Kisumu
Publisher: Oba Kunta Octopus
Published: 2018
Place of publication: Amazon.com
Number of pages: 565
ISBN-13: 9781717724519
Description: Kisumu. 1970s. Otis Dundos is a shy and awkward kid. He is just another wee-wee bare foot, horny-toed boy growing up with his dusty feet and bare chest having fun with dangerous adventures. In the ‘80s, then, as a man-boy he tries fit in. He is more an archetype than a flesh-and-blood person. He tries to observe and remember, now, as a young adult, to commit the memories to music in a lively and extensive fashion. Performing with Nico Opija and KDF in Kondele gives him the significant beginning and a journey into music.  As guitar student hitting all the required notes, Otis is the haunted genius. But KDF in Kondele is a training ground for demonology. He uncovers far more than he bargained for. He is desperate to leave Kondele dingy clubs to reach for the future. He seems to realize he is not accomplished until he performs in Nairobi. But the cold, cold heart Nairobi’s early ‘80s nefarious pop culture schools him into becoming a more spoiled artist. Returning to Kisumu with a new band, accompanied by queasy bandmates in the ranks of nefarious ne’er-do-wells, he spirals down into the heart of Kisumu's darkness, encountering a suppressed history of greed, envy, revenge, and exploitation. A tour of Europe makes him a megastar. But he still comes back as a normal Kisumuan working for the next day. His band, Victoria, maintains a rough timeline of 1980 through 1990 and serve to wind down the hysteria somewhat, and makes a fairly good case for an extraordinary achievement backmasking in heavy Urban Benga music. Kisumu is always a slobbering, panting, salivating hotbed of anticipation and drooling expectancy. Kisumu is as much a town of problems as it is a town of drama, subdivision of fantasy. Drama? Dreams? Did he change Kisumu musically? That’s not the issue. The issue is for all his efforts, guitarist Otis Dundos always had bigger problems here in Kisumu like everbody else. Providing a catharsis through comedy, lancing the lakeside city’s moral boil with satire, Kisumu tells the life ordinary men and women trying to live the Kenyan African dream. It’s is a story of humble beginning, awkward and misdirected fumbling and miraculous accomplishment.