People & Culture
The early tribal states saw cycles of migration and shifting power, with Kenya as a meeting place for peoples from the plainlands of the south, the forests of the West and the deserts of the North.The sea brought influences from the outside world, and the passage of the spice trade created the unique coastal culture, where lines between Africa and Arabia blurred. The open coast brought European influences into this world of change and began a turbulent struggle for control whose exotic history lingers today.
The first explorers discovered a land of great peril and greater beauty, and their great adventures created the most unique colony in the British Empire. This was a meeting place of cultures, where adventurers and soldiers of fortune mingled with a complex tribal society, and the arrival of labourers and merchants from India brought new and pervasive influences.
The colonial legacy lives on in the traditions of the great safari, and the pursuit of adventure and freedom.
Kenya has drawn on all of these influences to develop its own unique culture. This is the nations greatest strength- the ability to blend the best of many worlds into a strong, singular identity.
Today, Kenya welcomes the world to its shores and continues to evolve a modern culture that is born of endless variety, and yet purely, proudly Kenyan.
Despite the many and varied influences that have shaped Kenyan society, the culture in Kenya has become truly and purely Kenyan.If any one thing of Kenya speaks of this unique character, it is the modern melding of traditional societies and culture. In Kenya it is possible to leave Nairobi, a city with a thriving business heart powered by the latest information technology, and drive in just a few hours to a place where life is lived in accordance to tradition and custom, where warriors armed with spears drive cattle into thorn brush enclosures to protect them from lions at night.
In Kenya the modern and the traditional live side by side, and at times the lines blur. For many visitors to Kenya, this is evident within minutes of arrival. Among the busy urban traffic, the median strips of fresh grass along the airport road are a popular place for Maasai herdsmen to graze their cattle.
Some people lament the gradual change in lifestyles, and loss of many customs and traditions in deference to modern life and values. But much more than any other country on earth Kenya has maintained many of its traditional cultures. Indeed, in Kenya tradition and custom is not seen as being linked to the past, but as being an amorphous and evolving part of everyday life.
The result is a completely unique culture, in which it is possible to see a Maasai walking across the plains using his distended earlobes to support walkman headphones, a group of urban Kikuyu joining in a traditional wedding ritual in which a bride is sung out of her house by the grooms family, or a Samburu Business man with a traditionally beaded mobile phone cover.
The ease with which Kenyans adopt and adapt to new cultural influences has a long history. Kenyan culture is built on the acceptance and absorption of new and varied cultures, whether it was migrant nomads or sea borne traders.
The end result is a culture of endless influence and yet one completely uniquely Kenyan in character.
The Kamba and Chuka people both developed a distinctive drumming style, in which a long drum is leant forward and clasped between the thighs. The Kamba were well known for their athletic, almost acrobatic dancing.
Other instruments were developed, including reed flutes and basic stringed instruments. One of the finer of these was the Nyatiti, similar to the medieval lyre. The Nyatiti is commonly played throughout Kenya’s West. It has a gentle, relaxing sound, and is usually played solo with a single singer, and sometimes accompanied by light percussion or bells.
Ayub Ogada is a modern master Nyatiti player from Kenya, who has become internationally famous. His first album En Maana Kuoyo is an excellent introduction to the sound of the Nyatiti. On the coast, the growth of Swahili culture saw the growth of a unique style of music, called Taarab. Combining elements of African percussion with Arabic rhythms, Taarab become a popular form of music that remains a coastal favourite today.
Traditional Taarab music used large numbers of musicians and Arab instruments such as the Oud, combined with violins and several vocalists. Modern Taarab continues to evolve, and is adopting some rhythms and grooves from Hindi film music and bhangra. But at the heart of Taarab remains a core of very rhythmic, poetic Swahili lyrics. One of the better known Kenyan exponents is Juma Balo.
Inland, the colonial period gave rise to Beni singing, a group folk song that contained strong elements of social commentary and political criticism. Beni songs were always very long and were sung in the form of a narrative story.
The 1960’s saw the arrival of both Independence and the electric guitar, and the birth of modern Kenyan popular music. There were two definite influences: From the South, South African Jazz and Zimbabwean ‘highlife’ guitar work, and much more significantly, from the West, the distinctive rumba rhythm of Congolese pop.
