Kadongo Kamu is a music genre native to
Uganda
Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...
and is the oldest mainstream music genre in the country. The word "kadongo kamu" is a term in the
Ganda language that means "one little guitar".
History
Perhaps the first well-known artist of the genre was
Fred Masagazi
Fred Masagazi (1937–2009) was a Ugandan Afrojazz musician. He was the first Ugandan artist to have his song played on the BBC, with his song "Kolazizo", in 1963.
Music
Masagazi started his music career in 1955 as a singer in a Congolese b ...
in the 60's. Masagazi is considered by many to be the father of kadongo kamu. His brand of educative singing won him many fans and he was one of the few musicians who was involved with Uganda's independence in 1962.
Elly Wamala was another of the founders. Elly Wamala is credited with the invention of this genre but abandoned it because it was constantly and easily played informally by people he considered uneducated. It is common to find kadongo kamu artists staged on the streets of Kampala (Uganda's Capital City) entertaining a micro concert for a small fee usually raised by the crowd. The grandfather of this genre though is widely regarded to be Christopher Ssebaduka who last performed in 1996. Fred Masagazi and Eclas Kawalya are credited for having popularized it by actively recording in this genre in the 1960s and early 1970s. They were followed by a number of musicians who stayed true to the style and sound of the music. In the mid to late 1970s, during the dark days of Idi Amin, this genre was kept alive by Peterson Mutebi. Although many song themes revolve around suffering and outrage, the original artists of this genre sang about love and often praised women in recordings that hardly exceeded three and a half minutes.
Herman Basudde was a very popular kadongo kamu musician in the 80's and 90's.
Dan Mugula is one of the few surviving pioneers of the genre.
Fred Sebatta and
Paulo Kafeero made their mark in the 90's.
Over the past decade, there have been other musicians, but they have been overshadowed by pop musicians in the new bustling
pop music
Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom.S. Frith, W. Straw, and J. Street, eds, ''iarchive:cambridgecompani00frit, The Cambridge Companion to Pop ...
scene. Today, the genre is still marginalized, but the music is loved by cultural loyalists in the
Buganda
Buganda is a Bantu peoples, Bantu kingdom within Uganda. The kingdom of the Baganda, Baganda people, Buganda is the largest of the List of current non-sovereign African monarchs, traditional kingdoms in present-day East Africa, consisting of Ug ...
region, as can be seen with current musicians like
Fred Sebaale and
Mathias Walukagga, who are still enjoying music success.
See also
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Baganda Music
Baganda music is a music culture developed by the people of Uganda with many features that distinguish African music from other world music traditions. Parts of this musical tradition have been extensively researched and well-documented, with text ...
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Music of Uganda
In Africa, Uganda is now ranked the 3rd when it comes to music, comedy, nightlife and entertainment at large. Ugandan musicians have embraced digital music platforms such as Spotify, iTunes and DJ Erycom - a local music promotion platform.
The ...
Notable musicians
Paulo Kafeero
Herman Basudde
References
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{{Genres of African popular music
Music of Uganda