Dance and song at Gusii gatherings

No Gusii gathering was complete without song and dance. Weddings, initiation feasts, harvest thanksgivings and the welcoming of honoured visitors all had their repertoires: call-and-response singing led by a skilled song-leader, rhythmic dances performed in lines and circles, and the deep pulse of the obokano — the great bowl lyre — underneath.

Praise poetry sat within the singing: skilled performers improvised verses honouring hosts, ancestors, warriors and, today, politicians and congregations. The archival photograph of a dance in Kisii on this page shows the formation and energy that participants still recognise.

Contemporary Gusii music keeps the tradition alive in new forms — church choirs adapted the call-and-response style, benga musicians of the Gusii highlands achieved national fame, and community cultural groups still perform the traditional repertoire at festivals. Our events programme records and hosts these performances.