Taveta cultural singers carve a niche for themselves

By PASCAL MWANDAMBO

They can aptly be described as the entertainment and cultural ambassadors of Taita Taveta County.

Each time they are invited to the podium to perform, they are received with a standing ovation. And normally after belting out their first song, the jubilation from the audience is deafening.

Taveta Luworo Singer’s Club has carved an enviable niche for themselves both in their home town of Taveta and the county as a whole.

The group which has been in existence for about 26  years now has portrayed versatility and mastery of rare talents among its members. Apart from cultural performances they do religious and political songs.

“We mainly do cultural music because culture is an integral part of our life. They say ‘“wacha mila ni mtumwa” and we do not want to be slaves by throwing away our cultures and adopting foreign ones,” group leader Lemmy Peter told The Standard.

GIFTED ARTISTES

The gifted singer and performer has been leading the group in many endeavours among them recording their debut CD, Nzia ya Lukio (The way of Salvation).

“We mainly involve ourselves in live performances. Recording our music has not been our major concern,” Peter says adding that their music is not for making financial gains but entertaining and educating the society about various issues.

Among the issues that they have been sensitising people on is the HIV/Aids pandemic.

“Aids is real and is taking a heavy toll on peoples’ lives. The economic and social fibre of society is being torn down the middle by this disease. As artistes, we feel duty bound to warn people about this real danger that is stalking us,” he said.

Apart from secular songs the  group also performs religious songs and Peter observes that no one can live a fulfilling life without religion hence the reason their debut CD is titled The way of salvation.

STRONG POINT

The 10-track audio CD was produced eight years ago and Peter says it has been well received due to the secular, cultural and religious messages in it.

He, however, observes that  producing and recording music is quite expensive which ends up discouraging upcoming artistes from recording their music for the wider audience.

“For us, live performances have been our strongest point. Through this, we have been able to travel to many parts of the country and entertain many revelers with our dance and music,” he says.

True to his word, the group’s dances and performances are nothing but amazing.

One may think that the group is made up of Maasai dancers, given their agility in jumping up and down rhythmically, singing in deep tones and their regalia which is entirely Maasai.

GROUP MEMBERS

However, nothing could be further from the truth. The group members are all Wataveta.

The group is currently planning to record a video CD so they can immortalise their performances in pictures.