Shem Tube

Shem Tube brought Kenya’s traditional sounds before global listeners by teaming with guitarist-vocalist Justo Osala Omufila and Fanta-bottle percussionist Enos Okola. Under the name Abana Ba Nasery—the Nursery Boys—the trio spent the 1960s and 1970s championing luhya omitubo, a form built on interlocking rhythms from two guitars and a soda bottle plus three-part vocal harmonies. Although Tube and Omufila launched an electric benga outfit called Les Bunyore during the 1980s, the original members reconvened with Okola in 1991 to revive Abana Ba Nasery. More than a decade after their last recording, they cut the album Go Ahead in England, supported by British folk musicians.