Sesube
Sesube is a style of East African music that takes sounds and inspirations from local Kenyan communities, cultural styles, and languages and fuses those sounds with a European component. The sound is achieved by playing a variety of instruments, both traditional and modern.
| Sesube | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins | Sega Isukuti Nyanza Benga |
| Cultural origins | Late 1990s, Kenya |
| Typical instruments | nyatiti accordion calabash percussion guitar bass guitar orutu |
| Derivative forms | Afro-fusion |
History
The genre has immediate origins in the late 1990s with the creation of the musical group Yunasi. The development of the definitive term was not until the late 2000s, as Yunasi band leader Erick Odhiambo[1] has mentioned. As claimed, the style grew out of a desire for a "Kenyan" national style of music".
Influences
The influences from sesube have arisen from "sega music from the coast, isikuti from the West, nyanza and benga from the Luo people.".[2] Additionally, the style has a distinctive "European component", mainly drawing from Western European pop and folk elements.