NIATIA TWIKITE from KIMIIRI [REMASTERED] by JOSEPH KAMARU

Nı ̃atı ̃a Twı ̃kı ̃te? ‘What have we done?’ makes the assumption that Kı ̃rı ̃nyaga peoples haveerred in some way and as a collective punishment, ‘the devil has sworn to see that the houseof Mu ̃mbi perishes from the face of the earth.’ By means of biblical allusion, the struggle ismapped in the terms of the story of the fall of man to imply that the opposition seeks to leadthe (Gı ̃ku ̃yu ̃) nation astray, away from the tranquil and prosperity of the Garden of Eden. Initself, the Garden of Eden calls to mind the land question which was one of the key issues indispute during the anti-colonial struggle; it is still an explosive question to date. The loss of(eternal) life that Kamaru ̃ alludes to in the song has a religious meaning at one level givenhis Christian background but at another level it carries a more mundane one related to thedeaths experienced during the 1992, 1994 and 1997 violence that saw the displacement ofmany Gı ̃ku ̃yu ̃ land owners in Molo district of the Rift Valley province.

Joseph Kamaru (1939 – 2018)
Little known outside of Africa, Joseph Kamaru has been influencing the music scene in his homeland of Kenya since 1967. While his earliest hits, " Celina", "Thina wa Kamaru" were rhythmic dance tunes, recorded with his sister.
Kamaru was a Kenyan Benga and gospel musician and political activist, an an icon, a hero, and a leading Kikuyu musician.