{UAH} Back in time: When Franco visited Kampala

Back in time: When Franco visited Kampala

Written by Simon Musasizi

 Last Updated: 18 May 2015

 

Franco with his acoustic guitar

François Luambo Luanzo Makiadi was a major figure not only in Congolese music but also Ugandan music.

But did you know that for the times he came to Uganda, he found it hard to pull crowds? Simon Musasizi looks back to his concerts in Uganda in the early 1980s. It was a normal day for a youthful Andrew Patrick Luwandagga. The presenter with then Uganda Television (UTV), now Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC), had woken up to his daily newsroom routine when he received a call for a deal to MC at Franco's concert in Kampala.

"I was so excited," recalls Luwandagga as he swings in his fairly- spacious office at UBC where he now works as head of sports and current affairs.
"It was a dream come true, standing on the same stage with Africa's best vocalist and guitarist."

Luwandagga, who joined UTV in March 1980, also used to MC at all Afrigo band concerts. Afrigo had also struck a deal to curtain-raise at one of Franco's concerts. Franco's visit was organized by Kasese's top business tycoon, Mahmood Saad. Saad is widely known in Kasese for putting up the first storeyed building in the town.

The businessman, who has his business footprints spreading as far as Kenya, is also known for building the first secondary school in Kasese called Saad Memorial Secondary School. He owned the Concorde buses and his family is known for having been the first Ugandan family to have bought planes but was stopped by government from bringing them into the country. One of his most popular sons is Mcdad Saad.

Like it is today, Saad's game plan was to have two concerts; one for the VIPs at Lugogo indoor stadium and another for the general public at Nakivubo stadium. However, he instead just burnt his fingers.

"The first show flopped badly. The organisers misfired in terms of advertising, and Kampala by then was not a safe place," recalls Afrigo band's James Wasula.

Veteran musician Clyde Mayanja, who attended the Lugogo show, notes that Saad's biggest mistake was staging the show at night at 8pm.

"The country was so insecure. People used to fear to move at night," Mayanja says.

Secondly, according to Mayanja, the Lugogo show was supposed to be a listening concert where people would just sit and watch Franco perform. However, as Franco performed, some Tanzanian soldiers got excited and got up to dance.

"People started shouting ordering them to sit, but the Tanzanian soldiers refused and the chaos erupted, which resulted in the abrupt end of the show," Mayanja recalls.

The concert was then postponed to the following day (Sunday) at Nakivubo. This time round, it was during daytime. According to Luwandagga, who was the MC, gates opened as early as 10am – with the show attracting a sizeable number of people but still not enough to save Saad from the costs of flying in Franco and his TP OK band from Brussels where they were based.

As a result, Franco had to spend over two weeks in the country as Saad staged different shows to make sure he recovers his money. The businessman tried staging shows in his home town Kasese, which has many Congolese because it borders with Congo, but still, things didn't work out. Luwandagga says that it is while here that people in the entertainment circles advised Saad to tag along Afrigo band if he wanted to pull numbers in Kampala.

"He asked us to help him to at least break even. We organized a quick concert at Sailing club in Jinja and another one at Lido beach in Entebbe," says Wasula.

At Lido beach, where Afrigo curtain-raised, still things worked against the concert. According to Matovu, it rained heavily before some drunken man pulled out his pistol, causing a scuffle that abruptly ended the show. Matovu says that even though the father of rumba had great influence on Uganda's music, he came at a time when the music landscape for Uganda had changed.

"At that time, the young generation had no idea of him. After Idi Amin left, the music scene changed," Matovu says.

According to Matovu, during Amin's time, Congolese music dominated Uganda's music scene. It is, therefore, not surprising that Matovu says he was inspired by several Congolese, including Franco, Tabu Ley, Joseph Kabasela, Johnny Bokelo, Orchestre Negro Succes, Orchestre Bella Bella, and Orchestre Conga Succes.

But after Amin's fall, the western culture moved in with people switching their ears to musicians like Tina Turner, Michael Jackson and Boney M.

"That is the music people knew – of musicians who were played in discotheques. It was only us who knew him [Franco]," Matovu recalls.

"When he played at Lugogo, he said 'what is wrong with Ugandans, they don't dance.' But for us we knew the problem; the music tastes for Ugandans had changed."

