LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE
Kenyan scholar does his thing with 'Harvard touch'
Story by EVAN MWANGI
Publication Date: 6/5/2005
Kenyan graduate of Harvard University is causing sensations in the music scene with his performances and the release of his first full-length album. Mwashuma Nyatta is rated among the hippest soul artistes in the US and Europe.
Currently a Rhodes scholar at Oxford University, UK, Mwashuma is likely to be in a class of his own in a country where most pop musicians and their ardent admirers are academic failures who see heroism in knocking back bottles of liquor in the thickest gulps, smoke and chew strange leaves, and even glorify raw sex in the era of Aids.
Hopefully, Mwashuma, whose music is poetic and subtle, will be a positive role model for Kenyas art-loving youths.
Popularly known in performance circles as Shu, the 24-year-old artiste is now a much sought-after collaborator and vocalist who plays to full houses across the US. He has been named a top songwriter in Billboards International Song Contest and has collaborated with Dave Tozer, a hot name in soul, who has himself collaborated with Kanye West, John Legend, and Snoop Dogg.
Mwashuma is in a class of his own in a country where musicians are academic failures.
"Shu is a soulful, organic, original voice on the music scene," says Kody Emmanuel of WBAI Radio. "He has the ability to reach the intellectual, sophisticated listener and the down home crowd."
And Shu is now set to take on Africa with a bang as his new album finally travels across the continents. The album, entitled Shusic, is a combination of gospel moans and sexy guitar licks between which he weaves a variety of sensitive themes. With a captivating voice and witty lyrics, Mwashuma presents topics ranging from frustrated love to the need to fight for survival in a brutally competitive world.
"I want to be able to reach a global audience with my music, to connect with people following their dreams or trying to escape the drabness that sometimes seems to be everywhere around us," says Mwashuma in an interview with Lifestyle. He started writing songs while in Milimani Primary School, from where he graduated in 1993.
He has had a bright academic career which he has brought to bear on his music, giving the songs a special seriousness while retaining in every beat a strong entertainment value. He attended Alliance High School between 1994 and 1997, before joining Harvard where he studied economics.
In Kenya, he led a cappella groups, and at Harvard (in Boston, US) he matured into a virtuoso songwriter, arranger, soloist and accompanist. He served as the director of Harvards premier choir for black music - the Kuumba Singers.
In October 2004, he jetted off to England to begin his academic year on a Rhodes scholarship, annually awarded since 1903 to the very best in displaying not only strong academic prowess, but also, among other things, moral force of character and instincts to lead. Among notable Rhodes scholars is Bill Clinton, the 42nd President of the US. Past Kenyan Rhodes scholars include human rights lawyer Njonjo Mue and economist David Ndii.
At Oxford, Shu is studying Cultural Anthropology and will be writing his dissertation on contemporary African art, he says. As he explores ideas on culture and identity, Shu has been lining up gigs in London and the rest of Europe.
"Music allows me to express myself in ways that I otherwise can't," he told Lifestyle. "For some reason there are certain emotions or experiences that are best expressed musically."
While individual talent accounts for Mwashuma's outstanding lyrics and originality, the society where he grew up has spiced his creativity.
His mother, Connie Nyatta, notes that in African culture everything is rendered artistically and art is "not really something outside, or apart from, the way we live - it's not something we only access and participate in through a box-office ticket or a visit to an art gallery."
He grew up in Taita Hills and Nairobi, among a society and family that values art, where expressing ideas and emotions artistically is part of living. "He was fortunate to have grown up in such a society," says his mother. "Our own home and that of his grandparents in the Taita Hills were just a small microcosm of all he found around him."
The song "Once Again" captures with colour and life the deep ironies of love, expressing the hypocrisy in which relationships can find themselves, thanks to the thrill one gets from infidelity. In the track, the singer tries to convince his lover that he was seeing somebody else so that their love can be stronger. His statements reek of ridiculous untruthfulness.
"That was not her number on my phone/ I promise you she don't smell of my cologne / I love you but I miss her because she makes me think about you / She was just a way that I could make your touch feel new." Ironically, it is in the most emotionally involved part of the song (and the most enjoyable) where the man expresses his longing for his lover: "How I want to hold you once again/ And tell you that I miss you now and then."
In contrast, the song "I Wanna Leave (But I Cant Stop Wantin You)" articulates the pain of unappreciated love. The speaker would like to move on, but cant because of the romantic spell that his lover seems to have cast on him. He seems to be at the mercy of a manipulative emotional predator or he perhaps could be suffering from some form of pathological tolerance, where he continues to devotedly love somebody who doesnt appreciate his affection.
Although we feel like blaming him because he knows there's something psychologically wrong with him or his lover, the emotions of helplessness with which he expresses his dilemma compel us to sympathise with him.
The songs are not cynical statements about a world of hypocrisy, manipulation, and emotional slavery. The track "My Own Ways" is about the hidden beauties of life that we must struggle to unravel and enjoy.
Shu says his favourite artistes include Bill Withers, Bob Marley, Lauryn Hill, Fela Kuti, and Stevie Wonder. These maestros blend and clash in Shu's music without robbing it of its individuality and moral direction. With melodic and harmonic tunes, Shu expresses the desired bliss after the challenges of life have been overcome. But he also employs incessant modulation and unpredictable turns to articulate the anger, frustration, ambivalence, or the twists and turns of love and relationships.
He feels Kenyans should take music more seriously. "Im very passionate about the arts, and I believe that they have been neglected on the African continent, overshadowed by all the debates about development, security, corruption, environmental management, he says. I don't think any society has really developed itself without an emphasis on its own artistic life or output whether that be painting, music, theatre, dance, film or photography."
He hopes to elevate music to a higher level of recognition in a society that still regards engagement with the arts as "wasting your life".
He says he is dedicated to providing opportunities in the arts for young people all over Africa and hopes some day to create an institution that will foster the kinds of artistic explorations and innovations that "I feel are sorely lacking".
Are there advantages of recording in the West? "The States has a very advanced music recording and performance scene. There are lots of good studios, musicians, venues and general resources that you can use to create and perform music and grow as an artist," he says.
"Sometimes its very daunting, because you're surrounded by such competitiveness and high standards, but this just means you have to push yourself harder and try to live up to the challenge."
How does he strike a balance between academic work and performance? "It's been very challenging to devote my full attention to music, as well as continue academic pursuits," he says. "But I think those are both things that I care deeply about.''
http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynati...3&newsid=50439
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06-05-2005, 07:57 PM
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