Birdsongs from Kĩrĩnyaga

Nyokabi Kariũki is a name that is buzzing around in the contemporary music circuit; the Cello Octet has jumped at the chance to work with her. The Kenyan-born sound explorer has written a composition for the octet, interweaving her voice with field recordings of East African sunbirds. This bird species has sung the same song for thousands of years, creating a powerful ancestral tie.

Sunbirds can be found at Mount Kenya, at the birthplace of Nyokabi’s father. For Nyokabi, the enduring nature of the birdsong has profound implications for our understanding of the concept of ‘origin’. Her forefathers, too, preserved knowledge through song and music, alongside language and stories, until colonial structures disrupted these living forms of communication.