A hybridized form of music evolved- widely known as Benga, and usually rather tribally targeted. Singers sung in their own tribal language, resulting in strong ethnic followings. Many of these artists remain popular today, such as Luo musician DO Misiani , late great Luhya legend Daudi Kibaka and venerated Kikuyu singer Kamaru, and his subsequent imitators such as One Man Guitar.
The rise of Christianity greatly increased the popularity of gospel music in general and choral music in particular. Throughout the 1970’s and 80’s Nairobi became a popular crossroads for African musicians, and many Zairean rumba bands either made Kenya their home or a frequent stopover concert venue.
Their influence on Kenyan music was considerable, and much of popular Kenyan music derives its central rhythms and guitar lines from Congolese pop. Even today Lingala and Congolese music is extremely popular throughout Kenya. There was some influence from the coast, using more Swahili and Asian based styles, resulting in a short lived wave of Kenyan pop, spearheaded by Them Mushrooms from Mombasa.
The 90’s and the 21st Century have seen a great deal more Western influence, and the adoption of reggae, rap, rhythm and blues and swing into Kenyan music. A new wave of popular musicians is creating a form of Kenyan music which fuses traditional elements with the many external influences to produce something new and very interesting. Two young Kenyan musicians, Joseph Ogidi and Jahd Adonijah began performing and recording their own compositions in 1999. They called themselves Gidi Gidi Maji Maji, and had a surprise runaway hit with ‘Ting Badi Malo’ an infectious pop song built around a blend of Swahili and Sheng rap. After taking a break to attend Uiveristy, they returned with a vengeance to release ‘Unbwogable’ a danceable and politcally flamable song that became an anthem for opposition politics and reached its peak with the 2003 change of Government in Kenya. One of Kenya’s most inspiring stories is that of Mighty King Kong, an Afro-reggae singer from Western Kenya. Born in Siaya District, he was afflicted with polio at a young age, badly withering one of his legs. When his father died, his family moved to Kisumu, where he ran away from home.
He lived for 6 years on the streets of Kisumu, during which time he made money by busking. His singing and dancing earned him local fame, and his new name ‘The Mighty King Kong’. Eventually he made his way to Mombasa, where he began to get work as a DJ in several nightclubs, before finally taking to the stage with his own act performing reggae in Luo, Swahili and English.
He was an immediate hit with crowds in the clubs, and was soon playing to packed houses across the country. His first album Ladies Choice sold well throughout Kenya. He has recently released a follow up album Cinderella, an appropriate title given his own real-life rags to riches story.
From a very different background is Eric Wainaina, a young classically trained musician. His musical style is a blend of very African guitar riffs with a commercial Western feel. His first album, Sawa Sawa was a hit, mainly through the success of the single Nchi ya Kitu Kidogo, a satirical political song with a highly danceable melody.
Rap has become increasingly popular among young Kenyans, and there are several Kenya based rap acts. While the sounds of groups like Kalamashaka or Necessary Noize are virtually indistinguishable from US based rappers, the lyrics are most definitely Kenyan and have much to say about life in modern Kenya. One of the more popular Kenyan rappers is Poxie Presha, whose well cut album Total Ballaa was a massive hit.
Ragga has also become popular, with blends of Afro-reggae and rap. One of the better known Kenyan Ragga artists is Nazizi the female vocalist from rap group Necessary Noize also known for her solo ragga work.
The formation of a loose alliance of Kenyan Hip Hop artists as Ogopa DJs created a nonstop hit factory that sent tune after tune to the top of the Kenyan charts. By 2002, formerly idolized Western artists were wiped out of radio airplay by Kenyans such as Nameless- who had a huge hit with Ninanoki and went on to record the bestselling album On Fire.
His collaboration with a young artist E-Sir was a track called Boomba Train, that also dominated dancefloors and clubs across the country. E-Sirs career was tragically cut short by a road accident in 2003.
The Ogopa group produced many other young stars, including Mr Googz and Vinnie Banton a talented duo of singer-songwriters whose hip hop song about life in the outer Nairobi suburb of Githurai became anthemic throughout the city.
Redsan, a singer as well known for his looks as his music has kept Kenya’s female population enthralled with hits such as Julie and Raha– a track whose hip hop overtones are underscored with coastal taarab sounds.
