The resurgence of vinyl records in recent years presage it of bright days. Research and markets analysts predict global vinyl market value at $ 3.4 billion by 2032.
A figure unsurprisingly for James Rugami, owner of a vinyl store at the Kenyatta market in Nairobi for decades.
“When the cassettes appeared and the manufacturers started producing decks with two discs to double the cassette, it was the descent into hell for musicians. With vinyl records, we are sure to deal with real, that’s why I decided to stick to it. I did not opt for cassettes, even less for CDs and I stayed in vinyl”, he explains.
In the small store “Jimmy’s” James Rugami, who sells singles and 33 laps, has been fighting for more than thirty years to preserve African cultural heritage. This, by maintaining a rare collection of old vinyls mainly composed of classic African rhythms.
For him, the preservation of old vinyls is particularly important in African countries which have experienced conflicts, where historical collections may have been lost or abandoned.
“All African records are difficult to find, with the exception of those of South Africa. In South Africa, there were many producers and pressing machines which, I still worked until late. But today, other music, such as Congolese music, because of the conflicts that have raged in the country for many years, as in Somalia, Ethiopia and Instabost has become an additional burden, so they are thrown “ he says.
Rugami, who clings to vinyls, reproaches the young generation his lack of interest in traditional African music.
He declares: “Very few people know that there were, even in immemorial times, music sung during funerals and marriages, most of which were not recorded, but we have a large number of recordings of the time. Do not forget that vinyl was not the first to be recorded. In 1887, someone invented what we call the gramophone today. As a gum, a material that breaks like cookies..
A paradise for collectors
An acculturation encouraged by new listening modes, most Kenyan record stores that have closed, replaced by streaming and hackled music services.
However, music lovers around the world continue to go to this prosperous little record store, frozen in time, and pay the high price to acquire some of the rarest African music pieces.
For Ben Townsend, an Australian vinyl record collector, the Rugami store is a time trip.
“Jimmy’s is really like a temporal capsule that brings us back to Benga music, when music was made to tell the experiences lived by people during these extraordinary periods of Kenya history, and Jimmy’s store, when we come, we always have the impression of walking in history with all the music but also the stories that Jimmy tells” he said.
Ben McCabe, passionate about records from the United Kingdom says: “Compared to Spotify, which is the other way I use to listen to music, if you find a record, you come back to the good old days to listen to an album, that is to say that you do not jump for tracks, you listen to what the artists wanted to do in their entirety, and I really like it. Whether it is a song that I don’t like a song And I really like this aspect of things. ”
According to a study carried out by Research and Markets, one of the largest market store stores in the world, The global vinyl disc market reached $ 1.8 billion in 2023.
This growth is accompanied by a resurgence of traditional African sounds, motivated by countries like Nigeria, Egypt and South Africa, where the rate of reviviscence of vinyl records is the highest.
