Jabulani News Archive

TRACING LABAN OCHUKA'S FOOTPRINTS IN MUSIC

April 05, 2025 - 01:20 PM "Snakes give birth to long things." This saying helps explain why Dan Ochuka, son of Laban Ochuka, a superstar from the Maroon Commandos, is an accomplished musician, as were both of his parents.His mother, Agnes, was a professional mourner, a role that involved a great deal of music, while his father was a dancer of the traditional Abanyole dance known as Esirembe.Ochuka, one of Kenya’s finest musical sons, began his music career in the early 1970s in Ebunangwe, Emuhaya, in what is now Vihiga County, where he was born and raised. His earliest involvement in what would become a blossoming career began as a box guitar specialist, performing at funerals and entertainment joints.This......

SIAMA’S MYSTICAL GUITAR THAT BRIDGED CONTINENTS

March 25, 2025 - 10:13 PM "Siama, I've missed you for 40 years. Now I can die happy because you've visited me." These were the words of Siama Matuzungidi's mother, Diambela, when the US-based musician visited her in 2010 after more than four decades abroad without setting foot at home. Though based in Minneapolis, USA, since 1996, it was in Africa—specifically Nairobi—where Siama rose to prominence in the music scene, playing rhythm guitar and composing for several top bands in the 1970s and '80s. Born in Matadi, Bas-Congo, in the 1950s, Siama made it to the big stage in the mid-1970s, performing with Orchestra Cavacha, led by Dona Mobeti and Mopero Wa Maloba. It was with this group that he composed......

FATHER OF AFRO JAZZ

March 20, 2025 - 07:00 PM Africa isn’t just about war, poverty, famine, and humanitarian crises, as often depicted by the international media. Africa is also a story of a people bound by kinship, deeply in love with their culture, whose story is better narrated through art than documentaries, and whose resilience is self-evident in their history. Not many artists have had the opportunity to showcase the continent’s capabilities to a global audience. However, deep in western Cameroon, a woman of the Douala tribe gave birth to a child who would help rewrite the history of Africa. On December 12, 1933, Emmanuel N’Djoke Dibango, later known as Manu Dibango, was born. He grew up in his father’s......

MBOTELA, KENYA’S VETERAN BROADCAST JOURNALIST DIES IN NAIROBI

February 08, 2025 - 08:56 AM In the mid-morning of 7th February 2025, news outlets were awash with sad news. The patriarch of broadcast journalism in Kenya, Leonard Mambo Mbotela had breathed his last at Nairobi Hospital, where he had been admitted for treatment. The octogenarian who had an illustrious career at KBC/VOK for over six decades died at around 9.30 a.m., according to his nephew Anne Mbotela. News of his death spread fast and furious with Kenyans mourning him across several social media platforms, as a man whose authoritative voice defined radio broadcasting in the country, through football commentary and his all-time popular program 'Je, Huu Ni Ungwana', which castigated people of uncouth......

WHEN TWO GIANTS LANDED IN KISUMU

December 21, 2024 - 12:00 PM Last weekend, Kenya's lakeside town of Kisumu was to experience a rare spectacle in a music extravaganza that was to feature two of the DRC's most iconic music bands: Quartier Latin of Kofi Olomide and Zaiko Langa Langa of N'Yoka Longo. Kisumu, a town that sits on the shores of Lake Victoria, is an epicentre of the evolution of Kenya's most dominant music genre, benga. It prides itself on a thriving entertainment industry, with dozens of bands performing in numerous venues. News of such big names visiting was bound to excite fans, especially bearing in mind that few major artists have visited the town since 1986, when the concrete wall blocking Franco from his fans had to be brought......

KASULE UGANDA'S GEM TO THE WORLD

December 15, 2024 - 03:25 AM KASULE UGANDA'S GEM TO THE WORLD. Musically, Uganda is dwarfed by her East African counterpart Tanzania who are the region's champions, having produced hundreds of band's that excelled in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. However, even at that point of disadvantage, the country has managed to produce world class superstars, among them on Sammy Kasule. Kasule who was Uganda's biggest musical export to the world, at first to Nairobi and latter to Sweden, died on 28th April 2021 in Amsterdam Netherlands. He had had fallen sick and was travelling abroad to Sweden to seek treatment but when the plane stopped in Amsterdam, it was assessed that his condition had deteriorated, thus the need to seek......

LOKASSA YA M'BONGO

December 08, 2024 - 07:26 AM In the world of Congolese music, where lead guitarists often take the spotlight, Lokassa ya M'bongo stands out as a rhythm guitarist who achieved stardom. His journey began in 1968 with one of Africa’s greatest bands, Afrisa, led by the legendary Tabu Ley Rochereau. Initially, the band was known as African Fiesta Nationale, and Lokassa spent years in the background, playing alongside prominent musicians like Attel Mbumba, Michelino Mavatiku Visi, and Dino Vangu. For a decade, he contributed to the success of Afrisa’s hits and performed on the international stage, including the band's breakthrough shows at the Olympia in Paris in 1970. In 1978, during an Afrisa tour, Lokassa,......

PAPA NOEL IS DEAD.

November 11, 2024 - 03:54 PM PAPA NOEL IS DEAD. This is one of Africa's brightest stars musically, debuted in the mid-1950s when the continent's music was in its formative stages with the advent of recording technology. Noel, Originally named Antoine Nedule Montswet was born on the 29th of December in 1940 and died today on the 11th of November 2024 in a Brussels hospital. He had been hospitalized for the better part of the year. Noel who had mixed parentage with his parents hailing from the Republic of Congo and DRC, debuted in the musical scene in the mid-1950s as a teenager backing up Leon Bukasa on guitar, in his numerous performances and recordings. To jog your mind, Leon Bukasa was one of the......

AFRICAN FIESTA NATIONALE

November 08, 2024 - 06:00 PM AFRICAN FIESTA NATIONALE Stadium Tata Raphael, May 20th, 1970, just before the Paris Olympia concert. Réné Kassanda, (vocals) Michelino Mavatiku Visi (rhythm), Pepe Ndombe (vocals), Attel Mbumba (solo), Seskain Molenga (drummer) Faugus Izeidi (mi solo) Kola Philo (bass), Rochereau Pascal ( vocals/band leader) Empompo Loway (sax) Lokassa Ya Mbongo (rhythm) It was after the Olympia concert, the first by an African band, that this band rebranded from African Fiesta Nationale to Afrisa International. The band came into being in 1966, when Tabuley, Willy Kuntima, and Roger Izeidi went separate ways with Dr Nico and his rhythm brother Dechaud, naming theirs Africain......

A STRANGE RELATIONSHIP

November 06, 2024 - 05:32 PM FRANCO LUAMBO AND MOBUTU SESE SSEKO Franco always had a political bent which he expressed in many of his songs. While still in their teens, he had been a troublemaker before Congo got independence from the Belgians. One of his earliest forays into politics came in 1957 when one of his songs was banned by the colonial authorities. Soon after independence, Franco would sing a number of political songs, starting with the number “Ba Deputes botika Mbilinga, Mbilinga (Parliamentarians stop the confusion). He would follow this up with two more numbers: Docteur Moise Tshombe and Government ya Katanga Orientale. 1. Franco Sings Liwaya ya Lumuba (Liwa ya Emery)His most memorable political......