Latest news with #FredrikLerneryd
Toronto Sun
11 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Toronto Sun
Honkytonk Kenya: Africa's home of country music
Published Jul 28, 2025 • 3 minute read "Sheriff Knight" leads the line-dance at the International Cowboy and Cowgirls Day in Nairobi Photo by Fredrik Lerneryd / AFP Nairobi (AFP) — The party is in Kenya, but the vibe is distinctly Americana: a sea of cowboy hats and boots with a soundtrack of whisky-soaked tales about heartbreak and good ol' boys. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account Kenya has become the unlikely home of a growing country music scene, possibly the biggest in Africa, as testified by the thousands line-dancing in a field in the capital Nairobi this weekend for International Cowboys and Cowgirls Day. The festival crowd went wild for the king of the local country scene, 'Sir Elvis' Otieno, as his deep baritone belted out classics like 'Take Me Home, Country Roads' mixed with newer hits like 'Down to the Honkytonk'. Sir Elvis's parents named him after another musical monarch who died a few months before he was born in 1977, and then raised him on a diet of country legends like Jim Reeves and Alan Jackson. 'When I started out it was a very tiny genre' in Kenya, he told AFP at the festival. 'It's a dream come true to see a crowd like this today.' Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Sir Elvis is the biggest star of the Kenyan country scene. (Fredrik Lerneryd/AFP) Photo by Fredrik Lerneryd / AFP There are links, he said, to local traditions, particularly the story-telling music of the Kikuyu tribe known as Mugithi. 'Kikuyu folk music has the same kind of language, they draw from each other quite a bit,' said Sir Elvis. 'It's really crazy — so many thousands of miles apart, but the messaging is the same.' – 'Life, love, hate, forgiveness' – Anne Anene, 26, still remembers the song that turned her into a country music fan: Dolly Parton's 'Do I Ever Cross Your Mind?'. 'Her songs always speak to me because they always have deep messages, and they usually tell a story of what I go through,' said Anene, a customer service representative for a health insurance firm. Kenya's country scene has grown in the last decade thanks to live gigs and the popularity of the outfits. (Fredrik Lerneryd/AFP) Photo by Fredrik Lerneryd / AFP 'I've always hoped to go to Texas or Nashville one day,' she added. 'I'd like to visit the ranches, I like horse riding, I like the ranch kind of life — the quiet, the calm.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The clothes are also a big part of the appeal. The festival was organized by Reja Manyeki, who runs a clothing and events company called Cowboys and Cowgirls. It was still pretty niche when he opened in 2018 but 'now people love country music. It touches all corners (of society). 'We do cowboy-themed events, birthdays, weddings, end-of-year parties… Now everyone comes, even schools.' Big farming and Christian communities also make Kenya fertile ground for country and gospel music. First to perform at the festival was Samson Maombe who's picked up millions of streams for his Swahili-language takes on Christian country tunes. But for 'King George' Gustavo, lead MC of the festival, it's the tales of everyday life that keep him hooked and ensures he listens to Alan Jackson 'every single day'. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Shared traditions of farming, Christianity and links to local folk music help explain country's popularity in Kenya. (Fredrik Lerneryd/AFP) Photo by Fredrik Lerneryd / AFP 'The lyrics speak to life, love, hate, forgiveness, cheating, drinking…' he said. 'You identify with that, and then obviously there's a bit of dancing.' Anene, the Dolly Parton fan, says country music is also an escape. 'In this world full of confusion, full of drama, country music is the only thing that makes sense to me. It has made me find peace.' Love concerts, but can't make it to the venue? Stream live shows and events from your couch with VEEPS, a music-first streaming service now operating in Canada. Click here for an introductory offer of 30% off. Explore upcoming concerts and the extensive archive of past performances. Canada Editorial Cartoons Sunshine Girls Relationships Editorials
eNCA
20-07-2025
- Sport
- eNCA
Lesotho's jockeys saddle up for mountain horse racing
MASERU - Swathed in vibrant woollen blankets against the biting winter chill, jockeys -- some no more than boys -- thundered down a dusty track carved between the undulating hills of the tiny kingdom of Lesotho. Spectators lining the ridges cheered on the riders as their horses sprinted down one of Africa's highest tracks, more than 2,200 metres (7,200 feet) above sea level. Horse racing in Lesotho, a country ringed by South Africa, is not just a sport; it is a cultural carnival where wagers are the real blood sport. AFP | Fredrik Lerneryd This weekend's edition in the village of Semonkong in central Lesotho carried extra weight; it was the premium fixture of the season and timed to mark King Letsie III's birthday. Preparations started before the crowd arrived, with the horses, also wrapped in blankets and balaclavas to keep warm, walked to the arena in song and dance, then brushed and fitted with weather-worn saddles for their races. Being 'focused' For many jockeys the track is a rare escape. AFP | Fredrik Lerneryd The country of around 2.3 million people ranks