As the current trend for fusion of world and western styles grows, many Kenyan artists are exploring this new realm of musical possibility. One of the most popular up and coming artists is Mercy Myra who combines traditional and modern, African and Western styles.
The arrival of better and more easily accessible instrumentation and recording facilities is continuing to strengthen and diversify the Kenyan music scene. Quality CDs of Kenyan music are widely available in Nairobi, and can be found internationally in some specialist music stores.
As music in Kenya continues to grow and evolve, and opportunities for young talented Kenyans increase, the future sounds great…
Many Kenyan traditional societies placed great significance on decoration of both functional and ritual objects, and the body. In tribes such as the Kuria and the Samburu, this was raised to the form of high art. The Samburu place great significance on physical beauty and adornment, especially among warriors, who take great care with their physical appearance, using hair styling and ochre body painting to create an impression of great delicacy. It was this trait that earned them their name Samburu– Butterflies, given to them by other tribes.Many Northern nomadic tribes such as the Boran, Oromo and Gabbra extensively decorate functional items, including water gourds, stools and neck pillows. The Turkana people, who live in one of Kenya’s harshest environments, still afford great care and attention to decoration of the body and objects such as ostrisch egg waterholders, wrist knives and clubs.
For the Maasai, the use of decorative beading is extremely significant, and jewellrey is used to emphasize social status and to signify stages of initiation and passage. Modern forms of art came to Kenya progressively. The art of carving was practiced throughout Kenya to produce both functional and decorative items.
The Kamba people are considered the best Kenyan carvers, and have long been known as skilled woodworkers. Carving on the coast was centred on the island of Lamu, where the local Bajun tribe is believed to have influenced Arab craftsmen to create a unique hybrid of styles.
The Kisii of Western Kenya are also well known for their carving in stone, using a locally quarried soapstone. They use a locally quarried soapstone to produce a range of carvings. The most popular items are small animals, chess pieces based on traditional African designs and more functional items such as egg cups, soap dishes, coasters and ash trays.
The soapstone here varies in colour from white (the easiest to carve) through various shades of pink to a deep lustrous red (the most difficult to carve). The tourist trade has certainly had great influence over Kenyan carving, but many traditional designs have survived, and often new and interesting carving styles.
Graphical art in Kenya has a much less defined history. There are certain traditions in design and representation derived from rock art patterns, but also considerable influence from the coast. Textile design and decorative art throughout the coast created strong Swahili designs from Middle Eastern roots.
Painting and drawing in the formal European sense was introduced by colonialism. There were several European artists in colonial Kenya, the best known being Joy Adamson. Although better known for her conservation work and writing, she was also an accomplished artist. Her botanical paintings were used as a base for Kenya’s original textbooks on plants, and her huge collection of tribal portraits remain a body of work of great anthropological importance.
Kenyan painting has gradually developed incorporating traditional designs with modern technique. One of Kenya’s best known painters, who has achieved international fame and recognition, is Joel Oswago. Joel is from Western Kenya, and his brilliant paint work depicts scenes of Luo life both traditional and modern.
His style is difficult to describe or define. He paints his subjects in an intense defined manner, emphasizing bodily and facial features with sharply contrasting primary colours. This can create an impression of harshness, but also of great physical vulnerability. His scenes of village life are usually structured in a tableau to suggest an immediate social or domestic situation. His art can be remarkably funny, terribly sad or often a combination of both.
Kenya has developed a name as a home for bohemian expatriate artists, and there are many international artists living and working in the country. Probably the best known of these is Peter Beard, an American photographer. Beard spent many years living and working in Kenya, and has became internationally famous for his photographic record of his life in the bush.
His work is mostly expressed in a series of journals, in which photographs, news cuttings, mud, blood and objects are plastered across the pages. These images have been exhibited internationally and converted into several books. While some consider his work ego-driven and overly avant garde, the heart of his collection is a deep passion for Kenya and strong but well founded concerns for its future.
At the National Museum an independent trust, called the Kuona Trust, has been established to foster and encourage Kenyan artists. The Trust has set up an artists residence by the shores of Lake Naivasha, where a space and accommodation for artists is available. This program is bearing great fruit, and the centre located directly beside the Museum, is open to the public. There are displays of modern art here in all media. Promising artists include Michael Wambua Soi and Rochard Kimathi Wamae.
There are several other private galleries in Nairobi city.
