Catalogue       Group                                          A side/B side                                                        Language

Number

Ndicu 7        Rwengo Brothers                 Mary Mama/Thi-Ikuuo Na Mugoto

Produced and performed by the band led by John Ndicu, a Kikuyu artist who also recorded for Mercury. This dates, I think, from the early 1980s.

According to Popular Music Censorship in Africa by Michael Drewett and Martin Cloonan, Ndichu fell foul of the Kenyan authorities with a later song, Nonginya Turiote (We Must Be Consumed by the Hot Sunshine). It described poverty and unemployment as threats to the survival of ordinary people. Considered by the censors to be “the voice of discouragement” it was banned in December, 1987.

The label, “Grandma Wagakunga” is named after one of Ndichu’s biggest hits, a hymn of praise to his grandmother who raised him after his parents had died.