Iddi Achieng

Iddi is a ​​Kenyan performing artist (singer, actress and social scientist) born and raised in Nairobi.  She strongly believes in the use of art as a powerful tool for social transformation.  Iddi has worked professionally in many artistic capacities in Kenya but also regionally and internationally from 1994 to today.  Iddi holds a HSC (Head of State Commendation) Merit Award from the Kenyan Head of State in recognition for using her artistic podium for development

Her music is based on people's way of life. She often uses the tagline, “My Heritage, My Pride” to bring attention and action to issues of development, the girl child, gender parity, environmental preservation, nationhood and a deeper understanding and appreciation of culture and world peace. As a musician, Iddi has represented Kenya around the world in music concerts, festivals and tours.

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Iddi's Statement for the Exhibition

My mother, my mama, Margaret Omuga Nyar Dando, who we fondly referred to as "ma," was my rock.  I felt rudderless after she passed, and after the burial when everyone left it was eerily empty… quiet… too still.  Since it’s not in my culture to grieve collectively beyond the burial, and also given the COVID pandemic that required social distancing, I had to tackle the grief on my own.  Then, my mum started showing up in my dreams.  

At first it was scary and in my dream I wondered what was going on.  My mum said to me, "Baraka (her name for me since birth), I come in peace.” Then I realised she was whole and healthy, so different to how I had always known her in my life as she always had used crutches and a wheelchair as a result of bad accidents.  She was coming in peace and she was at peace.  This experience, this dream, gave me inner peace and comfort that she indeed was in a better place.

She shows up every now and again and so I actually have been wondering if she brought me this community, this project, this chance to create and exhibit something different.  She must have!  I have gotten out of my own way and out of my comfort zone to explore this space and work with my fellow artists who I haven’t worked with before.  Together we are culturally and artistically tackling the experience of "grief."

My work for this exhibition is about feelings, a forest of feelings that changes and grows organically and doesn't always need words or explanations to exist and to be understood.  My work is about the elements of grief, looking to music and to the happy that exists along with the sad. To me this is very powerful.  I want to thank Mary Ann Burris for allowing me to use her poem, “Rendered Speechless” in one of my pieces.  Thank you.

I hope to carry this unending experience into supporting others in my community as a kind of artistic therapist.  In my community we never have creative minds coming together to discuss and connect around such a complex process; it’s usually left to individuals to figure out, but why?  

Mum, it is over but it will never be the same…

"Med mana Nindo gi kwe Mama nyar Dando"

"Continue resting in peace my Ma... Daughter of Dando"

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