Ochieng Kabaselle’s Unequivocal Musical Messages: The Dominance of Benga Music and its Successive Growth in Kenya Against Intercultural Communication

Abstract

Benga music occupies an important position in Kenya’s popular cultural history as a medium of entertainment, cultural expression and social communication. Although scholarship has examined its evolution, limited attention has been devoted to individual Benga pioneers as cultural and intercultural communicators, particularly Ochieng Kabaselle. This study examined Kabaselle’s musical communication and its continuity within contemporary Luo music. Specifically, it analyzed the social and cultural meanings communicated through selected Kabaselle songs; examined cultural hybridity and media circulation in their intercultural reach and explored the continuity of Kabaselle’s musical communication in contemporary Luo music. The study was anchored in Media Ecology Theory and Cultural Hybridity Theory, which addressed objectives one, two, and three. A qualitative research approach employing textual and content analysis was used to examine four purposively selected songs: Achi Maria, Sije, Zainabu and Wuora Ogolla Adoyo. The findings indicated that Kabaselle’s compositions communicated social and cultural meanings relating to love, family relations, responsibility, morality, identity and collective memory through storytelling, metaphor, symbolism and culturally embedded narratives. The study further established that the integration of Luo linguistic and narrative traditions with Congolese Rhumba influences produced a hybrid musical expression capable of circulating across cultural boundaries. Moreover, the transitions expanded opportunities for the preservation and recirculation of Benga music across generations. Communicative conventions associated with earlier Benga, remained discernible within contemporary Luo Benga, Ohangla and Afro-fusion. The study concluded that Kabaselle’s music constituted an important cultural and communicative resource whose significance persists through adaptation, media circulation and intercultural exchange.