Phoenix Players Theatre auditorium at the Professional Centre, Nairobi on April 22 this year. The show featured Olith Ratego and Hustla Jay Mau Mau, a Swahili spoken word/ rap artist. The third edition will be coming up in June.

“We do not have a limit on any specific genre of artists we’ll be showcasing. The only condition is it has to be cultural music. It could be contemporary, but it has to have a cultural base. That is why we staged Hustla Jay for instance. He could be doing hip-hop, but then his music has a deep Coastal base. It is deeply embedded in the musical styles from the Kenyan coast. The music can be modern, but it has to be authentic.”

During her long sojourn in the US Sali had a band called Kama Simba. The members were largely drawn from her class at Berkeley College of Music, where she was studying Stage Performance as well as the New England Conservatory of Music. Some of the musicians were from Mali. They were based in Boston, Massachustets, and were very active on the live music scene there. At some point Kenyan musician Eric Wainaina joined them when he went for his studies at Berkeley. They played at most of the major festivals in the US that showcase African music, among them Cambridge River Festival, Harvard University’s Arts First annual spring celebration, Cultural Survival Bazaar, Nemo Music Festival in Boston, the annual Arts and Ideas Festival in Massachusets a year before Angelique Kidjo performed there.

She also curtain-raised for Oliver Mtukudzi at the Somerville Theatre in Massachusetts, and headlined at the First Night Boston’s world music stage, among other festivals. Sali and her band Kama Simba also played weekly at the Green Street Grill and the Middle East Cafe in Cambridge which she says really helped to sharpen her live performance skills.  It is some of the musicians she interacted with at Berkeley and at these festivals who will be supporting the Leko Arts initiative and form a part of the Footprints Festival.

But before that happens Sali still has the task of putting together a band. So far she has succesfully recruited five musicians, two dancers and two singers, a nine-piece ensemble knoen as Asilia Band. Their next performance is on June 11 at Choices, Baricho Road, where they will be performing at the Roots International’s Thursday Nite Live.