Dan Aceda Responds To Uncle Chim Tuna’s Article About Kenya At 50
So yesterday i did a piece in which I gave my reasons why Kenya has nothing to celebrate about 50 years of music. I still feel that if we look at the years that have rolled on as a journey, the journey becomes a simple journey devoid of the landmarks and features that would make it an epic trip.
Dan Aceda however doesn’t agree with me. And here are his reasons why:
To be honest I thought this article by Uncle Chim Tuna was rather interesting. There are things that I agree with, and things that I would like to have a chance to discuss with him, but generally I am happy that he wrote this piece because at the very least it gives us a chance to talk.
So let’s start from the beginning.
Is there anything to celebrate about Kenyan Music in the past 50 years? My answer is Hell yeah.
We produced a world sensation in Kelly Brown, wrote a song that made a career for Mariam Makeba, we have people that have won worldwide songwriting contests and others who were finalists. We have people who have played at TEDX , people who won Kora Awards, Chanel O Awards, Emmy Awards and even people who were nominated for an academy award then a Grammy award in 1999 and 2000. I bet you didn’t know that. Hint : Google Muungano Choir.
So are we exactly where we want to be? Hell no.
As Uncle Chim notes in his article, Kenya used to be a major music destination. We recorded, produced and drew the biggest acts in the region and indeed the world. And we don’t do this anymore. These days all we get is third rate or washed up foreign acts frequenting our stages. Reggae fans are exempt from this, they are still drawing the best of the best year after year. Sean Paul, Richie Spice, Morgan Heritage Tarrus Riley, Alaine and more are coming to play while at their peak. We also play less Kenyan music on radio/TV and give less airtime to local acts. Then when we do, it’s always a half -baked person and the hype kills their career long before their hit song has left the airwaves.
So what’s the problem? I don’t know.
Sometimes, it’s the audience, sometimes it’s the media but a lot of time it’s also we the musicians who just can’t sort out our knickers. It’s painful to admit this but it’s true. We have little respect for each other and little appreciation for the people that came before us. So we take every chance to cut each other down and mis-represent our industry. The result is that we are unable to speak with one voice. That’s why we sometimes can’t get the audiences to fully trust us yet. They only trust some of us. And we are trying everyday to keep it that way, for no reason at all.
So are we doomed? No.
Many growing industries have had this same problem and have managed to sort it out. It takes time but I have hope that we will get there. I mean, Nigerian acts now identify very strongly as Nigerian and seldom talk trash about another person’s work. The Ugandans use trash talk to push up popularity and album sales. The Congolese just write better songs than the rivals and the South Africans were lucky to have Brenda Fassie and such who were very intensely true to who they are/were.
So what do we do?
We celebrate the wins and learn from our mistakes. Show belief in the industry by committing 100% to it so that when someone is slacking we can constructively critique their work and improve. Show love and respect the work, you won’t like everything and that’s Ok. But above all Keep calm and play some Kenyan Music. 50 years later, no matter the drama, things can always get better.
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Why did I choose to post Dan Aceda’s response? Because I think his track “Dalili ya Mvua” changed how Kenyans view gospel -fusing it so well with Afro-soul. He transformed gospel into more than a simple way to make music. Gospel has never been simple minded since the track.
