parallellsamling, rekvisita, musikinstrument, Kayamba

"The Kayamba is an important and revered instrument commonly found within, and played by, every sub-tribe in the Mijikenda from East to West and North to South along the Kenyan coast. It is the only instrument that unifies all nine tribes, namely, the Giriama, Digo, Duruma, Rabai, Ribe, Chonyi, Kambe, Kauma, and Jibana.

The Kayamba plays two roles in their musical tradition; it is either used as a lead instrumentrument played on its own or as an accompaniment to other instruments. All Mijikenda communities along the coast of Kenya use the instrument in musical sessions called ​Ngoma ya Waganga,​ which are healing ceremonies lead by traditional witchdoctors in a search for a cure to a particular illness. Five or more people participate in playing the Kayamba during these healing sessions; they accompany the master healer who leads in playing, singing and communicating with the elements and forces of nature, depending on what the situation is calling for. However, it is also used ceremoniously in joyful moments such as harvests, weddings and celebrations of a deceased person’s life (i.e. burials). The Kayamba is made with two layers of large, dried reeds woven together along a support made of three sticks, according to dimensions of the maker’s choice. Jequirity beans or rosary peas from the Abrus Precatorius plant are placed between the two layers. This plant is a slender, perennial climber with long, pinnate-leafleted leaves that twines around trees, shrubs, and hedges.

However, the Kayamba is an endangered instrument. As traditional values start to fade into the distant past, those seeking healing sessions facilitated by this beautiful, native and organic instrument find it increasingly difficult to find practitioners and the tradition that they have represented for generations.

The kayamba was carried through many routes, bodies, minds, and souls during the flight from the Portuguese and Persian invaders. The Mijikenda people were thus scattered, and to this day believe they have family members who fled to the Archipelago Islands off the eastern coast of Africa to the French departments of Mayotte and Mascarene, where communities can be found that play the kayamba." - an excerpt of a text by Daniel Muhuni