Cashmere Guest Mixes Weaving a Rainbow w/ KMRU & Chef Kabui

In this one-off show KMRU and Chef Kabui meet for the first time. Though belonging to different generations, both grew up in the same parts of Nairobi with relatives in Murang’a county. The title of the show “Weaving a Rainbow” refers to an essay (https://www.chefkabui.com/blog-1) Kabui wrote in 2022 about KMRU’s grandfather, the famous Kenyan benga musician Joseph Kamaru. Four years earlier the artist died, —or, to use the Gĩkũyũ phrasing, “fell asleep”. Alongside creating his own music, KMRU has since archived and re-issued the music of his grandfather (https://josephkamaru.bandcamp.com), or of “guka” (Gĩkũyũ for “my grandfather”) as he refers to him. For Kabui, as for many other Kenyans, Joseph Kamaru is an incredibly important figure, he explains in his story, “there was almost no moment of significance in my life that Kamaru was not present as the theme music.” Kabui then recounts how he met him one day in 1986 when he still attended secondary school. Earlier in the day he had heard Kamaru’s new hit “Ngita Yakwa” on a jukebox and later on, after an introduction made by his father, they were going in the same car to a concert in his home village. Almost four decades after the encounter, Kabui connects with KMRU to discuss the musician, Gĩkũyũ culture and Kenyan politics. Framed by a superb selection of Kamaru’s songs, they cover different topics, including Kabui’s “Rutere Manifesto”. Inspired by “Russian” kale growing in his backyard, Kabui pushes back against a conventional reading of Karl Marx by drawing on Gĩkũyũ ideas of land and community. He firmly believes that progressive solutions to contemporary challenges can be found by drawing on indigenous practices. “Weaving a Rainbow” is thus not only a short story that reflects on Joseph Kamaru’s influence on Kabui’s life but it also symbolises an intergenerational conversation and the utilisation of different layers of time and culture.

KMRU – composer, musician, archivist

https://kmru.info/

Njathi wa Kabui aka Chef Kabui – writer, anthropologist, chef

https://www.chefkabui.com/

Produced by Alina Oswald