Music from Uganda

The African country of Uganda has had a turbulent history in the 20th century, and music has been an integral part of the nation's development. The first music in Uganda were bands playing songs from the US, Europe, Congo and Kenya. Many of the artist were from Congo. In the 80's Jimmy Katumba and his band The Ebonies were known for their Ugandan music. In the late 1980s and 1990s many popular Ugandan songs come from the album Born in Africa, which was produced by Philly Lutaaya with the exile community in Sweden. The songs on this album remain very popular in Uganda, the musicians remain among the best-known Ugandan musicians. In the 1990s a similar album was produced in Sweden by a supergroup of Ugandan musicians called Big Five. Also during the 90s, Ugandan discovers Geoffrey Oreyama, who has recorded several critically acclaimed albums on Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios|Real World label. Lately new artists have brought across cultural music that blends western styles with EastAfrican rhythms these include multi-instrumentalist. Recently, the Shropshire Music Foundation has been working with Ugandan children in war-torn communities to use music as a unifying factor.

Kampala is the center for Ugandan music, especially in the area of Wandegeya, which is the home of kadongo kamu. The most renowned musician of this style is Bernard Kabanda. There have been many contributors of Kadongo Kamu which means one guitar as the leading instrument used to be one guitar over the years. A few of them are dead now and a few of them have switched on to play the latest tunes with more than one guitar and lots of other instruments. Kadongo Kamu never used to appeal to the young kids in the towns especially the learned ones as much as it did to the older people however it was always educaional and informative.

A new style of music has developed in East Africa in recent years called takeu which comes from the first letters of Tanzania. Utake includes elements of music of Tanzania|Tanzanian, music of Kenya and Ugandan music.