Faustuss music projects in Kenya

  
       
Kenya
 

Since our travels in 2005 we have maintained contact with groups of musicians all over Kenya. No less than four CD albums are now available, and the process of getting 6 more albums to a state of readiness is well under way.

Our commitment is to the artists we have recorded, to create a product that will not only help improve day-to-day life for them and their communities in the long term, but also give their culture the full attention it deserves. The CDs we release are complete in every sense, and useful not only as pleasurable listening material, but as a source of information for researchers, anthropologists, and anyone with an interest in the world's diverse cultures.

In an environment where traditional music and culture is often looked down upon, where it is not seen to have any future, musicians who have recorded with us now know that there are people not only in Kenya, but even abroad who see and understand their value. This affects not only the way musicians approach their work, but the way they are perceived by their peers. In Malava near Kakamega town in Western Kenya, Watai Mukonyi seemed to be the last in a line of tradition of generation after generation who played the traditional Shiriri (one stringed fiddle). Since our first visit, word of the recordings we made soon spread, and following an article in the Daily Nation (Kenya's major national newspaper) about our journey to Amakula which featured a picture of Watai performing, youths from the surrounding area have come to find Watai, asking to be taught how to play. There has been a resurgence in local interest in the style, and an initial version of the recording has even been broadcast on Kenyan radio.Watai was visited by the local MP with messages of congratulation. As Watai states in an interview for our forthcoming documentary..."If this is what my father was doing, and it was good back then, then it shall be good for me, and give me blessings too. Let even one among my whole family take it up and it will help him, and shall help him send his sons to school." His is not an isolated case, and the great thing is that all of the groups know each other now. They are aware that like-minded individuals across Kenya are striving toward the same goals, and that there really is a future for traditional music in Kenya.

Profits from the sale of CDs of Kenyan music are divided roughly as follows:

• 40% direct to the artist/s
• 45% to projects in their local communities.
• 15% to Faustuss in order to cover operating costs and help fund future work.

The local community projects vary according to location, but in most cases it is proposed that these should be cultural centres. In some cases the centres have already been started by local people, in others it will be a case of building from scratch. But what exactly is a cultural centre in this context?

The centres will take the form of villages which will function in the following ways...

• They will act as centres where those with an interest in preserving the traditional culture and way of life can live and interact.
• They will act as meeting places, welcoming musicians from around Kenya and East Africa to meet and network.
• Members of the surrounding communities would be employed to work as tutors/entertainers, visiting the villages to teach and perform local musics etc.
• They will host events such as cultural festivals in order to promote the culture to wider audiences.
• They will also welcome paying tourists from around the world, offering them opportunity to sample traditional life, cooking/eating traditional food, playing traditional instruments and participating in the daily activities that are typical to the area. If they desire, visitors would be able to travel around Kenya on a cultural tour, learning about the different traditional ways of life around the country.
• The community will gradually become self-sufficient, gradually expanding as funds become available and using their land to develop healthy crops and livestock. It is intended that these activities should extend to embrace a revival in small-scale organic farming that would minimise dependency, and become another source of income.
• In time, the villages will use funds to develop better schools and health care for their inhabitants, and surrounding communities.
• Centres will also focus on the main problems that face the communities, such as HIV/AIDS and malaria. Cultural events would also combine with awareness/support projects in order to further improve quality of life.
• In areas where there is already an established tourist industry, the centres would act as a union through which entertainment contracts with hotels could be negotiated. This would empower local musicians to perform at hotels on their own terms, and would eradicate the problem facing local musicians who are currently paid a pitance for performances at hotels where the money a tourist spends on one room for a night could feed a local resident for at least a month.

The idea is to allow traditional culture to thrive in a context where people can also live in comfort and security, benefiting from income and resources generated by the centre itself along with the funds generated by CD sales. In Kakamega (Western Kenya) a plot has already been purchased, and a few initial structures erected. In Malindi (the East coast) plans are well underway, and musicians with whom we work in various other locations around Kenya are keen to participate in the establishment of similar centres. In time we hope to assist in creating a cultural network that will provide real improvements to the living conditions of whole communities.