On the Beat - Tapping the Potential of Kenya's Music Industry

• Author: Carole Croella
• Position: Copyright and Related Rights Sector, WIPO

With more than forty different regional languages, the country's musical panorama is rich and remarkably complex. Driving through Nairobi's streets in your matatu, you will hear songs in Luhya, Luo, Kamba, and Kikuyu on every street corner. Music has traditionally been a distinctive feature of Kenyan ethnic groups, such as the Kikuyu, Kenya's largest ethnic community, and the Luo people of the Lake Victoria region, who have always been particularly well known for their musical culture.

In addition to its entertainment value, Kenyan music has always been, and is still today, a major vehicle for sharing information and educating local populations. Opondo Owenga, a traditional Benga musician, was well known during the colonial era for his use of music to convey the history of the Luo people. Such musical riches are under threat, however, since traditional music rooted in oral tradition is disappearing at an alarming rate.

A potent mix

The roots of Kenya's popular music can be traced to the 1950s. The most characteristic pop sound is Benga music, which was born on the lakeshore and originates from the Luo community. It is a crossover of traditional rhythms and instruments, such as the nyatiti lyre, the orutu single stringed fiddle, the ohangla drums, and modern dance. Benga became so popular that ethnic groups from six out of Kenya's eight provinces have adapted it to their own style and flavor, while retaining the pulsing beat, high energy bass, interlocking guitar riffs and recurrent voice solos which characterize the Benga genre. The complex rhythms include indigenous and imported rhythms, notably the Congolese beat. The Shirati jazz band, formed in 1967, was one of the first Benga bands to make a major breakthrough. Others were George Ramogi, Victoria Jazz Band, DK and Joseph Kamaru, who received international exposure in the 70's. Recently, traditional Kenyan music attracted international attention when the songs of the singer Ayub Ogada were featured in the award winning 2005 movie "The Constant Gardener."

Foreign artists and foreign bands, essentially from Tanzania and the former Zaire, have also been a major component in the rich Kenyan musical stew. The entrancing Taarab music is a fusion of Indian, Arab and African motifs that developed in the coastal cities of Kenya and Tanzania. Congolese groups...