Kenya

Simon Kihara Macharia (Musaimo)

Kikuyu musician Musaimo performs on the Ngoma Stage.

Simon Kihara Macharia (Musaimo) takes the stage with Kombo Chokwe Burns.

Photo by Josh Weilepp, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution

Kikuyu musician Musaimo performs on the Ngoma Stage.

Photo by Walter Larrimore, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution

For most of the 1980s, Simon Kihara Macharia a.k.a. Musaimo could be heard in music stores around Kenya, as well as on radio. Musaimo grew up in Kangema, Muranga County, just north of Nairobi, and was inspired by music legends from Kenya, Tanzania, and Congo. He is known as a Kikuyu musician with a recording repertoire of nearly two hundred songs.

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