A reggae night in Nairobi at One Love Thursdays

Kenya is a vast country in East Africa, washed by the warm waters of the Indian Ocean. It is a land of cheetahs, elephants, gazelles, giraffes, tribes of conquering lions and, yes, reggae music.

I was there a few days ago. After soaking up a few sensational safaris and declining the offerings of crocodile and ostrich meat at game restaurants, I decided it was time to check out the reggae scene in Nairobi. My guide was Buddah Blaze, a forty-something-year-old native who describes himself as a journalist, historian, promoter and creative entrepreneur. Buddah came with glittering credentials, having been introduced to me by Cassandra Goins, former president of Tuff Gong International in New York. Goins has worked assidiously unearthing and promoting music across Africa for many years.

Reggae music can be heard all across Nairobi on any night of the week, at roadside shops or at bars, clubs, restaurants and parties. We settled on One Love Thursdays at a sprawling entertainment complex called K1 Klubhouse in the Westlands area of Nairobi.

We were a party of four, but before we hit the pulsating club, Buddah was adamant about placing Kenya’s love for reggae music in context. He took us to view a bronze statue of Kenya’s freedom-fighter, Rastafarian Dedan Kimathi. This is an important symbol of Kenya’s liberation from Britain. Kimathi was the leader of the Mau Mau native guerillas who fought for nationalist and anti-colonial goals, and reggae music was their oxygen.

“Kenya is a massive reggae market and reggae music here is synonymous with the fight for freedom so we take it very seriously,” Buddah stated proudly. “We have a 24-hour reggae station here and when we were celebrating our 50th anniversary of independence a few years ago, our special performing guest was Tarrus Riley,” he added.

We arrived at the club about midnight. I was startled by the massive size of the club, and one of the managers revealled that it is certainly one of the oldest, continuously operating nightclubs in Nairobi, having been around for about 25 years and owned by a Kenyan Rastaman.

We were guided to a reserved table where I ordered Tusker, a delicious and popular local beer with the image of an elephant emblazoned on the can. The party was rocking with hundreds of smartly dressed reggae-lovers. The club boasted multiple sections in addition to the main dance floor and at full capacity it could easily accommodate about 3000 guests. The vibe in the main dance area looked a lot like Uptown Mondays.

The music was an unending, eclectic barrage of hits from Sizzla, Busy Signal, Beres, Beenie Man, Bounty Killa, Culture, Burning Spear and other reggae and dancehall luminaries. The sound system that plays at One Love Thursdays is called Dohty Family and they have been in operation for 16 years .

“We do gigs all over east Africa including Mombassa and Zanzibar. Gramps Morgan was our special guest here for our 15th anniversary,” DJ Cessy, the owner/manager told The Sunday Gleaner.

One of the members in our party is New York-based reggae artiste, DJ Rippa, who hails from Guy’s Hill in St. Catherine. At one point he was chased across New York as a Barack Obama look-alike, but Rippa now has waist-length dreadlocks and no longer looks like Obama. When word spread that a Jamaican artiste was in the house, the calls turned to screams for him to take to do two songs. This was not a part of Rippa’s plan, but the ladies made it clear that he would not be allowed to leave without blessing them with a song.

Once he was onstage with the mic, it was pure magic. When he flashed his dreadlocks from left to right and then left again, it was pandemonium in the reggae party, as if a celestial flash of lightning had energised the club. He performed two of his songs, Light of an Angel and Know me. “I was in total shock as I was not scheduled to perform, let alone to get this mad love,” Rippa later confessed.

Buddah told us that Morgan Heritage, Alaine, Luciano, Konshens and others will always have a ready audience in Kenya.

While it appears that some of the younger revellers smoke marijuana, it is not a prominent feature, as it is still illegal on the books. Visitors are advised to proceed with caution. Drinks are dirt cheap and Guinness is a popular import. The vast majority of Kenyans who are out at clubs, buy drinks with mobile money from their phones as the country has become virtually cashless.

A most unusual observation at K1 was the over-supply of stunning, nicely dressed, polite ladies. It was later explained to me that many of these ladies are out seeking husbands. To marry a lady, a suitor is duty bound by tradition to offer a dowry, which is gifts of cows and cash to the family of the bride to offset the loss of their child. Men who are unable to offer a dowry are simply not eligible for marriage unless they offer free labor to the intended father in law for a few years. “And if for any reason the marriage does not work, the downry has to be returned to the family of the groom,” Eric, a Kenyan confirmed.

It is of interest to know that while American citizens must pay fees to secure Kenyan visas, there is no visa requirement for Jamaican citizens. As we left the party at 4 a.m., hundreds of revellers were still on the dance floor, inhaling a fresh infusion of reggae to satisfy their musical souls.

entertainment@gleanerjm.com