When it comes to the description of love and romance, Luo rhumba artistes seem to hit new levels of absurdity with each passing day (or song tittle, should I say?). They have a panoply of phrases and song or album tittles, some of which are just ludicrous if not crazy (we'll sample some of them here for good measure). In their best attempt to answer the age-old question, "What is love?" they've only succeeded in confusing themselves and their listeners.
Non-Luos speakers who enjoy Luo rhumba, may think that all Luo rhumba songs are in praise of women. This may be true to an extent but not entirely so. A lot of it is the ever green theme of a want away lover; some artistes praise politicians, others revile them and the rest is nothing but a wretched gabble of revilement of love itself. Their idea of romance never goes beyond crying and complaining about a run-away or want-away lover. They praise them for their beauty and make a half hearted attempt at winning them back yet they don't hesistate to admit that they've suffered a lot in their hands.
Anyway, it isn't all bad - forgive my tone - some of the luo rhumba songs are quite good and incontestably above Kenyan standards. Songs like Millicento, Consolata and Nyar Ungas by the Late Ochieng Kabaselleh, the late Musa Juma's Siaya Kababa, Benard Oguche and Auma are top quality by any standard. Opiyo Jarumba also has a decent song titiled "Rachel NyarKobura". So, I'm not bashing them for their singing talent or lack thereof. It's their notion of love that I find quite unconventional. They tend to associate love with suffering rather than pleasure. And some of their song tittles are just downright hilarious. Let us sample them here, shall we?
1. Hera Mwandu (Love is wealth). Musa Juma was the first to put it in a song but this was a common saying in Luoland. Many artistes now use this phrase including Madanji Perimetre and Igwe Bandasson, Opiyo Jarumba to name but a few. Maybe most prominent of them being John Junior who sings repeatedly in his track Jacky Nyanyingo Remix, "Hera mwandu; joma negoyo koko uneno ka love oingo duto yoyo.." (Love is wealth, and all of you who were making noise about us, now can see that love conquers everything.) An everage human mind will have a hard time figuring out how love translates to wealth. May be you can give it a crack or we can leave it to the proffesors of economics to break it down for us.
2. Hera Remo (Love is blood?) This phrase was popularized by Musa Jakadala (not to be confused with Musa Juma) who used it as the title of the one track that catapulted him into national fame. It is not clear what he really means by "Hera Remo" because the literal meaning doesn't make much sense, no not even a little. Perhaps he wanted to convey the idea that love is life. But then again why does he not say it expressly if that's what he meant ? Perhaps he meant to say that love is destiny... we can only guess, but nowadays there are a handful of songs with the same tittle by various artites. Anybody care ask them what the [bleep] they mean..?
3. Hera Sandrouk (Love is suffering). Mandaji Perimeter is the culprit here. In just a few months he regresses from saying love is wealth to admitting that love really is nothing more than suffering. In this song, which is one of his latest, he sings about how men suffer in their efforts to keep their loved ones happy. He seems to agree with Tony Nydundo who in one of his tracks (Isanda Gi Hera) accuses some woman of "torturing him with love" whatever that means...
4. Hera Mudho (Love is darkness). Musa Juma finally nailed it; Love is blind. This is the tittle of one of his most popular tracks - yes, it is him again. He attempts to advise his listener not to fall in love with anyone based on looks alone, sort of. What he instead advices you to look out for in a new lover is, well, "Character". But Of course! The age-old wisdom that nobody seems to follow anymore. This track, being one of his most poetic songs, is without question Musa Juma's greatest compositions. He sings, "Mwandu rumo; kihero pesa to ihero jachien (Wealth will eventually run out. So, If you love money, you love the devil). Wow! If you love maney, you love the devil?
5. Hera Bungu (Love is a wilderness). This little known track is perhaps Madanji Perimetre's best composition. In the track, Madanji claims that the dating market (or the marriage market) is like a wilderness because you just never know what kind of person you gonna meet. Is that all? Indeed. Sorry to disappoint you but that's pretty much what Madanji says in the song apart from the usual (or should I say expected?) gibberish about a run-away lover. Sounds like a tired cliche but it's true. The song is so well arranged that you would be forgiven to think it's not a Kenyan production but it is. Perimeter is slowly but surely establishing himself a top rhumba musician in the Country, maybe he already has. But the same could be said of Igwe Bandasson ten years ago and nothing came of it. We can only watch and wait...
6. Hera Boka Rao (Love is a whip) Is love really a whip? Well, Igwe Bandasson seems to thinks so. The only question is who gets whipped? Igwe Bandasson composed this sad song decrying all the evil people mete out on each other in the name of love, or hate - Igwe seems to struggle telling the difference. It is not a bad song, but by Igwe's Standards it is such a big let down, and I'm not even talking about the rationality of its theme; Let's leave that to the philosophers. Igwe's first album set such a high standard that his recent albums sound like noise or worse.
7. Hera Apilo (Love is pepper). This is yet another mediocre song title by Igwe Bandasson who increasingly seems to have had it really rough with love, doesn't he? Bandasson seem to address this song to a certain woman who is leaving him for another man - there you go - and as expected, he professes his undying love for her. Love appears bright red and tantalizing but turns out hot like pepper Bandason seems to say. With this stockpile of sad song tittles one must really wonder what experience Bandasson has had in his dating life.
There you have it. These artistes seem to be trying to out-do each other in decribing how bad love can be. At this rate, it would hardly be a surprise if one of them composes a song tittled "Love is a catastrophy" or "love is death" or "love is global warming" or something worse. How we still consider these types of songs "love songs" is beyond me.
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