Phllda Njau is an American-born Kenyan whose passion for the arts gave birth to the famous Paa ya Paa Art Centre. A seasoned pianist, she is the picture of how one can immerse herself in another culture and bring out the best of both worlds. Phillda Njau’s life journey started as a country girl born in the First World who was transported to the Third World. Her unusual first name is derived from that of her paternal grandfather, Phillip.

Though born and bred in a different culture, she eventually found her soul in Africa. This deeply spiritual, reflective, passionate and humble, yet gifted and determined woman found her footing a long way from her original home in the United States of America with the help of her Tanzanian father-in-law, who taught her Kiswahili. It is from him that she acquired wisdom and settled down to the simplicity and reality of her new home. Njau came to actualise her triple talents – singing, photography and art – in an African village. Like many rural folk, Njau’s journey to the city started at the foot of Africa’s highest mountain, Kilimanjaro, where she ran Kibo Art Gallery, a joint venture with her soul mate and husband Elimo Njau.

In 1975, the couple arrived in Nairobi across the border from Tanzania to found Paa ya Paa Gallery a name that has connotations of soaring high. Originally from Plainfield, New Jersey, the three-dimensional artist was born Phillda Imogene Ragland on 9 September 1939. She describes her formative years as “an interesting beginning”. She
reminisces about taking piano classes at age seven, from a strict American mzungu (white) teacher who shouted at and scolded students who had not completed their assignments. Like many African American children, Njau’s childhood was a struggle; her father worked for the teacher to pay for her piano classes. Her mother, an ardent church music lover and radio listener, thought her little Phillda was special. She encouraged her to nurture her singing talent which bloomed, thanks to her magic with the piano keys.

“Children pick up what they see parents do,” says Njau, who had an ear for musical notes and melodies. At the age of nine, a church in a neighbouring town learned of her talent. Her mother brought her the news that the Baptist Church needed a pianist, and with parental support, she began playing the piano in a lively “full-of-fire church with spirited, charismatic folk.” Considering her sombre Presbyterian background, this was quite a contrast. Her musical involvement complemented the classical lessons she was getting from her piano tutors. Her formal piano classes ended three years later. During high school, Njau taught beginners’ music lessons to the children of family friends. She loved all types of music and would listen to pop songs on the radio and gospel music in church. She joined the school choir, danced and belted out rhythms of jazz musicians, including blues recordings. She admired musicians who could improvise.

Njau is a graduate of Plainfield High School. Upon graduation, the Plainfield Parents Teachers’ Association and the College Women’s Club awarded her scholarships, enabling her to continue her education. She completed her studies in New Upsala College, East Orange, New Jersey, with a major in English and Spanish. Columbia University’s Department of Film, Radio and Television then awarded her a study grant to pursue a master’s degree in filmmaking. Njau recalls that she always seemed to be juggling two jobs. However, she had a passion to write and later moved to New York City and on completing her master’s, embarked on pursing this ambition.

She was to learn, however, that “nothing is that straightforward” when she joined McGraw Hill Company, a renowned publishing house. She thought she would automatically be able to satisfy her heart’s desire. Instead, she was assigned to the accounting department, where she was stuck “composing letters for delinquent clients.” She lived alone in an apartment and had to make ends meet. “I knew this wasn’t the right job for me,” Njau recalls. After all, in May 1953, at barely 14, she appeared on Lincoln Mercury News after coming first in an essay-writing contest. This won her a prize of $50 savings’ bond for her essay titled ‘Why is it necessary for my dad to work safely?’ Njau was also the first black woman to receive the Gazette Girl’s Award from Upsala College’s student newspaper, making her accounting job feel out of place. While on a visit to her parents, an elderly Presbyterian friend of her mother asked Njau what she was doing. Her response was instant: “I work for McGraw Hill Company, but I’m looking for something else to do. I want to become a writer.”

The conversation marked the end of her nine-month stint in a drab accounting job. She applied for a job in the Communications Department of the United Presbyterian Church’s US Headquarters and was employed. Archie Crouch, a white missionary, put her in charge of photography and she rose to become Production Manager for the filmstrips and photography section in the Commission on Ecumenical Missions and Relations, Overseas epartment.
At age 29, Njau’s dream assignment came when she was sent out to Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela – the first black woman photographer in the church. It was at the height of the civil rights movement and in 1969, Njau’s photograph was featured in Ebony magazine. Njau credits photography with bringing a new dimension to her life.

Then she met a handsome Tanzanian, Elimo Njau. She says humorously: “I met him on slides. I consider my life as being a three-part story which consists of music, photography and art.” The latter is what she and Elimo Njau, founders of Paa ya Paa Art Centre, are renowned for. On her last overseas assignment to East Africa, Njau finally came face to face with Elimo, an East African mural painter and lecturer. He invited her to join the East African International Arts Programme which sponsored two art centres, one in Tanzania and the other, Paa ya Paa Art Gallery in Nairobi, Kenya. Elimo puts his arm over her shoulders and remarks of his wife: “She is my queen. My parents loved.

