Kenya's Hit Record: Jambo Bwana

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 8 February 2017

⏱️ 9 minutes

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Summary

The story of a 1980s Kenyan pop song which became an unlikely global hit. The song, Jambo Bwana was recorded by the veteran Kenyan band, Them Mushrooms, and first proved to be a huge hit amongst tourists on the Kenyan coast. We hear from members of Them Mushrooms, Teddy Kalanda Harrison, and his brother Billy Sarro Harrison, who recorded the song in February 1980 Photo: Teddy Kalanda Harrison and the Kenyan band Them Mushrooms presented with their platinum record for Jambo Bwana (Teddy Kalanda Harrison)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to the witness podcast from the BBC World Service with me Alex Last with moments of history told by the people who were there.
0:09.4	And today we head off to the warmth of the East African coast for a story from the 1980s,
0:16.3	a story of tourists, beaches and a very catchy song from Kenya that became an unlikely global hit. Jambu, Jambu, Jambu Buana,
0:36.2	A Barigani, Missouri,
0:40.0	Santa, Waguen,
0:41.0	Wixeni, Makari Bishwa. Nāhākākāhākāhāhākāhāhākāhākunāhāhāhāhāhāhāhāhāhāhāhāhāhāhāhāhāhāhāhāhāhāhāhāhāhāhāhāhāhāhāhāhāhāhāhāhāhāhāhāhāāhāhāhāhāhāāhāhāhā Akuna Matata. That's the way it went.
0:53.4	The tourists were just crazy about this song.
0:55.4	Jumbo poona,
0:58.6	a barri-gano, sui sunna.
1:02.0	It went silver, then gold, then it went platinum. That came as a complete surprise to me.
1:08.0	Teddy Kalanda Harrison, Saxophonist and guitarist who along with other members of his
1:17.1	family and some friends created the band Them Mushrooms in 1970s Monbasasa, the Port City on Kenya's Indian Ocean Coast, which is surrounded
1:27.2	by tropical white sandy beaches.
1:30.6	These days, Teddy lives in Nairobi, and he met me in a club and restaurant with his younger brother and bass player Billy Saro Harrison
1:38.9	Though Teddy the eldest of the family does most of the talking.
1:44.0	When I was in university in 1972 and then my daddy passed away.
1:50.8	So I came back and I'm the eldest in the family.
1:54.0	So I had to take over now running of the family.
1:57.0	They offered me a job at the Bambouri cement factory in Mombasa.
2:01.0	And I started the group, the the mushrooms playing in clubs and wedding ceremonies during the weekends
2:07.0	because me and him were working with the cement factory the other guys were mostly all of them were still in school.
2:14.6	But being in a band was hardly considered to be a respectable job in 1970s Kenya.
	...

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