The runaway granny who opened doors for women

Long before she began singing opera professionally, Rhoda Ondeng Wilhelmsen had dreamed of creating her indigenous Kenyan opera and placing her notorious grandmother Nyanga at the centre of her storyline.

According to her reflection on Nyanga: Runaway Grandmother, Rhoda first got the idea for her opera as a little girl. She used to love sitting in her granny’s small grass-thatched hut in the hilly village of Nyahera (Kisumu) and listen to Nyanga’s awe-inspiring story of how she ran away from local village life to join the missionaries and a radically different style of life.

Nyanga, the granny, was also a charismatic singer and storyteller who, despite her declining years, inspired Rhoda to develop similar skills. Included among them was the incentive to create Kenya’s first fully-staged indigenous opera, which is the production that had its world premiere this past weekend at Kenya National Theatre.

Technically, Nyanga is not the very first Kenya opera. That honour goes to Ondieki the Fisherman composed by Francis Chandler, Rhoda’s high school English teacher. At age 83 and Rhoda’s request, Chandler was the composer who took her granny’s story and composed the music and the libretto (lyrics) for Nyanga: Runaway Grandmother.

But that was just the beginning. Nearly half a century has passed since Rhoda was first inspired by her grandmother’s courage and radical willingness to open her heart and mind to a whole new way of thinking and living. 

Much has gone into creating a production involving nearly 40 singers, a 40-member orchestra, a team of dancers, a troupe of ten Kibera school children, and guest performers from Norway, Germany, Uganda, the US and UK.

Determination and grace

Rhoda directed the first iteration of the show late in 2020. But even between then and the premiere night last week, the opera morphed into a full-scaled extravaganza, complete with exquisite voices, costuming, sound, sets, and lighting.

While remaining the show’s Executive Director and CEO of Baraka Opera Trust, Rhoda handed over the artistic director’s baton to Dr Julisa Rowe. The former Daystar University drama teacher, who had previously directed productions, handled this monumental musical and theatrical event with deft determination and grace. 

Rowe was assisted by Mike James, the former Starehe Boys music teacher, who served not only as of the show’s executive producer but also as the musician who adapted and re-arranged Chandler’s orchestration to fit more effectively into the Kenyan context. At the same time, Ciru James served as the opera’s vocal coach, while Levy Wataka conducted an orchestra that featured everyone from the Nairobi String Quartet and first violinist David Ralek to a range of overseas guest musicians who had flown in just to be part of Rhoda’s opera. Meanwhile, the indigenous instrumentalists served as a counter-balance with their nyatiti, orutu, litunga, and ohangla drums.

Leap of faith 

One of the features of Nyanga that was also beautifully balanced was the contrast between pre-colonial Kenyan life with its cohesive village culture and the arrival of Western missionaries with their Bible and promise of everlasting life.

That promise of life eternal and conquest over death through Jesus Christ convinced Nyanga (Lyndie Shinyega) apparently to run away from home and join the Christians.

Her attraction to the young Kenyan missionary Joel (Caleb Wachira) made her flight even more understandable.

But it was probably a combination of factors that propelled Rhoda’s granny to take that great leap of faith away from the past into an unknown future.

Either way, Nyanga is Rhoda’s tribute to and commemorating the grandmother she describes as a runaway but who, after the intermission and Act 2, went back to her dad (Anthony Mwangi), the village’s wise medicine man, to ask for his blessing. She wants to marry Joel and become a Christian, so it’s a big ask for her dad. 

Ultimately, he gives his blessing to Nyanga and Joel, but there is little doubt there’s ambivalence.

Otherwise, there would have been many more young men and women who would have followed Nyanga right there and then. 

Nyanga’s return and reconciliation didn’t come instantaneously. But for Rhoda, her granny’s fateful decision is the central reason she and many other women and girls from her place have also gone to school and followed in Nyanga’s wake.