The enduring legacy of Queen Jane’s songs

• Fallen musician was a voice for the voiceless as well as a preacher for justice, and respect

The stub on Wikipedia about Queen Jane, is not representative of the space that this fallen heroine of Kikuyu popular music has occupied in the Kenyan social imaginary and the cultural scene.

Born Jane Nyambura 45 years ago, Queen Jane’s stature as the leading Kikuyu popular musician will remain etched in the memories of many a fan of her benga beat.

It is difficult from the various press reports to exactly verify her place of birth, but all are in agreement that she was born in the then Murang’a District.

When the national broadcaster’s website wrongfully stated that she was born in Gatanga, this aroused in me my earliest memories of Queen Jane.

In the mid 1980s to the 1990s, Queen Jane would accompany musicians from Gatanga, like Wamumbe and John Ndichu, in their tours in the constituency.

She performed in Gatura’s Chini Club, at the Tarmac End Inn. Anto Kamau of Houston, Texas, who hails from the area, remembers one day with nostalgia, when Queen Jane performed in Gatura, in the late 1980s.

“It was my first time ever to come face to face with a Kenyan celebrity,” he says.

I recall the excitement on my elder brothers’ faces whenever they would attend the regular live performances in my village, Gatura in the mid 1980s.

It is difficult to talk about Queen Jane and her music in isolation. From when she started with Simon Kihara, better known as Musaimo, to the time of her death, Queen Jane has commanded respect.

In fact, one musician, Timona Mburu of the Wi Sumu fame, composed a song in honour of Queen Jane after her marriage to James Kariuki in 2001.

Most of contemporary Kikuyu musicians have been products of Queen Jane’s magnanimity. Renowned mugithi one-man guitarists, Mike Murimi, Salim Junior and Mike Rua, started off with Queen Jane’s group Queen Ja Les Les Band.

Queen Jane also mentored her younger sisters, Lady Wanja and Princess Aggie, as well as Dr Michuki, her brother, who are now musicians in their own right.

Having launched her career at the tender age of 19 with Musaimo in 1984, Queen Jane will be remembered as the trendsetter of Kikuyu secular music by women.

Apart from the Nyakinyua dancers in the ’50s and the ’60s, the Kikuyu woman’s voice was largely muted.

Roman Warigi, a guru of Kikuyu music in the ’50s and ’60s used to record with the sister Muthoni, but he carried the by-line alone. Joseph Kamaru also used to sing with his sister Catherine, but Kamaru always got the credit.

It was only in the 1970s that gospel musicians Elizabeth Nyambene and Julia Lucy opened the way.

As things began to change in secular groups, it became increasingly common to hear of Kamaru Sisters, and Chania Sisters (in the case of Peter Kigia’s Chania River Boys Band). Others included Kihara Sisters (of the Mbiri Young Stars) and Karura Sisters (of Karura Brothers).

In the 1980s, Queen Jane entered the fray. She fused the old and the new, in terms of lyrics and tunes. In her initial recordings, she would include the traditional folk form mucungw’a within her contemporary benga.