Evolutions, Transformations and Trends in Kalenjin Traditional Songs

ABSTRACT Since the production of the earliest Kalenjin traditional albums in the 1920s, the community’s traditional songs have evolved and transformed. This article traces this historical process by considering how these songs developed from folk songs performed during Kambaget (sports competitions) and from the earliest compositions of Bekyibei arap Mosonik, Kipchamba arap Tapotuk and their contemporaries, to the modern-day Kalenjin popular hits. The article documents the earliest recordings of Kalenjin music tracks as well as the bands, and traces the legacies of Kipchamba’s Koilong’et Band from the artists of 1940s and those of the later decades through to the younger generations of the 1990s, 2000s and today. This is done in order to determine the zones of contact as well as departures from prototypical and popular Kalenjin traditional songs. Taking the 1990s liberation of the airwaves as focus, this essay analyses the extraordinary variety and complexity of “The Oldies” and compares these to contemporary artistic products that have recycled aspects of this historical canon.