Snaps

The audiovisual artist Shaahin Peymani and his family share a long history of migration from Iran to Germany and back. Here he maps the route from his German grandmother’s migration diary alongside one of his own compositions.

A poetic encounter with the different family histories of poet Tanasgol Sabbah and bassist Reza Askari. Weaving together experience, memory, and narrative, this piece switches between languages, and allows uncertainty about what is said and what is imagined.

The audiovisual artist Shaahin Peymani and his family share a long history of migration from Iran to Germany and back. Here he maps the route from his German grandmother’s migration diary alongside one of his own compositions.

Kamwangi Njue traces the story of political (i.e. conscious) music in Kenya, drawing on his own biography. He asks: Can conscious music achieve the impact it seeks when it has to play in the same sphere as popular music made purely for entertainment?

Don’t believe the hype. Despite its reputation as a global city, Nairobi is a mostly chaotic, starkly unequal place, with the majority struggling to get by. Emma Nzioka’s photography captures this inequality, accentuated by musical selections by Kamwangi Njue.

Oscar Mizani is a rapper using Nairobi public transport as his stage. We take a ride with him as he spreads his message through the streets.

Different artists from Nairobi share their experiences of life in the city during the tumultuous election season of early 2022, and their thoughts on political and social messages in music.

Kenyan hip hop has gone through several phases. This mixtape tries as much as possible to identify them through their unifying act of Sheng poetics. These tracks observe, report, criticize, accuse, and protest. Together, they paint a conscious picture of Nairobi.