The instrument I transcribed this from is the "nyatiti" played by the Luo people along the shores of Lake Victoria. They wear bells on their ankles and thump the floor with big toe which has a ring on it. (info from Lucy Duran)

Bampas Juma Odinga (sometimes spelled Banpas Juma Odinga) was a Kenyan musician from the Luo community of Western Kenya. He is also known by the name Jacobo Oile, under which he performed traditional Luo music. Details of his early life are scarce, but as a Luo artist he likely hailed from Nyanza Province (the Luo heartland around Lake Victoria, especially Siaya County) where the Luo musical tradition is centered.

Odinga/Oile was active around the 1970s, a period when some Kenyan record labels sought to document local folk music. Notably, he recorded the song “Wajonya” and released it as a 45 RPM vinyl single, backed with the track “Kalipso Odipo,” on the Rainbow label. This single – “Wajonya” b/w “Kalipso Odipo” – is a rare example of a Luo folk recording on vinyl. The record is credited to “Wajonya – Banpas Juma Odinga,” indicating Odinga as the artist, and has been described by collectors as a “rhythmic Luo folk” piece with hand-clapping accompaniment. The Rainbow imprint (an A.I.T. label active in the 1970s) mostly released choir and community recordings, so Oile’s single stands out as a valuable document of traditional nyatiti music.

Bampas Juma Odinga (Jacobo Oile) – Biography and Musical Style

Biography

Bampas Juma Odinga (sometimes spelled Banpas Juma Odinga) was a Kenyan musician from the Luo community of Western Kenya. He is also known by the name Jacobo Oile, under which he performed traditional Luo music. Details of his early life are scarce, but as a Luo artist he likely hailed from Nyanza Province (the Luo heartland around Lake Victoria, especially Siaya County) where the Luo musical tradition is centered. Odinga/Oile was active around the 1970s, a period when some Kenyan record labels sought to document local folk music. Notably, he recorded the song “Wajonya” and released it as a 45 RPM vinyl single, backed with the track “Kalipso Odipo,” on the Rainbow label. This single – “Wajonya” b/w “Kalipso Odipo” – is a rare example of a Luo folk recording on vinyl. The record is credited to “Wajonya – Banpas Juma Odinga,” indicating Odinga as the artist, and has been described by collectors as a “rhythmic Luo folk” piece with hand-clapping accompaniment. The Rainbow imprint (an A.I.T. label active in the 1970s) mostly released choir and community recordings, so Oile’s single stands out as a valuable document of traditional nyatiti music in that era. Beyond this recording, little is published about Bampas Juma Odinga’s further musical career or later life, suggesting he was a local folk musician who garnered regional recognition but remained outside the mainstream pop industry. Nevertheless, through the “Wajonya” record he made a lasting contribution by capturing Luo traditional music on vinyl.

Musical Style and the Nyatiti Tradition

Jacobo Oile’s music was firmly rooted in Luo traditional style, centered on the nyatiti. The nyatiti is an eight-stringed lyre (a bowl-shaped yoke lute) native to the Luo people. Traditionally, a nyatiti player sings while plucking the strings and maintaining rhythm with a gara (metal ankle bells) and an oduong’o (iron ring on the toe that strikes the instrument). This allows a solo performer to produce melody, bass, and percussion simultaneously – essentially “one person, like a whole band,” as one nyatiti artist observed. Oile’s performances of “Wajonya” and “Kalipso Odipo” would have featured these elements: lead vocals in the Dholuo language accompanied by the nyatiti’s driving pentatonic melodies, with rhythmic foot-tapping and hand-clapping as heard on the record. His song “Wajonya” is described as a “Luo folk hand clapper,” implying a lively call-and-response feel with percussive claps accenting the beat. This style is characteristic of nyatiti songs, which often function as storytelling or praise songs – sometimes naming community members or patrons. (For instance, Oile’s B-side title “Kalipso Odipo” seems to reference the word Calypso and a person named Odipo, hinting at a playful fusion or a tribute to someone named Odipo in a calypso-like groove.)

Oile’s music belongs to the nyatiti tradition that has been passed down through generations of Luo troubadours. Earlier masters of the nyatiti such as Otuoma Ogolo, Mbui Jachūr, and Ogola Opot had made this instrument popular in Luo-land prior to and during Oile’s time. In nyatiti performances, the structure typically features repetitive, cyclical riffs and improvised verses praising heroes, commenting on social events, or conveying proverbial wisdom. Bampas Juma Odinga (Jacobo Oile) likely learned and performed in this oral tradition, which emphasizes both musical skill and storytelling. His playing would have showcased the rapid plucked picking technique typical of nyatiti players – a style of playing that later heavily influenced Kenyan guitarists. In fact, the modern benga genre developed in the 1960s/70s borrowed from nyatiti playing; Luo electric guitarists would “pick single notes rapidly in a fashion akin to playing a nyatiti” when creating the signature benga guitar sound. Thus, Oile’s music represents an important bridge between traditional Luo folk music and the contemporary genres it inspired. His use of the nyatiti’s pulsating rhythms and melodic phrasing exemplifies the roots of Luo music that later shaped Kenya’s popular music scene.