Labdi Ommes is an orutu player who sings and performs Luo traditional music.
Orutu is a one-stringed vertical fiddle originated in the pre-colonial societies of Western Kenya, especially amongst the Luo community.
Although women were banned from playing the instrument, Ommes is taking pride in breaking this old age traditional and making money out of it.
Having specialized in Ohangla Jazz and Africal folk music, the instrument has seen her gone places and worked with among others the National Geographic (NatGeo).
Here is her story as told by WoK.
Starting out
In an interview with Nation, Ommes notes that she started singing immediately after completing high school.
The mulit-talented artist was often told that her voice was African and she needed an instrument to compliment it.
“My uncle, who is also a musician, further advised me to get a traditional instrument because those are the kind that gets you opportunities,” she said.
After contemplating, Ommes settled on orutu as her signature traditional instruments.
“I fell in love with the orutu when I joined Kenyatta University to study Fine Arts. I was told that women are not allowed to play it but to me, that sounded like a good reason to play it,” she stated.
Although she was not able to get a teacher, she taught herself how to play the instrument.
However, with women being banned from playing the instrument, she had a hard time performing in public at the beginning.
“I had not thought about the backlash and was still wondering why women were not allowed to play. There was a time I was playing and someone shouted at me during a show and I had to stop performing
“My grandfather also asked me if I was sure I wanted to play the orutu. It has not been as bad as I expected but I still meet people who believe in gender roles. Men and women also had specific roles in traditional music,” Ommes said.
Ommes defended women participation in such restricted performances, arguing that the equipment is played in other communities without restrictions.
For instance, in some Bantu communities such as the Agikuyu, Aembu and Ameru, the equipment is known as Wandindi and varies in size.
“In Ethiopia, it is called the masenqo. It is bigger but it is the same concept. You still use the bow to produce sound
“I have three orutus. I like the pink one because it is shorter and has a different timbre. The longer the orutu, the further the placement of your fingers have to be while playing,” she explained.
The orutu is made using a hollow wooden box, commonly made from a hallowed out tree trunk, and an animal skin that stretches over one side.
The string is made from a variety of re-purposed materials including bicycle brake cables, while the part of the bow used to play is made up of sisal fibre tied across a wooden handle.
The challenges they face include lack of music stores that sell or repair traditional instruments.
“If my orutu breaks today, I am done. My orutu is made out of recycled plastic and was crafted by my music teacher from Kenyatta University. I wish that one day I can buy an orutu bow in a music shop in Nairobi,” she said.
Where she has performed and her projects
She has worked with a number of institutions including Goethe Institute.
Internationally, Ommes has performed in concerts and festivals such as the Oslo Afro Arts Festival, Bergen International Music Festival, Noise on the Nile, Nyege Nyege in Uganda and GMA Addis Ababa.
In 2022, she also worked in a composer lab project by Nature, Environment, Wildlife Filmmaking (NEWF) in Durban, South Africa.
Elsewhere, she was selected alongside three other performers from Mozambique, Morocco, and South Africa for a fellowship that taught them how to compose music for films.
She said that was in a bid to diversify the soundscapes of African wildlife documentaries.
Ommes and the three was among the first people of African descent to compose music for the National Geographic Society.
They composed music for NatGeo’s recent documentary, Nkashi: Race for the Okavango, which premiered in March 2023 in Gaborone, Botswana.
“Before Nkashi, we had scored for other wildlife and cultural films such as Reformed by Samson Moyo and many others. When we were performing the score from Reformed in Austria, the NatGeo team liked what we did and asked us to write for their film that will be based in Botswana
“They took us to the Okavango Delta to experience the nature of the place and the people so that we can write music that depicts that. Then we got to perform what we came up with in Washington DC,” she said.
Ommes noted that music has become her main source of income.
“What you are paid depends on the duration of the project and the scope of the work. Some can take three months and others are dependent on how fast you can get a project done. Live shows can pay more than Ksh 500,000 but you also have to pay your band members
“It also depends on the kind of rates that you have. I usually take on many different projects. That is how I am able to survive. If I stuck only to performing, I would be broke,” she explained.
