John Kahwa: A musician picking up the pieces

In order to move, one of Kahwa’s nephews, Ronald Ssengendo, has to support him to his feet and to walk around. Otherwise he will have to use the walls and furniture for support.

He was involved in a bad accident recently. It almost took the musician’s life, and with it his signature baritone, something that made him a gem of his times, from the late early 1980s to much of the 2000s.

It happened when the former Kads Band leader was returning from a performance at Nile View Casino in Jinja where he performed every Friday. A truck ran into the taxi in which he was travelling, injuring passengers.

“God still loves me. I am still around,” he says with a sincere smile. He explains that during the accident his knee was bruised and he has been receiving some physiotherapy treatment.
“At the end of this month some Dutch surgeons will be flying in to give me treatment which I believe will help me get back on my feet,” he adds. Kahwa is a happy man and you do not need to get up-close at concerts or in Namungoona where he stays, to know he is a light-hearted fellow.

At one of the last performances by Kads Band, the audience at Speke Resort Munyonyo seemed to ask for more and more as the band performed.

But as the show went on Kahwa would find time during the performances to share a joke or introduce a song from one of the band’s singers. Kads Band’s last two volumes, 2 and 3, as they titled their albums, were full of radio and bar anthems.

They have Romeo Akiiki’s No Parking and Genda Mpora; Prossy Kankunda’s Akalulu; John Kahwa’s tribute to mothers called Webaare Adyeri; Titie’s Neesige Ani and Makanika Wange, Bernard Munyigwa’s Kambe Nawe and Jacinta Wamboka’s Kyusa Kubulamu, among other tunes that will remain classics for those who loved good live, band music.

That is what makes Kahwa no stranger to the Ugandan music scene, and certainly not a face music lovers will easily forget, because with his baritone, he backed up fellow stars and went places. And he still does, though there are no cameras after him.

His music and that of his contemporaries does not play much on radio or in your favourite bar or nightclub today because it is no longer appreciated much. There are commercial influences that have changed the direction music landscape is taking.

But this singer is still chasing his music dream, passionately. Now that he cannot walk much, he keeps in his sitting room chair playing guitar, and getting lost in thought.

Because of this, he has been able to compose some songs.
“I am trying, I am really trying. I have been quiet for some time but things are getting better,” he says running his hands across the guitar strings that sound quite loud in the quiet country home.

He adds, “I have been doing some serious music on my own here, on my guitar and keyboards and improving on my vocals.” He tells me the vocalist and multi-instrumentalist who was known for his love for beer, has since quit and all the fluid he takes in is water and milk.

As we talk, five sentences do not end without a mention of Kads Band to which the man says he owes his last share of fame on Ugandan stage.

What became of Kads band? “We really got a problem. We were doing well but like most groups, sponsors were giving us peanuts and the going got tough.

“Each of us had to find a way to survive so Romeo Akiiki, Prossy Kankunda, Titi Tendo Tabelle, Bernard Munyigwa, Rashida Mukasa all went their different ways,” he explains, his eye visibly nostalgic, perhaps recollecting moments of the band’s hey days.

He adds, “It has been long since we connected.” As Titie went to find her soul on radio and on television, Benard Munyigwa still lives the dream, asking for the microphone to sing a song or two at Grand Imperial on Fridays and Saturdays.

Kakunda has been trying not to lose her youthful charm on stage.
At the beginning of this year she got married to Moses Mugume though subsequent reports indicated she had filed for divorce in the courts of law after the couple fought on their wedding night.

Romeo Akiiki’s whereabouts are not well known. Kahwa still performs alone. Looking back, he knows he could not go at it alone. “I was disappointed at the remuneration we were getting and I did not want to commit myself to keeping the band together when I didn’t have the funds,” he recounts.

Their patron, he says, William Kamukama, left them. “He was our patron. He was the one who would get the money. We just heard he had left for which place we also don’t know,” he recalls about the times that led to the disbandment of the band.

But before Kads Band was here, in 2003, Kahwa had gone places with his voice. His name was listed on different band line-ups.

“I had played with so many bands. I was part of Simba Ngoma, Crystal Diamonds and Big 5. I played with the likes of the late Sam Mulungi in Simba Ngoma, then Dede Majoro, Florence Mulungi who was wife of Sam Mulungi, and a lady called Sarah,” he lists some of his contemporaries with whom he played the role, unconsciously, in creating and popularising bands in Uganda.

Tracing back his musical journey, Kahwa recalls it starting while he was at St Mary’s Minor Seminary in Fort Portal.

“We had missionary priests and they taught me how to play the guitar and organ. Then we used to sing around in choirs, like the Christ the King Choir,” he recounts. That was way back in 1972.

He did not continue with his priestly mission because the priests had planted a good seed in him which set him on a music voyage.
He believes, in a way, with music he can express or put forward the food of love, the greatest gift that he failed to give as a priest but now shares as a musician.

He knew this back in July 1983 when he first stepped on stage to perform with the Crystal Diamonds which had guest artistes like the late Elly Wamala who ran the Mascots Band.
Wamala would lend Crystal Band equipment to play with and once in a while come around to inspire the youngsters by performing one of his tunes.

“I sang with Kabuye Sembogga. There was the late Fedela Kolele from Congo who played the lead guitar, then Eddy Ganja, Tony Sengo and the late Philly Bongoley Lutaaya,” he adds.

What was it like performing with Philly Lutaaya? I ask. “He was a great guy and he was very creative not forgetting my old friend, Moses Matovu of Afrigo Band. He helped me record my first cassette titled Do I Remember it. I don’t even have a copy of that today,” he says.

Doing music has not let Kahwa lose out on family. He is married to Betty Kahwa and they have three children, Ian Busingye, Sheila Kabasita and Eva Kabahuma. Busingye is a lead guitarist with Qwela Band.

He has shared a stage with his father, at one of the recent Qwela Junctions at which Kahwa was invited to perform as a Ugandan great, alongside Rachael Magoola. This was at Emin Pasha Hotel.

Today, the veteran singer has a few names he considers good. “There is some music I love from artistes like Juliana Kanyomozi, Jose Chameleone, Bobi Wine…some of their music has lessons to teach and others, a good sense of humour,” he says.

The bass vocalist says the time he has spent off the scene has been long but time well-spent for him as he has used it to write more music which he plans to release soon, so his fans should look out for some good stuff.

WHO IS JOHN KAHWA?

Kahwa’s story began in Isehakahungu village in Fort Portal, Kabale District in Toro Kingdom. It was on October 11, 1958.

He attended school at St Peter’s Primary School then St Mary Seminary then Kololo SS, before he started doing music. His parents, Emmanuel Ssalongo, a medic, and Anna Maria Kabasita, a housewife, allowed him realise his dream.

But as a child, he says, he was quiet and cool guy who loved digging and learning. “I played football and tried to excel in school,” he says, adding that he used to play with his twin sister, Teddy Kiiza, who he now says is taking care of home since their parents passed on.

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