The party climate in Masaka city is no different from that of Kampala or Arua or any other major city. Young people turn up in large numbers at the most popular pubs in town, drink alcohol, smoke questionable cigarettes and dance to Nigerian music untill morning.
Yep. Ugandan music is rare in Ugandan pubs in 2024. While it is painful, it needs to be put on record, so that someone does something about it before extinction follows. But I digress.
Masaka is like any other major Ugandan town, until DJ Suuna Ben enters the party. This man singlehanded changed how music is enjoyed in Masaka, his home town. The young DJ first made his name on a local radio station before his unique skill at the turntables pushed him to national stardom and relocated to Kampala.
He is a bona fide superstar in Masaka as is the case in parts of Kampala and other towns. His events sellout. Young people pay to watch him work the turntables and to dance to the beat of his drum. But you do not know the sheer novelty of the experience, until you have bumped into one of the events in Masaka.
The first thing that catches your attention on arrival at a Suuna Ben event in Masaka is the power of the sound system. You have to experience it to believe it. I mean, the output of this thing is probably a billion watts. It is so loud and powerful, the air around you vibrates like rocket engines.
It is so exaggerated that you fear your heart's rhythm could be destabilised. All nobs on the mixer seem to have been turned up to the very end. I do not remember ever feeling myself vibrate in this manner simply because of the loudness of music.
The chest and ears tend to register the vibrations more effectively than other parts of the body. The shaking from the speakers is so physical it could register on the Richter scale. It is shocking that buildings are not developing cracks in real time.
It is 9pm. There is a long queue at the ticketing window of The Golden Elephant in Masaka. The show has not started, but the music playing inside delivered on a bed of those peculiar beats that have come to be associated with Suuna Ben.
The beats are only known by their peculiar name, ebinyanyanyanya, a novel mix of baksimba beats and old-school raga. Interestingly, the music almost sounds like it is on fast forward, on a cassette player. Never on normal speed. There are no seats in the venue. This is not that kind of party. This is a Suuna Ben party. You come here to dance, not to sit. By 10pm, the venue has filled. By 10:30pm, the curtain raisers have started their thing. Yeah, Suuna Ben has curtain raisers.
Young performers hit the stage to mime and dance to popular Ugandan songs. A girl in a green tight dress climbs up the high stage and does her thing. Every move of her nubile hips pushes the dress up a few centimetres, so that in about four moves, her entire underwear is flashing. One girl after another, they come on stage in mock performances of popular songs. Each girl must flash their colourful underwear. Nice way to fill up the long wait for Suuna Ben. The revellers in this party drink more energy drinks than beer or any other alcohol for that matter. Sting and Rock Boom are massively popular here. This could explain the energy everyone is exhibiting on the dance floor.
Midnight and Ssuuna Ben is still not yet here. By now many revellers are tipsy from drinking hard gins and strong beers. The dancing is quite animated. By now, Suuna Ben’s friends, the MCs, are making sure no one is bored. Lewd jokes, dancing competitions, and suggestive performances are helping the party along in the absence of the main attraction.
Suuna Ben’s fans must be the most loyal. He has not showed up by 1:30am and yet the numbers are only getting bigger and bigger. No one seems to have left. Only more people are flocking in. As soon as he hits the stage, to greet his fans, a joyful scream goes out. It is 1:40am. This is the moment they have been waiting for. It dawns on you that it is likely there has never been a DJ as famous as this in Uganda. I mean, there are songs about Suuna Ben out there in Masaka. Actual numbers about a DJ. Suuna Ben is a performer. A talented performer.
He goes up on stage and just starts rapping and singing. His dress code is the kind that connects him to his fans. Simple and not outlandish. It portrays him as a normal, humble guy. He opens his performance with King Saha’s Kimala, a very highly political song about the regime squeezing people, taking away coffee from the people. Akamwaanyi Kaaliwo. This is a very popular song in Masaka right now.
For good reason. It came out months before the very unpopular coffee Bill that has just been passed. It captures the mood of the people today because Masaka people are swimming in coffee money, with lingering fears that it may ever happen again.
Suuna Ben’s performance goes on till 4:30am in the morning. For the entire time, the dancing does not stop. His form of DJaying has a way of keeping you on your feet all night. It is a continuous thread of great beats that he has designed and perfected to fit his people’s likes. Suuna Ben does not play songs. He plays beats that he concocts from thin air as he moves along, then he talks things into the microphone and his fans love it and go wild.
He is credited for taking this genre of DJeying from the deep villages of Masaka to the national stage. Prior to the rise of Suuna Ben, these beats were frowned upon by snooty know-it-all party-goers like you. But Suuna Ben turned it into an art form and it is something to behold. You must attend a Suuna Ben event before you leave earth.
