Kasiva Mutua
percussion, voice, guitar
Artist profile: https://makingtracksmusic.org/...
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kasivamutua
“I use my drum to tell my story and my people’s stories. My roots shaped me, and my culture is here to stay with me.”
Kasiva’s story
Kasiva is one of Kenya’s leading percussionists and drummers. She plays music that is connected to her family's roots, including to folktales told by her grandmother. This passion is integrated with modern styles such as jazz, hip-hop, reggae, funk, and much more. Her musical and research activity is oriented towards storytelling by celebrating her community’s spirit. Through this passion, she addresses the issue of the place of African women in music, raising awareness of girl, child and gender equality that motivates women to diversify their position in music and inspire the young generations to continue preserving their culture.
Listen to her talk on TED Global on how she uses percussion to tell her story: https://www.ted.com/talks/kasiva_mutua_how_i_use_the_drum_to_tell_my_story/up-next?subtitle=en
She also co-founded MOTRAMUSIC, an all-female drumming collective in Kenya, evolving from a percussion project into a sisterhood for young women to bond through rhythm
Check more about it at: https://www.musicinafrica.net/directory/motramusic
On musical storytelling in Kenya
Often referred to as 'orature' in the region, storytelling, folklore, and oral history have been handed down from one generation to another (like in the case of Kasiva and her grandmother). As one of the most powerful means of communication in Kenya, stories have been transferred through words, songs, chants, sayings, proverbs, miming, and body language. They were also used for education purposes and integrated into everyday life.
Kenya has three main ethno-linguistic groups: Cushitic, Nilotic, and Bantu, and over 42 different cultural groups with their own myths and legends.
Interactive storytelling tools
Several narrative performance techniques enable the young ones to participate in listening and learning more freely. Some of those are:
Call and Response
Call/response chants and choruses can be selected from traditional songs, and are commonly used through repetition to create an atmosphere of participation to engage the children before the story starts. They are accompanied by movements, clapping, or playing musical instruments.
Shared singing
Many traditional tales have songs within them, where a character in the story sings as a means of sharing information, warning, celebrating, or praising.
Question and answer
This technique involves asking the audience to respond to questions as the story is enveloped. These can concern the advice asked from the audience to decide what the character should do, and how the story could progress or explain the happenings as the story progresses.
On how to use storytelling in your musical project
https://emcy.org/projects/musical-storytelling/ (Musical storytelling in African culture)
Ingoma Nshya: “New drum / New power”
Kenya’s Musical Queens and the changing role of women in African drumming
https://www.roarafrica.com/blog/women/2022/08/drumming-toward-an-empowered-future
https://errolbenson.medium.com/unveiling-kenyas-musical-queens-most-promising-female-artists-in-the-music-scene-5d7c91f60bd1 (to discover some new women artists come from Kasiva’s homeland)
Women on drums - tradition unveiled
While the tradition of women playing percussion instruments tends to be talked about less, it is important to emphasize that through various cultural and musical traditions, the practice of women playing drums has always been present. Their instruments weren’t always of the master’s making, but they used the percussive tools that were available to them.
Some of these practices are:
'Kitchen' instruments - Their primary drumming instruments were composed of the utensils used in the kitchen to prepare food, or work around the house. These could be made from various-sized gourds used in cooking, as well as metal basins and half of a calabash to wash clothes.
'Water drum' - In some communities of Senegal and Gambia women specialized in the use of water (rivers, lakes, pounds) to play with their hand on the surface or to play inverted calabashes as drums producing a variety of sounds and playing techniques.
'Pot drums' - In Nigeria, these drums are used in church ceremonies to accompany singing. One of the most popular is the Ibo pot drum also known as Udu made of clay.
Adenkum drum - In Ghana and Akan women are known to play an elongated gourd with a long narrow neck and a bulbous end that has a hole in the bottom. The Adenkum ensemble consists of five or six women who would strike the gourds against different parts of the body such as the palm, arm, or thighs.
On African Drums and Drumming
Music to explore
From African Rhythms: Songs from Kenya (Folkways Records, 1970)
From African Politics: More Songs from Kenya (Folkways Records, 1973)
From Black Music of Two Words (Folkways Records, 1977)
Traditional / folk music of Kenya - Information and songs
Sources
https://allgoodtales.com/storytelling-traditions-across-world-kenya/
https://www.paukwa.or.ke/story-series/keartefacts/kenyan-percussion-instruments/
https://festival.si.edu/2014/kenya/music-playlist/smithsonian
https://www.modernghana.com/news/659045/the-changing-role-of-women-in-african-drumming.html
