Suzanna Owiyo - My roots

Suzanna Owiyo – My Roots

Here she is: Suzanna Owiyo – Kenya's greatest artist

Suzanna Owiyo, Kenya's greatest female artist, is now releasing her new CD on the KKV label. This highly profiled singer and songwriter, who has performed at events such as the Mandela concert in New York and the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony in Oslo, has chosen to remain in her country instead of moving to London or Paris as many other African artists have done.

Suzanna Owiyo, who has previously released two albums, has the following to say about her new release, "My Roots": “Let me take you on a journey to my roots. I welcome you to share this special language we all own together: Music. My string instrument, the nyatiti, is a symbol of the title of my record. My grandfather was a famous nyatiti player. This instrument was only used on very special occasions, but only played by men. For women, it was taboo to play it, we couldn’t even touch it. But I wanted to learn to play this instrument so badly, so I was not deterred. The fire only grew stronger in me when our local TV station broadcast a programme where a Japanese woman who called herself Anyango played the instrument. This was the first time in my life I saw a woman playing a nyatiti, and watching her gave my ambitions a great boost.”

Suzanna has written all the lyrics and the music. The songs deal with corrupt politicians, good leaders, gratitude for being able to share in the beautiful gifts we all have been given by God, the dangers of alcohol abuse, with forgiveness, fathers who abandon their families, faithful friends, violence against women and addictions that lead to begging and inhibit development.

In addition to singing and playing the nyatiti, Suzanna also plays the acoustic guitar, shakers and bongos on the album. She is joined by a great band of talented Nairobi musicians: Tobi Imani, Eric Desire Buchumi, Freddie Bryant, Rocky Bile, Tobby Koech, Dave "Mob" Otieno and Kombo Chokwe, all on guitars. Eric Mwangi, Chagala Wycliffe, Eric Mwangi and Annette A Aguilar play percussion. Robert Kamanzi and Hussein "Meya" Mwidani play drums. Sadie Kinyunda, Dave "Mob" Otieno and Isaac Gem play bass guitars, while Lydia Ogoti performs backing vocals and plays the calabash. Also joining in are Barry Olsen on trombone, Rob Thomas on violin and Shadrack Muithya on keyboards.

In spite of the relatively large number of musicians, the album has a fairly stripped sound, giving a very authentic organic African impression, without the typical World Music sound we are familiar with from programmed loop-based Afro music. The album was produced and recorded by Jesseh Bukindu at Ketebul Studios in Nairobi and mixed in the same studio by Jesseh together with Daniel Wold.

The album is the product of a cooperative venture between KKV and Mimeta, a Norwegian cultural and development centre which supports artists and environments contributing to culture and development. Mimeta is owned by the Strømme Foundation and the Vest-Agder county authority. The record is part of the KKV series "Imagine Africa". Imagine Africa (www.imaginafrica.com) is also a project initiated by the ARTerial Network (www.arterialnetwork.org), an organisation of African producers and cultural initiatives.