Ayub Ogada

by Steve McMullen
Ayub Ogadas life is a prime demonstration of the wonders of cultural collision; the exposure to both traditional African and modern Western values provided a rich background on which he founded his unique musical talents. Ogada is one of the Luo people of Western Kenya, and he received his first exposure to Western culture early on. When he was six, his parents (also musicians), toured the college circuit in the U.S. Ogada then returned to Kenya with his parents, and was educated in a Catholic school, then an English boarding school. After finishing school, he played for several years in a Kenyan group called African Heritage Band, which fused traditional music with the sounds of rock and soul that Ogada and bandmates heard regularly on the radio. In 1986, he decided to take his talents abroad. Armed with his nyatiti (a lyre-like stringed instrument), he went to the U.K., and played on the streets for money. After the better part of a year, he was approached and asked to play at Peter Gabriels WOMAD festival. In 1993, he was invited to Gabriels Realworld Studios, where he recorded his first album, En Mane Kuoyo (Just Sand). He continues to tour extensively with WOMAD.