By
Margaretta wa Gacheru (6 February 2019)
Every
Tuesday night up until March 3rd when the African Twilight
Extravaganza is held at African Heritage House on Mombasa Road, there’s a
poolside Preview program well worth attending.
Meant to
whet one’s appetite for 3rd March, it’s also a visual and musical
reminder that once upon a time, African Heritage (AH) wasn’t just a ‘most
photographed’ House in Africa. It was a multifaceted cultural phenomenon.
Ayub Ogada and Alan Donovan on the roof of African Heritage House
Set in
motion by the late former Vice President of Kenya Joseph Murumbi and amplified
by his partner, American designer Alan Donovan, AH was a Pan-African Gallery, an
AH Garden Restaurant, an AH fashion and jewelry line, and an AH Band featuring
the late, great Ayub Ogada who was meant to perform at the 3rd March
event but sadly passed on 1st February.
Known back
then as Job Seda, Ayub actually co-founded the band which once performed
regularly in the AH Garden and went on international tours both to Europe and
South Africa. They performed as part of the exquisite Pan-African spectacles
like the one Donavan will present during the Kenya launch of the
double-barrelled ‘African Twilight’ book by the pioneering photographers Angela
Fisher and Carol Beckwith.
Last Tuesday
night’s preview performance featured the musical trio, Papillon (aka Martin
Murimi) on a slew of string and wind instruments that this clever musician made
himself. Other members of the troika included Prasad Velankaar on tabla drums
and Paul Shimidu on guitar and keyboards.
Their
performance should have commanded their audience’s full attention since the
sound of Prasad’s tablas accompanying Papillon’s original songs, flutes and
indigenous harps together with Paul’s effective guitar was a masterful act. The
group is definitely going places, especially as Papillon’s musical and
instrumental repertoire grows more expansive every time I see him on stage.
Papillon aka Martin Murimi
Papillon aka Martin Murimi
Having
started his musical career as a percussionists with Slum Drummers, Murimi made
a dramatic move upon hearing the original compositions on the nyatiti by Ayub Ogada. He left the
drummers and committed himself to learning the Luo harp under Ayub’s tutelage.
It wasn’t long before he was emulating his mentor on several ways, first by
playing his instrument and then by composing and singing original compositions
in his mother tongue, Kimeru.
Then after
meeting Mr Donovan, he shifted again, once he was introduced to three thousand
year old Golden Harp from Ur, the ancient Sumerian city-state in Mesopotamia
(which is now in Southern Iraq). That’s when he became ‘Papillon’ and began
making his own instruments, starting with modifying his nyatiti to become a cross between it and the Gold Harp. Since then,
Papillon has created a number of new harps and flutes, each having its own
unique sound and nearly all of which he performs with at the Hotel Intercontinental.
Fisher and Beckwith's African Twilight image of Maasai warriors
Fisher and Beckwith's African Twilight image of Maasai warriors
The poolside
venue is also a bar and restaurant, so a few visitors were immersed in their
own conversations. But the rest of us moved our chairs so we could watch the African
Twilight video-cum-slideshow on the giant screen behind Papillon.
That’s where
the serious preview and retrospective were revealed in all the vibrant colors,
costuming and showmanship that we had once come to expect from African Heritage
in its heyday.
Included was
a preview of the African Twilight book featuring incredible photographs of
continental ceremonies, magnificent costuming and cultural traditions which are
fast disappearing in the region.
Then there’s
the 1998 video of the AH ‘African Renaissance’ show that Donovan took to Johannesburg
to head up the world-class entertainment invited to star at the First
International Telecom Conference ever to be held in Africa.
That video
is reason enough to head to the Intercontinental next Tuesday night since it
was a magnificent extravaganza filmed by top-class South African filmmakers.
Featuring a fashion show made by Kenyan designers (and Donovan) with all-indigenous
fabrics, the cast of Kenyan models, acrobats and dancers wore original designs
made with everything from Kente, Adire, Adinka, Aseoke, raffia and raw silk to
Bokolonfini Mud and Bark cloths.
Some of
those original fabrics have disappeared. Some have been damaged over the years.
But especially for the 3rd March event, Mr Donovan has Kenyan
tailors and seamstresses working hard to repair and restore most of those original
costumes.
So the video
shows a bit of what one can expect at the African Twilight event since not just
the fashion and Kenyan models,
African Heritage band with Job Seda (bottom right)
but also the remaining AH band members will perform (including Gido Kibokotsya, Jack Odongo and Francis Njoroge) alongside Jabali Africa and Rare Watts who have all been revived to be part of the African Twilight extravaganza.
African Heritage band with Job Seda (bottom right)
but also the remaining AH band members will perform (including Gido Kibokotsya, Jack Odongo and Francis Njoroge) alongside Jabali Africa and Rare Watts who have all been revived to be part of the African Twilight extravaganza.
No comments:
Post a Comment