By Nyang’au Araka
A while ago, I came across a secular song that in a special way blends nostalgia, romance, and the evolution of communication.
Omwanchi One Jane (Jane, My Lover), is a heart-rending ballad by Gusii’s legendary John Ariisi O’Sababu, who died in the 1990s.
Composed a few years into the artist’s demise, the song became a time when letters carried the weight of longing and the current forms of communication including the landline telephone was unavailable to many.
Revered as one of Gusii’s finest musical poets of the 1980s and ’90s, O’Sababu left us with a song that depicts the pain that accompanied love in Gusii and beyond.
The song begins with a chance meeting at Ikonge, a market located in Nyamira County where fate introduced John to Jane.
They were not alone; two friends bore witness to the spark that flickered between them.
The next day (he must have skipped some details), they exchanged postal box numbers as Jane, with a smile that promised something tender, asked John to write first.
He did. And then he waited. He waited at the post office. Again. And again.
Each visit was a ritual of hope. One bounce after another turned to a heartbreak.
The reply never came, and so he wrote again, pouring his soul into another letter.
Silence was all he received as the post office became a sanctuary of unanswered prayers.
In the song, John wonders: Did Jane abandon the relationship? Should he move on?
In his confusion, he confesses: he cannot forget her. She will always be his lover.
As his heart aches, John pleads to Jane to reply, so he stops bouncing at the post office.
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The song is sung in a captivating voice, the instruments enthralling like a heartbeat racing through the corridors of memory.
Omwanchi One Jane is a time pill of love in the analog age, and may not make sense to the generation that arrived when their parents and siblings held electronic gadgets like cellphones in their hands.
Today, we swipe, tap, and send emojis that flutter across screens in milliseconds.
This contrasts with years gone when love was slower, for it was handwritten, sealed, and entrusted to strangers to deliver it to the intended heart.
Those days, a reply could take weeks, or never come at all.
And when it didn’t, the pain was too much. It lingered and carved itself into songs, like this classic.
One wonders, if John Ariisi O’Sababu were alive today, in this era of instant messaging and blue ticks, what would he say?
Would he have slid into Jane’s DMs or sent her a voice note?
Or would he still have chosen the poetry of a letter, knowing that some feelings deserve the weight of paper and ink?
https://www.youtube.com/@sababuariisiosababu
More than a song
Omwanchi One Jane passes for a monument to the lovers who wrote, waited, and sometimes never met again. Their fantasy world dimmed.
It reminds us that while technology has made connection easier, it has also made longing less poetic.
And maybe, just maybe, we’ve lost something in the speed.
So this weekend, as you scroll through your messages or wait for a reply, remember John. Remember Jane.
And remember that once, love was a letter, and every bounce at the post office was a heartbreak set to music.
-Araka is a journalist.