By Ian Ortega
This morning, I woke up to the shocking news that Eria Ssebunya Bugembe commonly known as “Kasiwukirira” had been knocked dead by a speeding car while jogging in Muyenga.
It was too much for me to take in, yet the more I tried to take in the news, the more introspection I got about the Ugandan music industry. Show me a Cassette Tape that didn’t go through KASIWUKIRA studios, and I will show you a song that was never a hit.
Kasiwukira introduced my ears to real music. On his tapes, I listened to the mighty Livingstone Kasoozi, the great Herman Basudde, the Prince Paul Kafeero, the Lord Fred Sebatta. Then the CDs came and so did music piracy. People say you can’t earn directly by selling music albums in Uganda but this was done during Kasiwukira’s time. You couldn’t simply go around and burn a CD, the case of the cassettes was different. I thus mourn Kasiwukira with real honesty.
But who was Kasiwukira and why was he named Kasiwukira? Mr.Eria Sebunnya Bugembe aka Kasiwukira was the deputy treasurer of the Kwagalana Club ( the Rich men’s Club in Kampala). His name, was as a result of his ever pale skin and limited obsession with fashion compared to his fellow tycoons in Kwagalana. Paleness, also known as pale complexion or pallor, is an unusual lightness of skin color when compared with your normal hue, it is this condition that earned Kasiwukira his nickname and later on became the name of his music studio.
A schoolmate writes about him on the Ugandans at Heart Website;
“I went to school with him in Old Kampala primary school. A very humble and smart young man he was. He began his humble business empire by duplicating and selling music on cassette tapes which the infamous batembeyi [streethawkers] made a killing out of. He would also burn music from the old gram phone turn table and transfer the music on tapes. He later started importing music tapes from South Korea, and other far Eastern countries, and became the first and number one distributor of cassette tapes both empty and pre-recorded music tapes before the CD’s came on the market.
His investments are in commercial and residential properties all over Kampala and in the city suburbs. His first owned building was located on Nkrumah road right above the old taxi park where he began as a renter and later as a sole owner.
He lost his dad at a very tender age during the Idi Amin era. Some of our school mates during our year include;
-Allan Shunabi
-John Katto
-Fred, Nelly and other Kaala family members
-Pastor Michael Kyazze
-Pastor Lincoln Kasirye -London, UK
-Pastor John Musoke – Dallas
-George Musoke
-Dr. Philip Kiboneka [California?]
-Rose Ssali [Kampala]
-the late Elizabeth Mangeni
-David Mangeni
-Dr. Nick Masozera [Houston, TX]
-the late Badru Kakembo
-The Sseruwagi’s [ Boxing coach legend]
-John Ssemugooma
-The Fagil Mande’s
-Liz, the late wife of Patrick Katto and many others
Unfortunately, the last time i saw his photo was in the Monitor newspaper, which featured his wedding ceremony about four years ago. I must add that he bought a brand new Mercedes Benz as a personal wedding gift to his newly wedded wife and sent her to London, on a one week shopping trip! Back in our days, he was popularly known as; James Ssebunya.”
When you speak of the nineties and the late eighties, almost every popular song in Uganda in that period went through the Kasiwukira Studios. It was run on a model of a recording label, where an artiste’s music album would be bought off for the price they thought best. It was the only and probably the last time that Ugandan artistes will ever earn directly from the sale of the music albums.
Nothing killed the Ugandan music industry the way CDs did. They came, they saw, they won us over and in the process dug the graves to which we buried our music industry. Lip-synching or miming was unknown back then, a music artiste always had to do live music, the CDs removed all that. Music piracy was the most expensive thing to engage in thus, most Ugandans never took part. Besides, why would one pirate music when there was Kasiwukira studios? Giving you a ready cassette tape with the full album of your favourite musician?
Tolystoy says music was the shorthand of emotion, but I beg to re-phrase and say that Kasiwukira was the longhand of the Ugandan music industry. Kasiwukira music studios was the place that drew things out and gave them poignancy. It was the place that drew out the short sharp words of feelings and turned them into illustrated sentences.
Back then, it was easier to quantify and list the best-selling Ugandan musicians. It was simple, all it did require was for one to ask Kasiwukira how many tapes of Kafeero he had sold compared to those of Basudde for a specific season and you would have very accurate figures of who the big size was. Today, we shall continue to base on whose music gets downloaded the most, played the most on Radio or gets watched the most on Youtube? But is there monetary sense for today’s musician? Eddy Kenzo would now be a millionaire in US dollars if “Sitya Loss” was a song that received all those hits on itunes, today, he will still have to attend tens of shows to really make money off his already viral song.
What’s the way forward for the Ugandan music industry? Perhaps Kasiwukira’s death could give us some moment to answer that question? Do we even have a music industry? Are artistes ready to revolutionize the industry? Or should it be the work of the likes of BigEye.ug?
May the soul of the deceased rest in eternal peace.
