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Jamboka: Hera Oyomba By Otieno

“Mother,” she said, “teach me to remember.”

Music producers and instrumentalists study for its arrangement. It is a masterclass in Benga minimalism. HERA OYOMBA BY OTIENO JAMBOKA

By Otieno Jamboka

Hera took the pouch. Inside: a strand of white hair (she knew it was her own, plucked from her sleeping head last night), a molar from a goat (the chief’s daughter had lost it laughing at a cripple), and a crumpled piece of cloth that held no shadow at all. “Mother,” she said, “teach me to remember

Otieno Jamboka rarely gave interviews explaining the song. He preferred to let the Orutu speak. But in a rare 1994 interview with Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, he smiled and said: "Hera Oyomba? That song is not about a man. It is about the country. We love Kenya, but Kenya cheats us. We stay anyway." Inside: a strand of white hair (she knew