While concerts and rehearsals were cancelled during the first lockdown, I spent my days reading, writing and practising. Looking back, I had a very positive experience during the lockdown, although at one point I was also quite seriously ill with Covid. I had been toying with the idea of creating a play for children based on Walter Rodney’s masterpiece ‘How Europe Underdeveloped Africa’ for several years. I was just unsure about the format.
The best ideas usually come to me when I’m practising or when I am running. During a run in Hamburg, I had the idea of working with a storyteller to create a ‘musical oral history performance’ about the colonial era for children. I ended up teaming up with Wangari Grace, a storyteller from Nairobi. ‘Colonialism – A Musical Oral History Performance’ has been performed more than 100 times both in Europe and in East Africa.
I am happy that Nyege Nyege Tapes – one of my top 3 record labels in the world – will publish a book in 2025 containing the stories, illustrations by Congolese artist Dan Yessa and all the stories as audio files, including the soundtrack I played during the performances.