Rachel Magoola at a past gig, backed by Afrigo Band members Joanita Kawalya. Picture by Bamuturaki Musinguzi
When not on stage in one of Uganda’s entertainment spots, Afro pop singer, songwriter and dancer Rachel Magoola is composing a song for a health campaign.
These range from teaching music to children born with HIV, to highlighting the dangers of smoking, to supporting various projects under Hospice Africa. Her health campaign songs include: Take me as I am (for the Sickle Cell Association of Uganda) and I am not a toy (in support of girl education).
Under the Sand sensitises on HIV/Aids, urging listeners to shun risky behaviour. Magoola’s preference for songs with a health message is born of the fact that sometimes people do not listen to technical and medical experts on serious matters.
“But when the people can relate to someone like me, a musician, they are more willing to take heed. Getting the message across makes my job as a musician worthwhile,” she says.
Magoola borrows a lot from Uganda’s folklore as her parents were music teachers. She was exposed to various kinds of music at an early age.
“I grew up to appreciate the various rhythms and melodies of our music. I borrow naturally from what I grew up listening to,” she says. Magoola’s biggest influences are her Busoga/Bugwere roots. She also draws inspiration from Miriam Makeba and Angelique Kidjo. “Most of our rhythms are unique, syncopated and can be confusing to the ears of non-Ugandans. The music blends into intricate combinations that are typically Ugandan.”
Magoola had a close association with music throughout her youth, especially at school and at her local church.
Later, she trained as a music teacher and thereafter taught for 11 years at Namasagali College, at a secondary school and at Kaliro Primary Teacher Training College. From 1989 to 2001, she performed professionally with Uganda’s popular group, The Afrigo Band, as a vocalist and dancer.
She then moved on to a solo career and lived in the UK from 2001 to 2009, still polishing her music skills. An accomplished vocalist, Magoola sings in Lusoga, Luganda, Kiswahili and other Ugandan languages. She has recorded about 60 songs in six albums and released six solo albums.They include Inhaife (1997), Tyenda Wundi (1998), Tonyiiga (2000) and Atwibembe (2001).
These albums have earned her great respect in the country and East Africa.
Obangaina, an adaptation of a Lusoga folk song, is about a woman complaining of her husband’s infidelity. One of the tracks on her debut album, Inhaife, at one time took the number one slot on Capital Radio’s Coca-Cola Hot 7 at 7, for 30 days.
Songs from the source of the Nile, released in 2006 under the Arc Music label in London, comprise 12 tracks from Magoola’s four albums released in Uganda.
Her compositions utilise elements of languages and traditional rhythms from all over the country, as well as afro pop, reggae, soukous and zouk.
The popular song Vooto, sang in Lusoga, refers to a vegetable delicacy that is now extinct. The creeping vegetable was mainly an undergrowth in banana plantations.
A tradition song included in Songs from the source of the Nile tells the story of a wife whose husband has eaten Vooto without her.
Her most recent album, Eisadha, released in 2009 under the MadHead Kitchen label owned by London-based Ugandan producer Kaz Kasozi, is a blend of traditional and modern beats.
It draws heavily from her experiences in London and her participation in her mother’s parliamentary re-election bid in 2006.
“My next album will be in the works by the end of 2010. I am going slow on new material as I still have to market and sell all that I have recorded in the past 20 years,” she says.
She describes her music as a fusion of Ugandan traditional styles and Afro pop (organic Ugandan music). The main themes are relationships, justice/injustice and politics.
On whether she agrees with the assertion that Uganda has failed to create its own modern style of music, merely relying on rumba, reggae and others, she says: “Yes and no.”
“It is true most of our music borrows from rumba, reggae and soukous,” she says. “But no. A country’s music is shaped by its history. Just like many West African songs have an Islamic tilt due to an Islam-Arabic influence, so too does Ugandan music have glimpses of East African life.”
She declines an “appetite for quick rewards and ill-gotten wealth,” saying some “quick-fix” music is making the rounds at FM stations.”
Magoola says the live band music scene in Uganda is almost obliterated “but, thankfully, it still has a pulse. Among the top live bands in Uganda are The Afrigo Band, Simba Sounds and lately, Kwela and Milege.
On the role of women in live music, she says: “Women have played a mostly supportive role. It has taken a long time for them to be respected and accepted as major players in the industry. They have merely added glamour and colour. This is changing now. A number of popular songs are by female artistes.”
