The music of obokano

(English version)

It is me, Masese

Now am coming from Bundo

Look how my body smeared with ebundo* is shining

Am going to the battlefield with a hummer

I have carried with me a spear and a mallet

I have come as a warrior

With warrior spears

Belongings and the spirit of warriors

Listen to the way I play the Obokano*

Trumpets and flutes

I will not close my eyes even if it’s misty

So misty and clumsy like heavy sounds of trumpets

Even if you pierce my waist with a spear-chigi!*
I will sway and fight like grass

On a mountain against strong winds

I come

Wearing clothes like moving stream of water

Now, stand over there and watch, don’t move closer

Look! The way I am preparing shields

Put them down to cover the soil like heavy drops of rain

One man army, one man government

I am the only son like the eye

Even if you trouble me, I can hide in a basket

And come out with a dagger

If we wrestle I will defeat you, like it is a wedding

Weaken you, make you wither before they come to separate us

Before we hold hands and fight

I and you will not draw

I burn like fire glowing from ekerende* and esasi*

Grow and spread further like Emanga* and Esameta* ranges

Grow and spread so you can play pianos- Nda! Nda! Nda!*

Don’t be jealous you may walk naked

Then you burst – NDA!

If someone troubles you,

Don’t worry yourself too much

Be silent and look for a piano

Or go to your bed and sleep -NDA!

END NOTES

1. Ebundo – a type of paint made from some specific soils and clay that was used as a kind of body protection from dirt or in ceremonies

2. Obokano - an eight-stringed harp from the Gusii people of western Kenya

3. Chigi - the sound made by a spear when it pierces flesh

4. Ekerende and esasi - these was a traditional tools of making fire by using a dry wood,ekerende, with a stick to drill; esasi is dry leaves mixed with dry dung that is fed to the spot of contact between the wood and the stick.

5. Emanga and Esameta are two great ranges in Gusiiland and normally people are told to spread out (grow) and produce like the two ranges

6. Nda - the sound of music/strings, largely onomatopoeic here

*Dennis Dancan Mosiere aka Grandmaster Masese is a poet, musician, actor, writer/editor, human rights educator and a Fahamu Pan African fellow for Social Justice