By Staff Writer

Invention of an instrument or a theory or any other aspect of matter or the matter itself has always been a contradictory discussion to follow. And design of electric guitar is no exception to that belief.

Since the beginning of human life, history says that music was the constant companion of them. Humans can’t live alone so they started to live in groups and for communication, fun and entertainment they used to sing and dance from old age.

A Brief History of Music

Music maybe invented before their language. And music can’t produce without musical equipment as days passing the material getting smarter and more improvised.

Recent time Guitar is one of the exciting musical equipment to people. In recent times there are many types of guitar such as acoustic and electrical guitar. Electric guitar is a revolution inthe music world.  But there is a long history of how was the electric guitar invented.

Between 1920-1930

During the 1920 and early 1930’s, there has been a lot of experiments made to guitar to introduce an identically different sound-making instrument which is an amplification of already made acoustic guitar sound to expand the music theories.

For instance, Carbon button microphones were attached in the bridge as a receiver of the signal and to be amplified through the message it received was weak. This happened in 1920.

Era of Orchestra

And this kind of signal receiver has continued until a proper one has been invented. Therefore a numerous people has been remained as the claimants to be the first one to invent the electric guitar.

During the era of orchestras, most of the guitar players felt the necessity of the amplification of their sound of the guitar to keep themselves identical in terms of playing.

First Acoustic Electric Guitar

The archtop acoustic guitar is the firstjazz electric guitar. It was a hollow body acoustic guitar with electromagnetic transducers. However,  Rickenbacker, Vega, Epiphone and Gibson are also considered to be few electronic guitar manufacturer from the early 1930’s.

A considerable number of people believe, Les Paul was the inventor of the electric guitar. However, respecting Les Paul for transformations of signature electric guitar, he is not rightfully considered to be the inventor of the electric guitar.

Commercial Electrical Guitar

George Beach amp and Adolph Rickenbacker was two of the musicians who invented and develped electric guitar commercially.

Among them, Adolph was an electrical engineer, and they designed an amplifiable electric guitar. They were the first to achieve the quality sound with professional music settings.

Modern And Classical One

Classical guitar was already enough to contribute to the music back in the days. However, as time was passing by, the guitar was becoming the 2nd tier instrument to the music as drums and brass were progressing to contribute to music ata higher rate. Therefore the necessity of electric guitar began to rise.

Charlie Christian, who was a phenomenal American jazz guitarist, was seen first among other jazz guitarist to perform his solos with ES-150 which is Gibson’s first introduced commercial Electric Guitar.

Conclusion

The electric guitar was invented about a hundred years ago but it’s still improving by the artists and manufacturers of it. People often forget about the creator of a great invention but Charlie Christian will be always remembered as the real first electrical guitarist.

By Staff Writer

Effective this week, the Catholic Archbishop, Cyprian Kizito Lwanga has issued directives concerning Holy Eucharist.

Among them is the outlawing of receiving Communion in the hands. The Archbishop says this act disrespects the body of Christ and increases chances of people using destroying this blessed sacrament.

The directive reads in part;

“Henceforth, it is forbidden to distribute or to receive Holy Communion in the hands. Mother Church enjoins us to hold the Most Holy Eucharist in the highest honor (Can. 898). Due to many reported instances of dishonoring the Eucharist that have been associated with reception of the Eucharist in the hands, it is fitting to return to the more reverent method of receiving the Eucharist on the tongue.”

The Archbishop has also outlawed cohabiting couples and weekend wives from engaging in this blessed sacrament.

“it must be reaffirmed that those living in illicit marital cohabitation and those who persist in grave and manifest sin, cannot be admitted to Holy Communion,” the directive reads…

By Our Reporter

Perjury is a criminal act that occurs when a person lies or makes statements that are not truthful while under oath. For example, if a person is asked to testify – under oath -in a criminal proceeding but do not tell the truth, they can be charged with perjury if it is discovered that they have lied.

By committing perjury, people partake in the miscarriage of justice and corrupt the legal process. As a result, perjury is considered a very serious criminal offense, even though most people who lie under oath have never bothered to understand the law or have been coached and often times paid to lie under oath and do not consider it to be very serious.

Witnesses, including parties to a case, provide testimony to the court that the judge and assessors consider. When witnesses testify to the court, they often do so under oath. They also do so under the risk of facing criminal charges if they lie to the court.

Robert Mutebi was testifying as prosecution witness in the murder trial in which, Quantum Logistics Limited Founder and managing director Matthew Kanyamunyu, his girlfriend Cynthia Munwangari and brother Joseph Kanyamunyu are charged with the murder of Kenneth Akena.

Robert Mutebi who is a former security guard at Nakasero Hospital told court that while guarding their posts, he saw a white Land Cruiser coming in being driven by a man who was later handed a pistol and a laptop bag by Kanyamunyu.

However Kanyamunyu’s lawyer McDusman Kabega asked Mutebi how he was able to identify the pistol at night. Mutebi responded that the emergency parking of Nakasero Hospital has security lights. Not convinced McDusman Kabega retorted as to how he had managed to identify the pistol exchange and yet failed to identify a six foot tall man at an identification parade during day light staged by the police at the Kira division police station when they arrested Joseph Kanyamunyu seven days after Mathew had been arrested. The security guard further testified that he was present at the reception where Akena was being received.

