Revisiting Monaja’s Friday Flow

Hip-hop artist Monaja explored and experimented with his TemaImba style of music on his 2016 release, the TemaImba mixtape. The coinage derives from two Swahili words: tema which means to rap and imba which is to sing. It is a fusion of the two. Listening to TemaImba, one notices that it is largely inspired by …

From K-Shaka to Sauti Sol and Ethic Entertainment: A Conversation on the Language of Kenyan Music and Its Influence on Artistic Freedom & Expression

In 1962, an African Writers Conference was held at the Makerere University College, dubbed “Conference of African Writers of English Expression.” Against the background of the political independence of African countries, African literature was at a transitional point – asserting its place in and out of the continent as it dealt with colonial legacy. “What …

Gufy – ‘Love & How It Comes’ Album Review

Gufy is not new to vulnerability. His poems and his performance shows are known to bring people to tears, revealing and confronting their demons. Going Gufy, held at the Michael Joseph Centre in February this year, continued with the same spirit, although aesthetically different. Going Gufy sets the precedence and forms part of the core …