K’Orengo’s nyatiti falls silent

An outpouring of grief engulfed Alego, Siaya, last Saturday during the burial of a man regarded as one of the finest exponents of the eight-string harp, popularly known as the nyatiti.

The legacy of Okumu K’Orengo, who died two weeks ago, will remain with numerous musicians who trooped to his homestead to learn how to play the instrument at his feet.

The most famous of his students is a foreign woman who broke all the traditional mores and learnt to play the instrument, a skill that has always been a male preserve.

Back in 2001 a budding Japanese artiste called Eriko Mukoyama was on her way to music school in New York.

As fate would have it, this was the day of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and her flight was turned back to Tokyo as all airports in the US were closed.

Back in Tokyo, a life-changing moment came when Mukoyama was invited by a friend to attend a traditional Kenyan music concert.

She immediately fell in love with the drumbeats and dance and one year later was on a flight to Kenya to learn more about her new love.

That first trip took her to a Giriama village at the Coast where she immersed herself in the talking drums.

Her second visit was in August 2004 and this time the adventurous Japanese musician travelled to the heart of Luoland, determined to learn the nyatiti.

“It is in this place where houses have thatch roofs and walls are made of mud where I met Okumu K’Orengo,” Mukoyama says of her first meeting with the man who would reluctantly become her mentor.

K’Orengo was not too keen on the visitor, saying it was taboo for a woman to not only play, but even touch the instrument.

He did not understand why a foreigner and for that matter a woman wanted to learn the nyatiti.

Mukoyama was adamant and a compromise was struck where she would learn the Luo culture and traditions before she could be given a chance to play the instrument.

She moved into K’Orengo’s small house and fell into a daily routine of getting up at sunrise, walking miles to fetch water from a spring and gathering firewood.

She says it took her three months before she was allowed to touch the nyatiti.

Speak fluent Dholuo

“When the master taught, he never played the nyatiti slowly and only played a pattern at normal speed once. So I really had to concentrate on the tune and imitate his playing,” says Mukoyama.

After a year-and-a-half in K’Orengo’s homestead, she could speak fluent Dholuo and adopted the name Anyango Nyar Alego (daughter of Alego).

When she heard of the maestro’s death while in Tokyo two weeks ago, she jumped on the first available flight to Nairobi.

“I will always cherish his parting words after completing the apprenticeship,” she says.

“Anyango, you are the first woman nyatiti player in the world. Go to every part of the world where I cannot go and play the instrument.”

Today, she confidently plucks the strings while creating a rhythm with the iron bells attached to her right ankle and an iron ring on her right toe.

K’Orengo was born in 1947 at Aluny Village, East Alego sub-location. He was part of the second generation of nyatiti players in an area that has produced some of Luoland’s best musicians.

His contemporaries paid glowing tribute to him at the burial. “I gave him his first nyatiti in 1967 and we have both been the top musicians since then,” recalls Oganga Joginder.

Just a week before K’Orengo’s death, both musicians played at a cultural festival in Alego.

Well-known producer and founder of Ketebul, Tabu Osusa, said K’Orengo’s death underlined the importance of establishing a cultural memory.

“It is crucial to document our cultural heritage to show the world an authentic identity and not a hotchpotch of foreign ideas presented as Kenyan,” says Osusa.

Ironically, while in Kenya K’Orengo’s name barely raises an eyebrow outside his village, his influence has spread far beyond the borders.

For five weeks in 2009, German drummer and percussionist Sven Kacirek travelled across Kenya, recording the album The Kenya Sessions with a host of traditional singers, including K’Orengo.

Last year another K’Orengo student, Joseph Nyamungu, recorded a widely acclaimed album called Owiny Sagoma in collaboration with a group of British musicians — showing what can be achieved by mixing traditional melodies with electronic rhythms.

It is after hearing about the exploits of Mukoyama that popular Kenyan musician Suzzana Owiyo decided to take up nyatiti lessons herself.

Arguably, the most successful of the contemporary nyatiti players is Ayub Ogada, who combines the best elements of acoustic and electronic techniques in songs like the classic Kothbiro.