{"id":52326,"date":"2020-06-04T13:23:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-04T12:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/papillon-maisha-ya-babu\/"},"modified":"2020-06-04T11:35:07","modified_gmt":"2020-06-04T10:35:07","slug":"papillon-maisha-ya-babu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/papillon-maisha-ya-babu\/","title":{"rendered":"In Kenya, Papillon is concerned for the country\u2019s traditions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Kenyan singer, multi-instrumentalist, and luthier, Papillon, takes flight with \u201cMaisha Ya Babu\u201d a call to return to our roots. <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In Kenya, Martin Murimi, alias Papillon, worries that traditions are gradually disappearing. The question is one that has long worried his contemporaries on the continent, and he has decided to respond by going back to his roots with \u201cMaisha Ya Babu\u201d (Our Father\u2019s Life).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Construction machinery, rubbish trucks, heavy traffic, pollution. The music video was shot in a Nairobi suburb \u2013 not the nicest of settings \u2013 in order to underline \u2018the strong contrast between our tribal history and our present reality \u2013 urbanised and westernised\u2019, according to the German-Nigerian director and designer Sydney \u2018Spaceship\u2019 Nwakanma. Adorned with regal costumes, headdresses and masks from the collection of the African Heritage House in Nairobi \u2013 where the two artists became friends during a residency \u2013 Papillon stands out in the heart of this urban chaos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018During the filming people stopped to look at him, very surprised to see this pan-African wizard dressed in outfits from the four corners of the continent, this figure so out of touch with their reality,\u2019 recounts Nwakanma. Accompanied by his Mwari wa Ur, a home-made carved lyre harp, Papillon sings in Mbeere of his pain, of memories of his ancestors’ time, of a lost unity, and of his nostalgia, all to the backdrop of luminous choirs and minimalist arrangements. With an angelic voice, whose falsetto resembles that of Blick Bassy or Bongeziwe Mabandla, he asks himself \u2018what happened?\u2019 \u2018Globalisation!\u2019 replies the director. \u2018Codified traditions and cultures are clashing with capitalist forces, and whilst we make more and more cheap clothing and cheap music, we are forgetting our heritage, the value of work, of handcraft.\u2019 Papillon adds, \u2018today, traditions have become merely symbolic, few people practice them. It’s sad, but there is hope because a few of us who are truly rooted can remind others that they too have roots. That’s what this song is about.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018In our grandfathers\u2019 life there was no evil\u2019. Despite lyrics that tend to suggest otherwise, the singer, multi-instrumentalist, and instrument maker nonetheless refuses to idealise ancestral values and traditions. Born in a small village three hours from Nairobi, Papillon grew up in a poor rural environment, close to the music but also to the rituals and ceremonies of the Mbeere \u2013 the Bantu people of East Africa, whose vibrancy has gradually declined over the past twenty years. Although he now lives in Nairobi, the thirty-something still feels sustained by his heritage and, therefore, his truth, thanks to many trips to and from the village. But, by way of a caveat he tells us that \u2018I represent my tradition, but I’m not a traditional musician, I’m very contemporary\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The man is ready to take flight with \u201cMaisha Ya Babu\u201d, a great foretaste of a first album that is to come out later this year. Following in the footsteps of his late mentor Ayub Ogada, a modern virtuoso of the nyatiti lyre harp and a keen experimenter, Papillon surrounds himself with a group of free-spirited musicians mixing tablas, flutes, pianos, steel drums, and other percussion instruments. Their job is to accompany him in the creation of a \u2018new musical dynasty with traditional Africa at its heart\u2019. And that\u2019s a promise!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Kenyan singer, multi-instrumentalist, and luthier, Papillon, takes flight with \u201cMaisha Ya Babu\u201d a call to return to our roots. In Kenya, Martin Murimi, alias Papillon, worries that traditions are gradually disappearing. The question is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":50962,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3944],"tags":[1556,12018],"location":[],"yst_prominent_words":[13693,13691,13690,9178,8407,8414,8447,12005,12003,13695,10355,8435,13694,13692,8438,8449,13689,13688,13687,12006],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52326"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52326"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=52326"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=52326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}