Winyo’s fanciful flight

By Austine Okande

Dressed in attire resplendent of an African heritage, Shiphton Onyango, commonly known as Winyo, walks royally as he ushers us in at the Godown Arts Centre in Nairobi for the interview.

Having worked with artists such as Makadem and Olith Ratego on joint albums, Winyo is set to release his debut solo album, Benga Blues, a 13-track album in January. He produced the album at his recording studio, Katebul Music.

That Winyo, meaning ‘bird’ in Dholuo, is a befitting name becomes obvious when you hear this man sing.

The masterful vocalist describes his style of music as ‘Benga Blues’, ‘Afro Fusion’, ‘Jazz Benga’ and ‘Folk Benga is an accomplished artist in his ow’n rights.

 “My songs seek to redress a myriad of social issues ranging from the predicament of homeless children, to courtship,” he says as he sips a rare blend of black coffee.

Earlier in the year Winyo and his band toured Brazil for the Top Fun List Rolex Protégé Competition, where they emerged fourth out of 600 musicians who had participated in the competition drawn from different parts of the world.

With the likes of Gilberto Gil, a renowned artistes and Grammy award winner, the competition was cut-throat.

With his band, he has travelled to London, Romania, Italy, Germany Russia, and South Africa where they have earned a massive following.

In his tours, Winyo says, he has had rare occasion to share stages with some of the worlds celebrated musicians such as Papa Wemba, Freshly Ground, Fela Kuti and Maurice Kirya.

The 30 year’s old gifted performer is not only recognised for his prowess in the musical industry but also in the film industry as he is an established scriptwriter, movie director and an actor.

Fruit Salad, a TV drama formerly aired on local TV, was directed and the script-written by Winyo.

He started singing way back in primary school in his home village Oyugis in Homa Bay County, a region applauded as the cradle of Luo Benga music.

“I used to listen to my father’s music assortment, the likes of George Ramogi Ochieng’ the Godfather of Benga and Kabeselleh Ochieng’ regarded as Kenyan version of Franco Luambo Makiadi.”, he says.

However his mother did not warm up to the idea of him pursuing music as a profession, largely because at the time, musicians led a pitiable life.

Lack of identity

“Most local artistes lack identity when it comes to identifying the type of music they wish to produce. South Africa is celebrated for their Kwaito, West Africa, North Africa... all have a particular genre of music associated to them but East African as a region we lack a unifying genre of music that can be associated with the region.” he adds,

Winyo was picked as the only East African artiste to grace the three-week workshop in South Africa organised by the Global Music Academy to develop a blueprint that will be used to develop curriculum for East African Benga Music to be for training in different institution s around the globe.

 “I do music for all time, that the next generation will listen to, just like the zilopendwa artistes such as Daudi Kabaka, Les Wanyika that we still listen to” he says.