Karibu
Greeting and salutations! My name is Wairimu Nduba, the human being that sits hunched over their screen curating content for Wer Jokenya. I am so excited to finally have this space and as a way of pronouncing a kind of benediction over it, I will share a small snippet of the birth process of Wer Jokenya.
I have always gravitated towards time past. Music has always been that transitory space for me to travel between eras.
Being a current music major, in a university in Kenya, I realised just how little I knew of my own music history as a Kenyan, how little I knew of the people that shaped Kenya's musical traditions, and in a way, how little I knew of myself.
Articulate in playing Bach's preludes, flowing through Beethoven's sonatas, and hopping from one Chopin waltz to the next, for most of my life I have studied the musics of "the other." (This is a reference to the definition of ethnomusicology)
Wer Jokenya has become a space for me to delightfully discover myself anew and afresh. It has been a homecoming and a home. My hope is that in a small way it would be the same for you.
I depart, for now, with a small snippet of the life affirming poetry of Micere Githae Mugo. Her words potently and beautifully share a glimpse of what my visions and goals are for this growing Wer Jokenya community.
Daughter of My People Sing - Micere Githae Mugo
"Where are those songs
My mother and yours always sang
Fitting rhythms
to the whole
vast span of life?
Beat out your own rhythms
The rhythms of your life
But make the song soulful
And make life
Sing
Sing daughter sing
Around you are
Uncountable tunes
Some sung
Others unsung
Sing them
To your rhythms
Observe
Listen
Absorb
Soak yourself
Bathe
In the stream of life
And the sing
Sing simple songs
For the people
For all to hear
And learn
And sing
With you."

About the photo: This Orchestre Super Mazembe vinyl was the first Kenyan produced record I added to my small vinyl collection