Paul Kafeero

Paul Job Kafeero (1970–2007), also known as Prince Paul Job Kafeero, Paulo Kafeero, and the Golden Boy of Africa, was the most famous singer and composer in the Ugandan Kadongo Kamu tradition. When he died, he was getting ready to celebrate 20 years of a successful music career. He has 21 albums with a total of 83 songs. Walumbe Zaaya, a fifteen-minute song about death in which no word is repeated, was a big hit for him in 1994. It put him on top of the Ugandan music scene. At the 1994 Cairo music festival, where thousands of African contestants were there, he won a gold medal from the Institute d'Etudes Theatreales for singing that song. Since then, people have called him the "Golden Boy of Africa." In 2003, he won a Pearl of Africa Music Award (PAM) for best Kadongo Kamu single for his hit song Dipo Naziggala, which makes fun of the way Ugandans drink. He won the PAM award for best Kadongo Kamu artist or group in both 2003 and 2004.

Background

Kafeero was born on July 12, 1970, in Kirembe, Nkokonjeru, Mukono District, to Vicencio Nanganga and Phiromera Nannozi. Kyaggwe is another name for this area. In 1990, when Kafeero was just starting to become famous, his mother died. In 2011, his father died.

Education

In 1977, Kafeero went to Nkokonjeru Demonstration Primary School for his first year of school. He then went to Ngogwe Baskerville Secondary School, which was four kilometers away, and walked there every day. His father left the family the same year he started school. Because his mother didn't like that he liked music, he went to stay with his sister Grace and her husband in the nearby village of Masaba. After his father left him, Grace's husband sometimes paid for his school fees. Kafeero didn't finish high school because he didn't have a safe way to pay for it. He made money by making bricks, growing beans, selling used clothes, and making clothes for other people. Kafeero's father stopped giving him money and didn't talk to him until he became famous.

Career in music

Kafeero liked music when he was a child in the village. He joined the elementary school choir, but he was kicked out because he was too quiet. When Kafeero found out that a neighbor in Masaba had a guitar, he started going over there often to learn how to play. His mother was very against him loving Kadongo Kamu because she was afraid he would waste his life on something pointless. He would use the stems and fibers from banana plants to make stringed instruments, which his mother would destroy. He eventually got together with his sister's son and put their money together to buy a four-stringed guitar from the neighbor who taught him how to play. He would stop working in bean gardens to listen to Radio Uganda's Kadongo Kamu show. It had stars like Dan Mugula, Fred Ssebatta, Christopher Ssebaduka, Fred Masagazi, and Matia Luyima, most of whom later worked with or for Kafeero.

When he was 16 and still living in Masaba village, he started his first band, the Pluto Boys, in 1987. In 1988, he went to Kampala to try to join a group of Kadongo Kamu. In 1989, he was singing with the Makula Guitar Singers with Livingstone Kasozi and Herman Basudde, who were also young stars. Kafeero wanted to be the leader of his own band. He formed Kabuladda Dramactors, which he dissolved to start Kulabako Guitar Singers in 1992 with his sister Nantongo, his wife Nasuuna Mariam, Ssekate Charles, Nasanga, Bukko Brite, Namata Immaculate, Kizigo Sarah, Musange, and Kizito Misambwa. He was in charge of the Kulabako Guitar Singers until he died.

When Muvubuka Munange, his first album, came out in 1989, it made Kafeero a well-known name. This immediate hit was followed by: Abatunda eby’Okulya in 1990; Ekijjankunene III in 1991; Temukyagasa in 1992; Kiwenenya Amazina in 1993; Ebintu by’Omuko in 1993; Tulera Bilerya in 1993; Walumbe Zaaya in 1994; Obutamatira in 1995; Ekyali Ekintu Kyange in 1996; Gwe Musika in 1996; Dunia Weraba in 1997; Eduma ly’Embaga in 1997; Omwana w’Omuzungu in 1998; Baabo Bagambe in 1999; Nantabulirirwa in 2000; Kampala mu Kooti in 2001; Dippo Naziggala in 2003; Bamutalira in 2005; Olulimi Lwange in 2005; and Nsonda Nnya released posthumously in 2007.

