Standing from left: Walter Amalemba, Gido Kibukosya and Jack Odongo. Front row : Job Seda (Ayub Ogada), Sammy Eshikati and Samite Mulondu.
As the African Heritage celebrates its 40th anniversary this month, it is an opportunity to reflect on the institution’s contribution to the cultural legacy of the continent in general and Kenyan music, in particular.
Many Kenyans who know about African Heritage may be more conversant with the numerous African artefacts they had in their shops and female and male models with elaborate African regalia that were their trademark.
What many people may not know is that fact that this is where authentic Kenyan and African music started.
Before this, most local musicians and bands were best known for their imitation of Western sounds.
With the support of the Government of Kenya, the first collection of all things African by Alan Donovan and the then vice president, Joseph Murumbi through African Heritage was transformed into an international travelling show complete with models, dancers, chefs and hairdressers and taken on tour to Europe.
After that tour, Donovan realised that African Heritage needed to have its own band, and so in 1979, he turned to a musician who had impressed him from the local group Black Savage.
Singer, guitarist and percussionist Job Seda, who is now better known as Ayub Ogada, still remembers the day Donovan tapped him on the shoulder, at the Kenya National Theatre, and asked him to scout for the best Kenyan musicians to form a band.
Thrilled
Seda knew exactly where to find the right people: “I went to the Conservatoire of Music and called Mbarak Achieng, Goro Kunii, percussionist Noel Sanyanafwa and keyboardist Francis Njoroge and within two weeks, we had an up and running band.
"In a month, we were in Belgium on tour as the African Heritage Band.”
Donovan says he was thrilled to have this group of musicians because their music was original and they gave a wide berth to the imitation of Western sounds.
“They were running up stream; they were unique, authentic and totally African. I remember a record company scout from the UK who made many failed attempts to sign up the band to his label.”
Between 1979 and 1985, the African Heritage band did five successful tours of Europe.
Some of the other musicians who came up through the band included Gido Kibukosya, Jack Odongo, Samite Mulondu, Shaban Onyango and Ali Magombeni.
The band played every Saturday afternoon at the Africa Heritage café on Kenyatta Avenue, Nairobi and these gigs were so popular that the police often closed down the venue when the crowds spilled over onto the street.
It was while on a tour of Germany in 1985 that the band broke up with most of its members, including Ayub, opting to remain in Europe to launch their solo careers.
“It is one of my greatest regrets that this talented group did not stick together longer,” says Donovan. “I really was upset because I believe that this was the band to put Kenya on the musical map.”
The end of that chapter in the history of African Heritage opened the path for Kenya’s first all female pop group, Musikly Speaking.
Formed in 1985, the trio of Joy Mboya, Suzanne Gachukia and Susan Matiba, introduced a sound that was decidedly pop, yet drew on traditional influences on hits such as “Jamriambo” and “Tweyanze.”
“I enjoyed working with this group because they were new and fresh and there was continuity from the African Heritage band when Gido Kibukosya joined them,” says Donovan.
By the early 1990s, Donovan was now working with a young band that would perfectly fit the template set by the African Heritage a decade earlier.
Jabali Afrika joined the models, dancers and chefs of African Heritage for a tour of nine major cities in Germany and Austria in 1993 to promote Kenya as a tourism destination.
“We had a massive tour of Europe with Jabali during which our convoy consisted, not just of a bus and two lorries, but an elephant too,” recalls Donovan.
Relocate
Just like most of the musicians from the African Heritage band, who had opted to begin new careers overseas a decade earlier, so too did Jabali Afrika eventually choose to relocate from Kenya at a period when the group was just hitting its peak.
Some of the biggest models, dancers, artistes and musicians to have gone through the African Heritage in the last 40 years will be honoured during the climax of the anniversary celebrations at the Alliance Francaise, Nairobi, next Friday.
The concert will feature a performance by Ayub Ogada, together with dancer Fernando Anuanga, a former member of the African Heritage troupe who was also part of the famous 1990s performance group, The Rare Watts.
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