CHIKKA - Music Custodian

Custodian Conversations: Guta Wakuma Chimsa on The Sound That Connects Us, CHIKKA and the Search for a New East African Identity

Jordan Abiola BoladeOctober 20, 2026October 23, 2026040 mins

After years of researching musical traditions across East Africa, Ethiopian producer and creative director Guta Wakuma Chimsa is developing CHIKKA, an ambitious cultural project that draws on the region’s shared rhythms, instruments and histories. In Custodian Conversations with Music Custodian, he reflects on the discoveries that shaped its sound, the people who guided its creation…

Jua’s “Eshi” Finds Pan-African Connection Without Asking Africa to Sound the Same

AdminSeptember 15, 2026September 19, 2026014 mins

Bringing together Maa, Swahili, Sesotho and Amharic alongside musical traditions stretching from Kenya and Ethiopia to Lesotho, Mozambique and North Africa, on Eshi, Jua’s latest CHIKKA experiment asks a more interesting question about Pan-African music: what if connection does not require sameness? Africa has spent generations being described through its differences. Different languages. Different borders….

CHIKKA: Searching For The Rhythm That Connects East Africa

AdminJune 5, 2026June 5, 202607 mins

What if East Africa has been singing the same song all along? Not the same lyrics. Not the same instruments. Not even the same languages. But the same pulse. That question sits at the heart of CHIKKA, an ambitious musical and cultural project conceived by Ethiopian producer, researcher and creative director Guta Wakuma Chimsa. What…

Tag: CHIKKA

Custodian Conversations: Guta Wakuma Chimsa on The Sound That Connects Us, CHIKKA and the Search for a New East African Identity

Jua’s “Eshi” Finds Pan-African Connection Without Asking Africa to Sound the Same

CHIKKA: Searching For The Rhythm That Connects East Africa

musiccustodian