Even though he was still very young, he was able to join the likes of Kasozi, Jimmy Katumba, and Elly Wamala as a big name in Kadongo Kamu. In the tradition of Ssebadukka and Basudde, Kafeero remained loyal to the essentials of Kadongo Kamu. After most Kadongo Kamu stars died young, he fought Fred Ssebatta for the title of king of modern Kadongo Kamu. At the height of his competition with Ssebatta, who had called himself "Lord," he said, "I am a prince."

Colleagues looked up to him because Ugandans liked his music because it was original and had a message. Because he knows a lot about ancient and rich Luganda, his songs about social issues are mature and new. His lyrics are often funny and full of unexpected contrasts. They are often set to rhythms that are typical of Kiganda. He built his story songs around the everyday problems of regular people and wove the traditions and lessons of his culture into his long epics.

Kafeero was different from other Kadongo Kamu musicians because he wrote, sang, played guitar, and put on a show with his music. Keeping himself thin and smartly dressed, he successfully maintained the image of the young boy who had appeared on the musical scene at age eighteen. Most Ugandans loved the star because of his beautiful voice, charming stage presence, and colorful costumes, as well as the story-based songs he wrote in his native Luganda language. His song Olulimi Lwange is loved all over Buganda and Uganda. It talks about how people all over the world embrace their own culture. He wrote this song to teach young people how to make their futures better.

When he died in Kampala's Mulago Hospital just before he turned 37, Ugandans and people from other countries all over the world showed how much they respected him. In the weeks after his death, stories about his life and death doubled the sales of Bukedde, Uganda's only Luganda daily newspaper. Bukedde's sales were the highest since it started in 1994, beating the top English daily paper, New Vision. There were a lot of people at his funeral mass at Christ the King Church and his viewing at the National Theatre in Kampala. His songs were played almost exclusively for weeks at stores that sold music and on the radio. Police and the military tried, but failed, to keep the crowds and traffic from getting out of hand at his village funeral in Masaba. On May 19, 2007, he was buried with his guitar a few yards downhill from his first tiny, three-room cement house. Officials from both the Ugandan government and the Buganda Kingdom were there.

Life at home

Just as Kafeero established himself as an artist dedicated to the traditions of Kadongo Kamu, his lyrics and way of life showed that he was a man rooted in the family and community traditions of the Buganda Kingdom. Even though he spoke English well, he only wrote and sang in Luganda, which is the language of the Baganda people and is mostly spoken in Buganda (central Uganda). The song Olulimi Lwange shows how much he loves and cares about his language. His songs show how he sees the world and how proud he is of his heritage. Kafeero, like many traditional Ugandan men, had deep roots in his village. He insisted that his children be raised there, even though he had a busy business life in Kampala, the capital city. When he was sixteen, he worked odd jobs for three years and saved the money. In 1987, he bought a piece of land in Masaba and built a thatched house on it. He paid for this land with money from the government of Milton Obote because, even though Yoweri Museveni overthrew the government of Tito Okello in 1986, he didn't replace Obote's money until February 1987.

When he was 18, Kafeero had his first child. Simon Peter Kafeero was born in 1989 in Mbiko, Mukono District, where his mother lived. When he was eight years old, he moved to Masaba to live in his father's first cement house. Nagawa Elizabeth, his second child, was born to Nambi Josephine in Masaba in 1990. Kafeero Benedict Dube was born to the couple in 1994. Thomas Kafeero Schwarzenegger's third child, Nasuuna Miriam, was born in Nkokonjeru in 1992. Miriam was a Kulabako singer with whom he lived while in the city. As soon as he died, other women claimed that their children were his. This man was very proud of his children and didn't mind having them outside of marriage, so the fact that he didn't claim them is probably more of a sign of his fame than of his fertility. But he only seems to have paid attention to the kids whose mothers gave them to him to raise. Grace Mukanga and Robinah Namatovu, two of his wives who did not have children, were well known in the city. People are still interested in Kafeero's marriage to American Kathryn Barrett-Gaines, which is remembered in his song Omwana w'Omuzungu, which he wrote before he met her, and in their duet Baabo Bagambe. Barrett-Gaines still lives with his sons in the house they shared outside of Kampala. She has translated and published all of his work in a book called One Little Guitar: The Words of Paul Job Kafeero. This book was published by Fountain Publishers in Uganda. In keeping with his traditional beliefs, he only married one woman, Nasuuna Mariam, in a traditional ceremony. He did not marry anyone legally.