The crowd gathers at the busy intersection of City Hall Way and Moi Avenue, as the Makongeni Seventh-day Adventist Church Choir marches in a circle and sings songs, warning their audience about the dangers of AIDS.
The crowd gathers at the busy intersection of City Hall Way and Moi Avenue, as the Makongeni Seventh-day Adventist Church Choir marches in a circle and sings songs, warning their audience about the dangers of AIDS.
It’s 7 p.m. and downtown Nairobi is bustling as people hurry home from work. Here, opposite the Hilton Hotel, a group of 100 onlookers listen intently to the words of the Swahili song, “Dawa Ya Ukimwi,” or, “Medicine for AIDS.”
One week each month, every night from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m., the Makongeni Seventh-day Adventist Church Choir sings here. They entertain and educate the crowd about AIDS, selling tapes to raise money for their church building fund. Situated in a lower income part of Nairobi, the Makongeni Seventh-day Adventist church building has sat unfinished for two years. With only the framing and roof built, church members worship in an open-air environment. It is here on this street corner, another open-air venue, that Kenyan government officials discovered them and invited them to sing at official state functions.
A few months ago the choir sang at the State House, the official residence of Mwai Kibake, president of Kenya, during the launching of the presidential anti-AIDS campaign. On July 13 the choir sang at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport welcoming President Kibaki back from his trip to Mozambique. The choir was performing the Swahili song, “Anakuja Mwana Seremala,” or, “The Carpenter is Coming Soon.”
The president recognized the choir and asked June Ogolla, Makongeni choir director, to sing the song about AIDS they had sang previously at the State House. The song talks about AIDS affecting everyone, knowing no social borders. The song goes on to talk about God’s way being the only medicine to the scourge of AIDS. So moved was President Kibaki that he urged Kenyans to continue the fight against AIDS. “Others do not want to ponder these things, yet it is important that we take the issue seriously. Anyone can contract this disease.”
Ogolla wrote the words to the song, “Dawa Ya Ukimwi,” with the music supplied by Makwasa, a musician from Tanzania. The song was written in 2001 in preparation for their choir’s mission to educate the people of Nairobi against the dangers of AIDS. Ogolla stresses that the choir sings about AIDS because it affects everyone, even members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