among the world's poorest, its rich mineral wealth overshadowed by sky-high youth unemployment and a troubling rate of suicide. The textile-dependent economy faces further gloom, with fresh uncertainty following tariffs announced by the administration of US President Donald Trump, who earlier this year mocked Lesotho as a place "nobody has ever heard of". The unspoken rule is that you have to forget all your problems or you will fall, jockey Tsaenh Masosa told AFP. "You have to be focused," said the 21-year-old hotel employee, layered in white, pink and blue jackets. Races stretch between 800 and 1,200 metres across a rugged mountain terrain that tests both the rider and horse. AFP | Fredrik Lerneryd Winners pocket up to 1,500 loti ($85) per race, a significant payday in Lesotho, where more than 36 percent of the population lives on less than $2 a day, according to the World Bank. At the trackside, most bets are simple showdowns -- punters backing one horse to outrun another, rather than the overall race winner. There are no tickets or betting slips, just fistfuls of cash, tense stares and quick payouts as money changes hands the moment one horse edges out another at the finish line. Horses over football AFP | Fredrik Lerneryd Horses first arrived in Lesotho with European settlers in the 19th century, and over generations, crossbreeding gave rise to the sturdy Basotho pony -- mid-sized, tough and known for its endurance. These ponies, along with cross-breeds and thoroughbreds from neighbouring South Africa, now make up the racing stock. But beyond the track, horses remain part of daily life. In the mountains, they are still used to herd sheep and goats, or to reach remote villages where no roads go. AFP | Fredrik Lerneryd That deep connection runs through the culture. "All the people from Semonkong prefer horse racing to football," said 39-year-old maintenance worker Andreas Motlatsi Mojaje. On the dusty oval, Masosa is still chasing his first win. He has raced seven times, coming closest with a second-place finish, but that has not dulled his hunger.
eNCA
07-06-2025
- Health
- eNCA
Kenya NGO saves turtles from nets, plastic and rising tides
WATAMU - A small charity on the Kenyan coast has become vital to the region's majestic turtle population, saving thousands from poachers, fishermen's nets and ever-worsening plastic pollution. On the beach of the seaside town of Watamu, it takes four men to heave the huge Loggerhead sea turtle into the back of a car. She has just been saved from a fishing tackle and will be taken to a nearby clinic to be checked for injuries, then weighed, tagged and released back into the sea. A Kenyan NGO, Local Ocean Conservation (LOC), has been doing this work for almost three decades and has carried out some 24,000 rescues. "Every time I release a turtle, it's a really great joy for me. My motivation gets stronger and stronger," said Fikiri Kiponda, who has been part of LOC's 20-odd staff for 16 years. LOC began life in 1997 as a group of volunteers who hated seeing the creatures being eaten or dying in nets. Turtles are still poached for their shells, meat and oil. AFP | Fredrik Lerneryd But through the charity's awareness campaigns in schools and villages, "perceptions have significantly changed", said Kiponda. LOC, which relies mostly on donations, compensates fishermen for bringing them injured turtles. More than 1,000 fishermen participate in the scheme and mostly do so for the sake of conservation, the charity emphasises, since the reward does not offset the hours of lost labour. - Floating turtles - At the NGO's nearby clinic, health coordinator Lameck Maitha, 34, says turtles are often treated for broken bones and tumours caused by a disease called Fibropapillomatosis. AFP | Fredrik Lerneryd One current in-patient is Safari, a young Olive Ridley turtle around 15 years old -- turtles can live beyond 100 -- transported by plane from further up the coast. She arrived in a dire state, barely alive and with a bone protruding from her flipper, which ultimately had to be amputated -- likely the result of fighting to free herself from a fisherman's net. Safari has been recovering well and the clinic hopes she can return to the sea. Other frequent tasks include removing barnacles that embed themselves in shells and flippers, weakening their host. But a growing danger is plastic pollution. AFP | Fredrik Lerneryd If a turtle eats plastic, it can create a blockage that in turn creates gas, making the turtle float and unable to dive. In these cases, the clinic gives the turtle laxatives to clear out its system. "We are seeing more and more floating turtles because the ocean has so much plastic," said Maitha. - Survivors - LOC also works to protect 50 to 100 nesting sites, threatened by rising sea levels. AFP | Fredrik Lerneryd Turtles travel far and wide but always lay their eggs on the beach where they were born, and Watamu is one of the most popular spots. Every three or four years, they produce hundreds of eggs, laid during multiple sessions over several months, that hatch after around 60 days. The charity often relocates eggs that have been laid too close to the sea. Marine biologist Joey Ngunu, LOC's technical manager, always calls the first to appear Kevin. "And once Kevin comes out, the rest follow," he said with a smile, describing the slow, clumsy procession to the water, preferably at night to avoid predators as much as possible. AFP | Fredrik Lerneryd