Kenya’s Theatre
Kenyans are great fans of satire and broad comedy. Stand up comedy, often in the form of group sketches or parodies, are very popular. An extremely popular comedy group, called Redykyulass became extremely popular, and appeared in a weekly television program performing a mixture of social and political satire.
Kenya has always been a popular location for film production. Hollywood has a long standing affair with Kenya that dates back to the 1930’s. Many classic adventure films were shot on location in Kenya, including The Snows of Kilimanjaro starring Gregory Peck, King Solomon’s Mines with Stewart Granger and Mogambo featuring Clark Gable and Ava Gardner. Joy Adamson’s book Born Free was made into a hit movie filmed entirely on location in Kenya. George Adamson was to later take the trained lions that were used in the film and rehabilitate them into the wild. The film’s stars Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers went on to form a charity The Born Free Foundation which continues to support conservation work in Kenya.
In 1989, Kenya was the location for the filming of Bob Rafelson’s historical drama Mountains of the Moon. This epic film won great critical acclaim for its vivid retelling of the conquest of the Nile, and the great adventure of the Burton and Speke expedition. Filmed in diverse locations including Lamu, Hell’s Gate and Lake Turkana, the film shows Kenya at its best.
Kenya has since served as location for several Hollywood blockbusters, including the sequel to Tomb Raider. In 2002 Nowhere in Africa a German language film about Jewish refugees struggling to creat a new life in wartime Kenya was shot on location in Baringo, Bogoria and Mt Kenya. The film was a major success, winning over 14 international awards, including the 2003 Academy Award for Best Foreign language film.
The 2005 box-office hit The Constant Gardener was also filmed on location in Loiyangalani, a small town located on the southeastern coast of Lake Turkana. Kenya is a great destination for television wildlife productions. Many award winning wildlife series have been shot on location in Kenya by BBC Natural History, Discovery, Survival and other production houses. The Maasai Mara continues to be the backdrop for BBC’s popular Big Cat Diary, following the lives of the reserves predators.
Maasai Mara, Kenya’s world famous game reserve, was recently named one of the new Seventh Wonders of the World in a poll conducted by ABC Television’s Good Morning America, and a broadcast on US morning television took this spectacle into millions of American homes, live from the Mara.
Kenya hit the top of US TV ratings with the arrival of Survivor Africa. The third series of the hit game show was filmed entirely on location in Shaba Reserve in Kenya. For the producers, Kenya offered the perfect combination of beautiful locale, stunning wildlife and plenty of opportunity for adventure.
Subsequent productions have included the German film ‘Nowhere in Africa’ which won 14 international awards including the Acemy Award for best picture, and was filmed on location in Nairobi, Mt Kenya and the Baringo/ Bogoria region.
LOCATIONS
The Country’s unique variations in altitude and terrain give an exceptionally wide variety of locations, including an unspoilt tropical coastline, glacial ice covered mountains, dense forests, arid sandy deserts, rich savannas, large lakes and the Great Rift Valley. Expanse game and wilderness areas have been set aside where little has changed over the centuries. In a nutshell, this is Africa at its splendid best.
CLIMATE
Kenya has two rainy seasons. The first is from April to mid-May and the second from mid-October through November. Even during the rainy season there is sunshine almost every day. The equator passes through Kenya and daylight hours do not vary much year round from 6.30am to 6.30pm. The best filming times are from January to March or mid-May to September, although filming may be carried out through out the year, as there are no distinctively marked winters.
LICENCES
The process of obtaining a film licence is quick, low cost and trouble free. Applications should be channeled through a registered agent and a list of these can be obtained from:
The Film Licensing Officer
Ministry of Tourism and Information
P.O. Box 74934 – 00200
NAIROBI, Kenya.
Tel No. +254-2-650120/1/2
Fax No. 254-2-553003
Kenya’s Literature
Many of these are creation stories and accounts of early ancestors. Fables and folk stories were also common, often comical or dramatic tales about animals with a moral in the tale. A set cast if characters was commonly used with definite attributes for each animal. The Elephant was infinitely wise, the Lion powerful yet vainglorious, the Hyena both malevolent and moronic, and so forth.
