Nadina yoooo

In the late eighties and early nineties, Voice of Kenya did us a lot of good. Unforgettable and valuable good it did to us by broadcasting URTNA show. Back then the word choice was unheard of in regards to TV programming. Which is not a bad thing because today we can all sit together united in a discussion of the music we watched from URTNA show.

URTNA show informed us at an early stage of the great artistes we had from our continent such as Aurlus Mabele, Kanda Bongo Man, Papa Eyango, Papa Wemba, Tshala Muana (the Queen of Mutuashi), Yvonne Chaka Chaka ( I am burning up, I am in love with a DJ), Mbilia Bel, Tabu Ley (Mongali), Wenga Musica, Koffi Olomide, Oliver Ngoma (Adia), Kassav and many others.

Oh yes, there was also Mory Kante and his famous Yeke Yeke. We grew up appreciating our music unlike today where we listen to les of our own gifted artistes and have a choice of the foreign artist. It’s so rare to get a glimpse of Mbilia Bel on today’s TV music shows smoothly singing Nankei Nairobi…….Nairobi, Mombasa, Nakuru, Kisumu….Harambee…..

Soothing soulful music, with beautiful rhythmic moves.

Then she had this other fabulous track called Nadina that had some of its lines going like this…Nadina yoo Nadina yoo Nadina…tuombe Mungu Baba atuhurumie thambi zetu mama…tumsifu Mungu baba….I feel wistful listening to this track on Youtube I can see myself in my dad’s car as he drove to Muranga to take us to see my grandparents. Well he played this cassette; among certain other cassettes, all the time. It was a form of force majeure, no democracy in the car. And any other cassettes that played that rap sound were thrown out into the bin.

But I never forget the words of most of these artists. Life was good. Beautiful music. I know that many of you share these same memories with me.

Nostalgia at its finest form.

What happened to good old URTNA? Where is it? Who is watching it? And how can we access it?

I went to the URTNA site, must be honest, quite an awful site. Visually, it fails. It is such a pity that today’s channels and PAY-TV do not play some of these memorable tracks….Kanda Bongo Man’s Kwasa kwasa song, with his oversize trousers and hat…his music could have ended any tribal conflicts. The music did not give you an opportunity to be annoyed.

Maybe I need to find the one and only Fred Obachi Machoka…maybe DSTV should give him a show to take us back back back to those days in Nairobi, when we played cassettes, and filled our ears, souls and hearts with the sounds of lingala, sokouss, makossa, ndombolo……life was good even if it was only on though Voice of Kenya, URTNA and playing cassettes….