The question then remains, how is it possible that the guard was in three places at the same time. He was allegedly helping the nurse to get the dying declaration, at the check point guarding his post at the gate, and at the same time in the parking yard monitoring ongoing activity. This raises doubt of the credibility of the testimony of the guard.

If he emphasized that he was guarding his post, Mutebi was duty bound to close the gate and to stop the white land cruiser from going out if indeed he had cause to believe there was a gun in the said car until the police, which he was aware was on the way, arrived.

That said, the guard at the height of it all, agreed that he failed to identify Joseph Kanyamunyu on the identification parade. He said the people paraded all looked similar.

According to Mutebi, Dr. Percy reportedly asked Akena what exactly had happened to him. Mutebi said that Akena responded that he had been shot by the people who had driven him to the hospital. How could he have heard the death declaration in English, when he professed and demonstrated during cross examination a lack of a basic understanding of the English language?

Clearly Mutebi did not project confidence and an air of trustworthiness for the public in his testimony. It appeared he had been coached as he even fails to read the contents of his statement which was made at the time of the incident.

On coaching witnesses, it is gross that prosecution omits facts along the way. For instance, it is the paramount duty of the guard to have searched the vehicle first at the entrance of hospital of which he admitted he did but the failure to have found the very gun which he claimed to have been exchanged inside the hospital casts immense doubt in the witnesses testimony.

The overwhelming problem with simply providing contrary testimony is that the argument becomes one of he-said, she-said.

Seems to be that the prosecution is having trouble getting conclusive evidence as most of the testimonies so far provided have only worked against their case. However, the case is ongoing and we hope to see more unfold to get more clarification on what actually happened on the fateful night.

By Staff Writer

If you happened to pass by Kampala in the early 80s, you would find a country completely conquered by Congolese music and South African music. But even this was hard to come by, not many people had access to radio or television. For those who had access, there weren’t many options to juggle with. It was almost likely, the official national broadcasters at play. You were never sure when they opened or closed, or perhaps, when a new president would take over and announce their ascent to power. 

Comedy, music, everything art and entertainment was regarded as the last resort for those whom life had taught the most stringent of lessons. You could bet that there may not be a local Ugandan music video that was shot pre-1986. While there was a liberation war on the political front, the entertainment industry was fighting for its own liberation. 

And as they say, the 1986 revolution was as alive in the entertainment industry as it was in other arenas of the country. Afrigo Band, one of Uganda’s most timeless bands would go on to record its first music videos in 1988 at Bat Valley theatre. 

The country would go on to extend the popularisation of its own genre aka Kadongo-kamu. At the frontiers of this genre were men such as Paul Kafeero, Fred Ssebatta, Herman Basudde, Livingstone Kasoozi. Not to say that Kadongo-kamu started then, but it’s to say, that post-86, artistes had the ability to sing on a number of subjects. Unlike in the 70s when they had been barred from political commentary. It was a steamy affair in the early nineties as Kadongo-kamu fought its ground with Kidandali that was freshly coming to play. 

Entertainment places such as Bat Valley, Pride and National Theatre would get a chance to come back to life. It was a country that would accommodate each according to their interests. 

On the streets of DV8, the music artistes of the future were hustling for the stage. Girl groups such as Prim n Propa were changing the style of music. One cannot forget to credit Namasagali college that had influenced many of these music artistes. Juliana Kanyomozi and Iryn Namubiru for example had created the famous I-Jay. 

Time forward to the 2000s when Bebe Cool and his Kenyan apprentices chose to return to Uganda setting us into a new system of things. Within these musical returnees, you had the beginning of showbiz as we now know it in the music industry. It was Bebe Cool, Bobi Wine and Chameleone. Newspapers would go on to have entertainment pullouts to satisfy this new growing interest in local celebrities. Instantly Uganda would then have a social industry that created the socialites, and brought a token to fame. 

With this 2000 group, congolese music became history, Ugandans would go on to open up to their own music and support it to the fullest. With the exception of Philly Lutaaya who had organised the mega concert at Nakivubo, concerts were not a usual occurence. Today, one can’t keep track of the music concerts. As though that’s not enough, festivals have also taken over the country. 

Different music genres are now at play in the industry. If one thinks of pop. there will be numerous artistes in that category, same for RnB and Hiphop. 

Where Ugandans waited for months before one of the groups announced their new play, now, one is served to weekly doses of comedy by different groups on different days. To imagine that things like Comedy Store are a normal occurence is something that’s news in the ears of the pre-86 generation. 

On all aspects of the entertainment industry, it’s post 1986 that did build what we call today’s entertainment industry. We call it an industry because you have different arms contributing to the value chain and eco-system of this product and service called entertainment. 

Uganda Revenue Authority can attest about the cut they get from the gate collections at concerts. You now have music video producers, sound engineers, events managers, artiste managers, mention them all, feeding from this ecosystem of an industry that’s been a result of over 30 decades of work. 

Perhaps this January 27th, the country more than ever needs to celebrate the revolution of the Uganda Entertainment Industry. It’s also important to mention that these industries can only rest on foundations of peace and stability, but above all, economic growth to fuel the entry and exits of these industries.