Nakato Leka: Album filler that still dazzles Uganda

And Nakato Leka was still a Luganda folklore.

Mayanja brought the folklore not only to the city, but the entire nation after giving it such an infectious reggae tone that he probably struggles to believe it himself to-date.

Popularly known as Nakato Leka, Mayanja’s hit, Tuleke Tweliire (Obulo Bwaffe), is on the Bloodshed In Africa album that was released in August 1993.

Sung in Luganda, it tells of a time of food scarcity, and birds raided millet fields. Nnalongo (mother of twins) sends out her twin daughters Nakato and Babirye to go chase away the birds. The birds then sing to the twins, beseeching them (Tuleke) to let them eat (Tweliire) some of the millet (Obulo).

Dan Atuhaire, music reviewer, says the lyrics and message are quite simple and easy to string along. But the catch in this song is that Tuleke Tweliire was nowhere in the plans when Mayanja was in the kitchen for the Bloodshed in Africa album.

“Tuleke Tweliire came as an afterthought actually, an album filler,” he told Saturday Monitor, adding, “After agreeing on nine songs, we decided to have five on each side of the cassette and the LP/vinyl.”

Like Black Sabbath’s Paranoid (1970), Mayanja’s filler broke the album. 

Many fillers have dominated albums over time. Elvis Presley’s 1957 hit, Santa Claus Is Back in Town, is one such. Elvis’ Christmas Album was supposed to contain eight songs, which would be added to the four songs of his Peace in the Valley EP. But during the sessions, it was found that the album needed one more song. Santa Claus Is Back in Town was quickly added, instead becoming a rock n’ roll Christmas standard.

Mayanja says Tuleke Tweliire was written after lunch at home in Ntinda with James Muwanga and Albert Kitamirike. The trio thought of something simple, a playful, rhyme-like song. The idea cursorily floated from his 1980s time with the Outbreak, a band led by Tim Kabali-Kagwa. The group used to play a reggae rendition of Richard Seruwagi’s “Ssemusajja Agenda.”

“Albert was part of the band. So was I at its last show in 1989. Fans loved the rendition very much. It’s from there that we got the idea to write Tuleke Tweliire, written in an hour,” he reminisces.

The album included Rasta Wange, Onsonyiwe Nnyabo, Jane (Onsonyiwe) and the cover track.

While in Nairobi, after recording the album, John Katana, a keyboardist who was also the recording and mixing engineer, predicted Tuleke Tweliire would be the most popular song from the album—even though he did not understand Luganda.

Turns out predictions traverse language barriers and music, after all, is often in the melody.

The song is laid back and soothing. Nakato and Babirye touched base nationally because there is nowhere without twins. It was a song that knew no generation—children, youth and the elderly were endeared alike.

Like Katana, you did not need to understand Luganda to love the chirping birds that Mayanja and his team incorporated in Tuleke Tweliire.

Chirpings of real birds were recorded and sampled with synthesisers.

Atuhaire admits the nostalgic feeling the song draws in listeners from the fact that it derives its origins from folklore it is relatable to anyone who can fall back to their childhood innocence, penchant for melody, and traditional family setting.

Mayanja had travelled to Jamaica and been fully converted to the Rastaman’s culture when Andrew Rugasira brought in Lucky Dube in 1996.

The man who started active music in 1989 levelled up by flying in Jamaican sensations Chaka Demus and Pliers.

It was not a competition but Mayanja had grown his dreadlocks, he was a man out to promote reggae by any name.

Third World, Shaggy, Buju Banton, and Shaba Ranks followed in his promotion repertoire. Even Chaka Demus and Pliers had an encore.

But after burning his hair in a feud with his business partners, Mayanja went quiet, only to resurface in 2008 as a jazz-mad Rastaman who brought Ugandans their first Jazz Safari, at Ange Noir.

The man who used to work with DJ Berry, saxophonist Richard Mudhungu, Jimmy Bageire and Paddy Ntale now had in tow Eric Marienthal and Oscar Seaton.

If they say Hugh Masekela and Regina Belle have performed in Uganda, it was because of Jazz Safari. So did jazz greats like Jonathan Butler and Gerald Alright.

To celebrate 30 years in music in 2019, Mayanja roped in American pop star Mya of the racy lacy My Love Is Like Wo fame.

Surely, this was a man who knew all the pulses of music and where to touch, not just with his prized guitar but in every sense of the beat.

“I produced the song myself, with my co-arrangers and Shaka Raama band members Albert Kitamirike (keyboards) and James Muwanga (bass),” Mayanja says of Tuleke Tweliire.

“The song was played live. Remember, we were recording with tape reels, not computers in 1993.”

Wally Amalemba played the rolls and fills live on drum pads.

“You’ve got to give it to Tshaka,” admits Atuhaire. “That it turned out the way it did speaks volume about the man’s artistry.”
 
Gripping the nation
While the album was first played on KBC radio in Kenya where it was recorded, it was Alex Ndawula who gave it to Ugandans first in 1993 in Club Echoes.

Then once while downtown at a friend’s video library, Videorama, Mayanja was asked to see footage from a wedding being edited.

“It was the Kasiki for one of the Bakayimbira Dramactors founders. The entire party was dancing to Tuleke Tweliire, which was played over and over again. It was SM Disco at Kasiki. Katana’s prediction had come true.”

A testament to the hit is that it was also played on BBC Radio Africa before it had reached Kampala. On Radio Uganda, then still giving FM radios a run for their money, it was Dick Mulima Ssempaka who just could not stop the chirping birds from chorusing when in studio.

In 1995, Mayanja released his first CD, combining Abafumbo and Bloodshed in Africa albums.

“The cassettes and LPs for Bloodshed in Africa had sold out,” he says. “I decided to choose about five songs from the first album, to compile the CD.”

So is Tuleke Tweliire his best song?

“I cannot rank it because it is such an easy song to play, but I cannot argue with the reality that to this day, it’s still played on radio, together with Rasta Wange, Onsonyiwe Nnyabo and Jane Onsonyiwe.”

Where the likes of Miriam Makeba hit gold with Malaika, Tabu Ley with the dirge Mokolo Nakokufa, or even Emperor Orlando and Menton Summer with Sirika Baby, Mayanja had scored on the charts with Tuleke Tweliire.

The song has also been recorded by King Turyananuka, a Ugandan traditional gospel artiste. 

Tuleke Tweliire  song credit

Vocals: Tshaka Mayanja

Bass: James Muwanga

Keyboards: Albert Kitamirike, John ‘Bishop’ Katana

Recording: John ‘Bishop’ Katana

Mixing Engineer: John ‘Bishop’ Katana

Guitars: Dave ‘Big Dee’ Otieno

Composed by: Winston Mayanja, James Muwanga, Albert Kitamirike