Sunday 12 February 2017

Jambo, Bwana! Kenya's big hit song in simple Swahili; Them Mushrooms



This catchy song came out on an album three years after we had left Kenya, which explains why I had never heard it before - although it is one of those songs that, as soon as you hear it, you think you've always known it. Maybe I heard it being played, before it was recorded, at a hotel in Mombasa? I think not. Something tells me that my daughter and another school-friend brought up in East Africa used to chant this song at school in Dorset?

I dedicate it to Alex, who was born in Kenya. We used to love the Kenya coast near Mombasa.

Them Mushrooms, Jambo Bwana

With lyrics

Chorus:

Jambo
Jambo bwana
Habari gani?
Mzuri sana
Wageni mwakaribishwa
Kenya yetu
Hakuna matata


BBC World Service interview, The History Hour, from 43,38 point


No comments:

Post a Comment