Local StoriesAugust 21, 2023

Check Out Esther Konkara’s Story

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Esther Konkara.

ESTHER KONKARA

Hi Esther, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers.
I am a 35-year-old Kenyan Country musician and autism advocate. Having been born and raised in the countryside, I developed a passion for country music early in life as I felt country music relates so well to most things in my life.

My country music career began in 2013 when I joined a country music band in Nairobi; later, I moved on to undertake a solo career. I have been singing in corporate events, churches, and institutions and have performed in different countries in Africa like Nigeria, Eswatini, and Uganda.

Being a mother to an autistic child, I became passionate about raising awareness and doing advocacy about kids living with special needs and I have been active on my social media and also media platforms doing advocacy. I play the Guitar too, which is quite rare in Africa, especially for women.

This has given me some advantages as I have been hosted on many media platforms. Furthermore, I am a youth mentor who loves speaking to young people in schools and churches and I also do music therapy voluntarily sometimes among the sick and vulnerable groups of people,

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It hasn’t been easy being a woman in a male-dominated field. When I took the solo path it was quite hard to convince clients to give me business. Our society is largely patriarchal and so there are many prejudices against women.

The other challenge has been balancing between family life and a music career; for women in music careers you have to miss out on some occasions due to family obligations and so you find that their male counterparts generally have more avenues to make money than us women.

Over the years, I can say that it’s been getting easier as the corporate world has been opening many doors for my music and it suits me well such that I don’t have to do gigs in clubs. Besides, am also a gospel musician in my vernacular language and the churches have been good clientele for me.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a full-time musician, specializing in country music. I’m known for doing music for noble causes like advocacy, mentorship, and even charitable causes.

Am most proud of singing for deeper reasons other than mere entertainment and making money. Recently, I have sung in two major events, The Diabetes Walk, an event held annually to raise money for kids living with Diabetes, and The African Summit which brought together delegates from many parts of Africa to discuss the plight of kids living with disabilities and their inclusivity in the education systems.

What sets me apart is being a mother with a special needs kid and using my voice and fame to advocate for many others on a similar journey but who are less advantaged.

Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
Covid-19 brought such a distraction to our performing arts industry and with the lockdowns and social gathering restrictions, we learned that performances don’t always have to be physical and so we engaged in virtual gigs.

That way we became passionate about promoting and growing our social media platforms and even generating revenues from them.

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