Proverbs are also very popular in the Swahili language, and are frequently used to make a point. They are traditionally printed on the edge of a Khanga, the wrap around cloth worn by women all along the coast. Proverbs have carried inland and are still widely used to give advice or sum up a situation. In modern Kenya, two commonly heard proverbs are:
Haraka Haraka haina Baraka – There is no blessing in haste
Kipenda Roho ula Nyama Mbichi – If you have desire in your heart you will even eat raw meat
The colonial experience in Kenya prompted a great deal of literary output, from the accounts of the early explorers onwards. JH Patterson’s sensational tale of his battle with The Maneaters of Tsavo became a major bestseller and prompted a new genre of safari and hunting literature. Among the annals of Kenyan big game hunting, one of the best known is Ernest Hemingway’s The Green Hills of Africa, an account of his days hunting throughout Tsavo and the Chyulu region.
One of the best loved accounts of Kenyan colonial life was written by acclaimed Danish author Karen Blixen. Out of Africa, written under her pseudonym Isak Dinesen, is a lyrical tale of her life on a coffee plantation outside Nairobi. Full of rich descriptions of the country and its wildlife, the book also says a great deal about the emotional isolation and uncertainty of her life in Kenya.
Another early settler was Elspeth Huxley, who came to Kenya as a child. Her book The Flame Trees of Thika was the first in her series of works about the colonization of Kenya. Her first novel Red Strangers is an interesting account of the initial relationship between British settlers and the Kikuyu in the Nairobi area.
Kenya’s reputation as a haven for eccentrics and bohemians attracted many independent spirits to Kenya, and produced an interesting body of literature. Beryl Markham’s West with the Night is an adventurous and evocative account of her flying, hunting and traveling through Kenya in the first half of the 20th Century.
Evelyn Waugh wrote an amusing account of the colony in A Tourist in Africa, while James Fox undertook a detailed investigation of its most famous mystery- the murder of Lord Errol- in White Mischief.
Joy Adamson’s Born Free was one of the first real calls for conservation of Kenya’s great bounty of wildlife, and sparked a great deal of international attention. Similar sentiments were expressed in Peter Mathiessen’s The Tree where Man was Born, a beautifully written account of his exploration of East African wilderness.
On the social front, Shiva Naipaul painted an incisive portrait of Kenya during early independence in his book North of South. Kenya has produced an astonishing range of literature, and has become a common canvas for romantic and adventurous writers. This continues to this day, with more books published about Kenya each year.
The American photographer Peter Beard has spent a great deal of time in Kenya, and produced several books about the country. The best of these is undoubtedly The End of the Game a beautiful and important book about wildlife conservation, which manages to be both a brilliant work of modern art and a serious ecological commentary.
Italian born Kuki Gallmann has lived a long and remarkable life in Kenya, and her autobiography I Dreamed of Africa was a major bestseller. The book is a lyrical account of her life on a ranch in Laikipia, filled with vivid descriptions of natural beauty, the pain of emotional loss and the joy of freedom.
Another recent account of life in Kenya was Francesca Marciano’s The Rules of the Wild a romantic novel set in the expatriate circles of modern day Nairobi. The first published writing by Kenyan authors was born out of the experience of colonialism and the struggle for independence.
One of Kenya’s best known authors is Ngugi wa Thiongo an idealistic and skilled author whose work, published in both English and Kikuyu, is rich in themes of social, political and personal liberation. His titles include Petals of Blood, Devil on the Cross, and I Will Marry When I Want. Probably his most accessible work for Western audiences is Weep Not Child a moving account of young Kikuyu men whose lives are changed by the struggle for independence. This novel provides an interesting alternative perspective to the mass of Kenyan colonial literature.
Popular modern Kenyan fiction consists of short stories and novels, with recurring themes of escape from poverty, triumph over adversity and ultimate redemption. Mweja Mwangi’s book Going Down River Road is a much loved tale of life in urban Nairobi, written in a pacy, sometimes racy style.
Binyavanga Wainaina’s award winning Discovering Home combines travelogue and personal reflections on identity and the true meaning of home, gathered on the author’s journey through Southern and Eastern Africa. Kenyan author Parselelo Kantai won the 1st Runners up Caine Prize Award 2004 for his excellent short story The Story of Comrade Lemma and the Black Jerusalem Boys Band.
Writing in Kenya is on the rise, and various schemes including a nationwide literary competition are working to support and encourage the young Kenyan authors of the future.
