Somi: An East African Midwestern songstress
Friday February 16 2018
Somi: Her album Petite Afrique honours the dignity of a longstanding African migrant community in Harlem. PHOTO | COURTESY
Ugandan-American singer songwriter Laura Kabasomi Kakoma, 36, who goes by the stage name Somi, was still excited from her recent win at the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People Image Awards in January, when she travelled “home” and performed at the Tribe Hotel in Nairobi and at the annual Sauti za Busara Festival in Zanzibar last week.
She won the Outstanding Jazz Album award for her album Petite Afrique released in 2017.
On her official website, Somi describes herself as “an East African Midwestern girl who loves family, poetry, and freedom.” She is known for wearing vibrant African prints both on and off stage, and sporting long, wavy dreadlocks.
She was visiting her mother when she learnt her album had been nominated and was too excited to think about winning until when she was on a flight to Los Angeles for the awards.
She said considering the current political talk on the issue of immigrants in the US, it was a great honour to get nominated. But even better was the opportunity to accept the award and speak in a room of fellow nominees whom she respects. It also happened on the weekend that the US marks Dr Martin Luther King’s birthday and celebrates NAACP’s legacy of social justice and cultural excellence.
Her album Petite Afrique honours the dignity of a longstanding African migrant community in Harlem, New York City and its quiet erasure in the face of gentrification, xenophobia and Islamophobia. The performance of this music, therefore, has become a safe space for her to let those who feel marginalised by the current political climate know that she will continue voicing their humanity.
Somi lived in Harlem and has seen it evolve over the years, with the profile of the residents changing to people of affluence, displacing the communities who have lived there for generations and who through their many cultures have contributed to the Black global creativity.
Somi currently lives in South Africa and working on a modern jazz opera on the life and legacy of Mirima Makeba.
Twelve years ago, she had met and worked with Hugh Masekela, whom she calls Baba Hugh Masekela, after his performance at Brooklyn’s Prospect Park in New York city. She gave him some of her music and he promised to listen to it. He did and ultimately became her mentor. She described him as a beloved elder, generous genius of a man with a giant heart.
Her performance at the Tribe Hotel in Nairobi was in collaboration with Eric Wainaina. She sang music from her last two albums accompanied by her band that flew in from New York.
She said the crew was happy to be back after their last performance in Kenya in 2007. They were hosted by Wainaina and performed at his venue.
Last week’s performance at the Tribe Hotel was also the first for 2018, after which the band performed in Zanzibar and flew back for a tour of the US.
Somi says she was influenced by a wide range of artists and genres but insists that she gets inspired to tell stories about the nuance of people of African descent. She says she’s thankful to have a platform to contribute to the vast archive of African history.
To young East African musicians who dream of making it on the world platform for the fame and fortune, she says listen to your heart, take risks, and do the work.