Jabulani Library

MUSIC LEGEND MOSES MATOVU KILLED IN KIBULI

September 24, 2026 - 02:15 PM Uganda Mourns as Music Legend Moses Matovu, Afrigo Band Founder, Killed in Kibuli Attack Uganda's music family is in mourning today after the death of Moses Matovu, the saxophonist, vocalist and founding father of Afrigo Band, whose horn lines and voice became the sound of a nation for nearly six decades. Matovu, 77, died early Thursday morning at Kibuli Hospital after he was attacked by unknown assailants at Kibuli Market Zone B in Makindye Division, Kampala. Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson Rachel Kawala confirmed that police at Kabalagala had registered a case of...

THE MISPLACED PRIORITIES OF GENERATIVE AI

September 22, 2026 - 04:02 PM They promised AI would fix the climate. They promised it would cure cancer. They promised an end to poverty. Heavy stuff. So what did Silicon Valley give us? A bot that writes rap songs about cat food. An app that turns your uncle into a Pixar character. Picture this: Aliens land on our burnt-up planet. They dig up a dusty hard drive. They plug it in. They start nodding along. "Planet is dead. But this Kasongo meme track slaps." It sounds stupid. It is true. The tragedy is not that technology is useless. We have pulled off real miracles. We mapped the human genome. We made vaccines in record time. We put all human knowledge in our pockets. We know how to tackle big problems. Tech has......

FANS UNIMPRESSED BY 'FALLY'S LIP SYNC'

September 07, 2026 - 02:49 PM “Kenyans cannot be helped. You mean, with the crippling economy and the troubles, they paid KSh 10,000 to go watch Fally Ipupa lip-sync? Don't get me wrong. I love Lingala music. But only when it is real. My assessment is that Fally Ipupa's performance wasn't. Dr Miguna observed as debate over Congolese musician Fally Ipupa's concert at Uhuru Gardens in Nairobi raged online. Dr Miguna, a Canada-based Kenyan lawyer and public intellectual, is known to comment on topical issues, but over the years, his opinion on matters of music has been rare. That he had a comment on this particular one tells a tale of something that went terribly wrong. This was possibly in tandem with John Bogart's......

AU REVOIR CARLITO

September 03, 2026 - 11:23 PM Eugene Magina, an Italy-based, award-winning dancer, is perhaps one of the biggest fans of the deceased Congolese singer Carlito Lassa. “I haven’t been able to sleep even for a wink, or settle at work, since I read the sad news of the demise of Carlito through the Jabulani page on social media,” Eugene Magina, popularly known as Wuod Okil, told this writer. To him, a musician with few peers had breathed his last, and it can’t be business as usual. Carlito’s singing was unique, and that perhaps was the magnet that got him hooked. He sang with ease, in a style that’s almost akin to that of the founding father of Congolese music, Grand Kalle, but again,......

CONGOLESE MUSICIAN CARLYTO LASSA IS DEAD

August 31, 2026 - 07:30 PM Congolese musician Carlyto Lassa is dead. The sad news was broken by fellow musician Jeannot Bell, who is based in London, in a post on Facebook. The post, however, did not divulge further details regarding the circumstances of his death. Carlyto, who was known for his melodious tenor voice, first made a name for himself alongside Debaba and Defao at Choc Stars, before joining OK Jazz, the legendary orchestra of Franco Luambo. He excelled with songs such as Maya and Affaire Kitikwala, both composed by Simaro Lutumba, among others. He also performed numerous nzing-nzong sessions with dozens of musicians. Among them was the ever-popular Bon Samaritain album by Papa Noël, which was......

THE QUEEN WITH AN ANGELIC VOICE

August 27, 2026 - 07:14 PM "Without the blues brought by the slaves in America, there's no R&B, there's no rock and roll, there's no soul music, there's no jazz. All of it comes from Africa." Angélique Kidjo recently told the BBC. Indeed, several prominent genres that have come to define music in the 21st century trace their roots to African folk songs. This begs the question, why is the continent's music industry not as developed as that of America and Europe, especially in terms of returns for musicians, advancement in recording technology, and well-defined distribution networks? Why do African musicians strive to ape the West in several aspects of their music and even dressing, yet they are supposed......

CHANDARANA:THE MUSIC PRODUCER WHO TOOK A DIFFERENT PATH

August 23, 2026 - 03:00 PM The history of the evolution of African music will never be correctly captured if the faces behind the establishment of the record companies that midwifed its development are left out of the debate, unmentioned. In the DRC, just like in Kenya and most other African countries, recording technology knocked on the doors in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Most of these companies were owned by European businessmen, as was the case with other enterprises, since this was the era when European influence was creeping into Africa, at the peak of the colonial era. In the DRC, for example, the first three record companies were Ngoma, Opika and Loningisa. They were all owned by Greek businessmen. They......

THE VINYL THAT OUTLIVES THE SILICON

August 11, 2026 - 06:02 PM I was sitting in the station archives at 2 AM last Tuesday, totally dead on my feet, digging through a stack of uncatalogued crates. I am definitely getting old. Anyway, I pulled out an old, beat-up sleeve, dropped the needle, and held my breath. Man. The room just exploded. This thick, warm, hypnotic groove hit me right in the chest. And then the math clicked in my head. Some of this stuff is closing in on seventy years old now. Nearly a full century of African music sitting right here in these cardboard boxes. And honestly? It still hits harder, swings deeper, and packs more raw soul than ninety percent of the autotuned junk cluttering up the charts today. The music was built to last......

SCHOLAR AND MUSICIAN

August 05, 2026 - 10:46 PM Driving into Kisumu, a port city on the shores of Lake Victoria, from the northern side offers one of the most picturesque views of the lakeside city, known for its vibrant nightlife and rich cultural heritage. It is in these hills that, on August 2, 1950, Enoch Okwach was born in his father Opondo's homestead. Like Harvard-educated Hillary Ng'weno, who trained as a physicist but excelled in journalism through The Weekly Review magazine, Okwach trained as a political scientist yet also made a name for himself as a musician. "Music is therapeutic. It has the magic that cures the soul," offers Enock in explaining why he pursued both music and academia with equal passion. Enock Okwach began......

KOBWAKA LIBANGA

July 28, 2026 - 02:41 PM Name Mentioning In Congolese Rumba Kobwaka Libanga literally translates as "throwing a stone." Nonetheless, in Congolese rumba, the phrase denotes the mention of a name in a song. It is a tradition that predates the genre itself, having been adopted from the folk music of the numerous Congolese cultures. It is also commonplace in other genres, Kenya's benga being one of them. Many aspects of this traditional music that found their way into the evolving genre did not last long, but some found a permanent home, kobwaka libanga being among them. "Maina," a song by first-generation musician Henrique Tinapa, was composed in praise of a friend by that name. "Anduku Lutshuma" was composed by OK......

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