Phillda so much. She lived in the rural area of Tanzania and raised our children using Kiswahili. She respected my parents a lot and my dad treated her just like his own daughter.” The Njaus undoubtedly make a wonderful couple. Says Elimo: “Phillda has a PhD in ‘Loyalty to God and Africa’ bestowed on her by my parents.” She travels to Tanzania often and Elimo teases that his parents respect his wife much more than they do him. “She spoke Kiswahili in the village and taught her three children in the language as it was used by the majority” In Tanzania, Njau would conduct prayers in the Kilimanjaro village with their workers and narrate their life stories in Kiswahili. Her father-in-law had inherited an old German harmonium on which she played familiar English church hymns, but now sang them in her newly acquired language. This was not too difficult because the hymns were universal.

Her Lutheran father-in-law had composed a few religious songs which found their way into the church hymn books. Njau says of him: “He was a learned old man, unlike most of his peers, who sought the pleasure of the local pombe (brew). For this reason, she adds, “he appeared somewhat lonely and enjoyed my company. I asked naïve questions and picked his brain about memories of his family.” Njau notes that her father-in-law taught her Kiswahili through a subject he knew best: the Bible. Njau lost herself in living and adapting to her surroundings, which she found fascinating. Her father did not comprehend her passion, as most foreigners only knew that Africa was a jungle. She says, “I really looked at the things around me in a deep way, the plants and animals; the simple foods which were tasty and nutritious.” She made do with what she had to work with and accepted her new reality.

She spoke Kiswahili in the village and taught her three children in the language as it was used by the majority. “I was in the minority, so I lived the way the life around me demanded… seeing things afresh and being inspired like never before!” Babu’s (grandpa’s) old harmonium kept her piano fingers from growing rusty. “We had three of our own children and the village children to practise it on, and I had an indigenous art place to inspire new creativity.” Njau also hosted the outside world, which came to see the art work. She could not have asked for more at that time of her life.

“The only time she spoke English was when visitors came or when Elimo, who was running the art gallery in Nairobi, came home with us. When I spoke to visitors in English, my little kids, who followed me all over the place, clinging to my khanga (a multipurpose African floor-length cloth wrap many women wear around the house), would ask: “Kwa nini unazungumza na sisi kwenye lugha za mgeni?” (“Why are you speaking to us in a foreign language)?” They did not know that their mother was from a foreign land. The three Njau children are all grown up now; Elimo and his wife are the proud grandparents of two. In 1997, a fire gutted the lone building and residential area of Paa ya Paa Art Centre. To help clear out trees and bushes, musicians, artists and poets were invited and, with American Embassy
funding, the centre was rebuilt. Exhibitions for sale were put up for viewing and poets performed spoken word. The activities gave birth to so much more.

The couple were accommodated by their neighbours for six months. It was an opportunity for Njau to fall back on her singing talent. Thankfully, the workers’ house did not burn, and while building of the temporary house was going on, she founded Bush Bach, an African classical group consisting of two drummers, a flautist, two percussionists, two double bass players and herself as a pianist. Coincidentally, German TV was doing a documentary on ‘How to Tune a Piano’ at the Kenya Conservatoire of Music in Nairobi. They asked Paa ya Paa if they would allow them to film there
during the week, and it bore fruit as the German Embassy team was fascinated by the Bush Bach group. They invited the group to entertain their guests who were leaving for Germany. The performance, held at the Fairview Hotel in 1997, fetched the musicians a handsome pay, signalling the potential to grow the team.

The group continued to perform. By the 2012 United Nations Day, Bush Bach had performed for the American Embassy for six years in a row. Njau continued to play the piano. At the time of writing this story, she had a regular assignment to play background piano, which she simply loves as the job is straightforward with no pressure. Njau thinks she will always play music and write. Everyone tells her she should write, and she knows she should author a book as she is very detailed in the art of storytelling.

Children inspire her with their freshness and spontaneity which, she says, gives her strength. She loves dancing and baking cupcakes. Njau wishes young women would be authentic in their dressing, style and mannerisms. She summarises what she has given back – spiritually, physically and materially – to humanity in the last seven decades she has been on the earth. They include developing themed programmes at Paa ya Paa in early 2000 and promoting music days, especially the Daniel Pearl Music Day: Harmony for Humanity from 2004 to 2011 at the invitation of the
Daniel Pearl Foundation in New York.

In 1987, she organised a historical art exhibition at Paa ya Paa for “Women in Art in East Africa”. Thirty women artists from East Africa displayed more than 80 works of art. Always with children at heart, she worked with them on the slopes of Kilimanjaro at Kibo Arts Gallery in the “1979 Year of the Child” to develop indigenous songs and dance to celebrate their creativity.

WORDS OF WISDOM

“Don’t neglect what is inside you as a child. Take good note of what others think or say you excel in.”
“It’s not where you start, rather that you end well.”
“Never throw away your learning journey, no matter how insignificant.”
“Don’t be intimidated by competition; stay determined to make it.”