Espen Sorensen’s story is probably like any child growing up in an African village. Born in Denmark in 1980, he moved with his parents, who worked for an international development agency, to a small village in southern Zambia when he was just six years old.
“It was during the economic crisis in Zambia, and I was going to a public school where teachers were often on strike,” he recalls.
“My parents lived a very simple life,” he adds. “There was no electricity, we had to drive to fetch water in barrels, and I learned how to plough using an ox.”
When he was fifteen, his parents moved to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and because of his experience speaking Bantu languages in Zambia, he was able to quickly learn Swahili. He also took an interest in music, and formed a teenage band called Ziggy.
“We played with Jimi Hendrix but I was also influenced by Kwasa Kwasa from Kanda Bongman, and Yvonne Chaka Chaka from South Africa.”
This period also coincided with the rise of the Tanzanian urban music genre Bongo Flavour. Sorensen was among the artists at Bongo Records studios where songs were produced and then played on a show on Clouds FM radio station called Bongo Flavour.
Bongo pioneer Juma Nature was the first to be called mzungu kesha (crazy white man) in recognition of his ability to write songs in Swahili.
Sorensen has used the name Mzungu Kitcha throughout his career, although he raises eyebrows whenever he introduces himself.
“If some people don’t know me, they laugh at me. When I’m in Europe, people say, ‘Wow! What does that mean!’ and they can’t pronounce the name. At least, in East Africa, people remember the name.”
These experiences contributed to his new album, Fade Away, which he describes as a “coming of age” project, three years after moving to Denmark.
“I still consider Tanzania my home, my band since 2010 has been made up of Tanzanians, and Nairobi is my second home,” he said while in Kenya last week.
“I feel very inspired when I visit Nairobi and listen to a song like the recent hit Anguka Nayo. Music has to have a social context for it to resonate with people. If the song resonates with people, then the music has served its purpose,” he explains.
His new album deals in part with his experiences as a European influenced by the African cultural environment.
“It’s also about accepting that your past achievements and successes are fading and coming to terms with that, not fighting it,” he says.
Vocally, it is very diverse, with some arrangements featuring vocals and guitar or oud, and in other songs like Fall In love, Mzungu Kichaa brings his own joyful touch to Bongo Flavour.
He says the opening guitar riff of the album’s title track echoes the Eagles’ classic soft rock song “Hotel California.”
“I was sitting with an acoustic guitar on the train in Hamburg during a tour of Germany and this melody came to mind. My guitarist played the high harmonies, I played the low ones, then we went into the studio and added live drums, live bass and live keys.”
He then contacted the famous Danish singer-songwriter Wafande, who is of French Congolese descent.
“His father was a huge fan of mine, and when we played in Copenhagen, he would make sure we had the ogali and the nyama,” he says with a smile.
“When Wafande came to Dar es Salaam, I hosted him and we listened to a lot of songs and he knew immediately that this was the one.”
“Uhuru,” an acoustic piece about the global struggle for self-liberation, is a song he wrote and played in his live shows, but was recorded for the first time, and “Follow Your Heart,” written one late night in his studios in Dar es Salaam, is a comforting song for anyone going through a tough time.
His memories are of his time in London in the early 2000s when he was studying at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London Town. During that time, Mzungu Kesha learned to play rumba on the guitar from Kawili Matemanwa, the guitarist for the legendary Remi Ongala band, while Kenyan musicians gave him tips on the game of benga.
“It’s a reflection of London, a cosmopolitan city that embraces African culture. You can hear the African guitar, all the African elements in the song because it’s a mix of what I experienced in London,” he says.
“I’m not trying to make hit music; I’m trying to make music that can stand the test of time,” he said in his farewell.
The album Fade Away is available to stream on all major digital music platforms.