As musicians, however, Matovu says they benefitted a lot from Franco's concert.

"We saw machines we had never seen. They were called Gas and they were blue in colour and very powerful. He actually offered to sell them to us at $60,000 but no one of us had that much money," Matovu says.

Franco came to Kampala just after Super Mazembe of Kasongo fame came in 1979 and performed at Delight cinema, opposite former Uganda Railway Corporation. For Luwandagga, what he recalls of Franco's performance was his magic on the guitar.

"He [Franco] played the guitar and sweated," Luwandagga says.

Andrew Patrick Luwandagga (L) with Franco at Nakivubo stadium

The "Sorcerer of the Guitar", as he was nicknamed for his seemingly effortlessly fluid playing, had a unique style of music, a blend of Cuban rumba and authentic Congolese rhythms.

Patrick Mwaita from Pallisa who attended the Nakivubo show told the BBC, which was revisiting the death of Franco in 2009, that Franco had a uniqueness in his performances, seen in the style of his music.

"I remember seeing the largest number of vocalists ever presented on stage but all well- coordinated to produce unparalleled quality music. I remember his extraordinary combination of the fourth guitar, which was his innovation, to the traditional three guitars most bands use. For the first time in Kampala, we saw computerised percussions/drums, which Franco's TP OK jazz band inaugurated," Mwaita said.

"In one of his songs, he showed us the power of ingenuity, when through his guitar, he made a spectacular performance with one of his saxophonist in an interaction that delivered a strong message to his audience in total amazement. To date, that peculiar sound still resonates in my mind. His legacy lives on, his music will continue to inspire many across boundaries."

He had talented vocalists like Lutumba Massiya Simaro that got people like Luwandagga falling further in love with the band. Franco had an eye for talent and that is why when he watched Matovu play saxophone, he saw him as the best choice for his band.

"He sent someone to tell me to meet him at Speke hotel where he was residing," Matovu says.

"After the weekend, I met him on Monday and he gave me an offer to recruit me into his band. But I could not leave my band just like that because I was the band leader. He said it was ok; if there is any other chance, he would take me on."

Born on July 6, 1938, Franco died in 1989, leaving his band in the hands of Simaro. After his death, the group returned to Kampala in 1995 as Bana Ok sponsored by Zzimwe Enterprises and performed at Little Flowers but it was still a flop because according to Luwandagga people knew the band was without Franco.

In 2005, Luwandagga met Simaro in Kinshasha as the Uganda Cranes played against Congo. And when he reminded him of how they met in Kampala, Simaro invited him to their concert that evening. Luwandagga agreed on condition that Uganda Cranes won but unfortunately the team lost 0-4 to DR Congo.

FRANCO'S FACT FILE

1. Franco was the undisputed king of rumba. In his 40-year music career, he had more than 100 albums and about a thousand songs to his name.
2. He started venturing out in music at a tender age of seven in 1945 when he made his own guitar out of a tin. He began playing it at his mother's stall, which attracted people to his mother's stall, boosting her business.
3. A renowned musician, Paul Ebongo, took him over and mentored him, before incorporating him in his band, Dewayon's Wakam band in 1950.
4. In 1953, he recorded his first song called Bolingo Na Ngai Na Beatrice, which sold widely.
5. In 1956, he left Dewayon's Wakam band and joined Jean Serge Essous who was a saxophonist, forming a band known as Ok Jazz band named after Ok bar (owned by a Belgian in Kinshasa) where they used to perform. The pioneer members of the band included: Franco (sole guitar), Jean Serge Essous (saxophone), Roitelet (bass), La Monka Libertin (drums), Dessein (guitarist), Pendy (conga) and Rossignol (vocalist).
6. In 1957, Rossignol left the band and was replaced by another highly- professional singer Edo Ngoma. The band also recruited a South Rhodesian saxophonist.
7. In 1958, Essous left the band, leaving Franco as the sole director at a tender age of 20 years, managing people older than him. The music tempo wasn't in Essous' favour because he loved slow music and yet Franco's was fast. So, he joined African Jazz band of Kabasele who had the same style.
8. Franco renamed the band, TP OK jazz band and recruited fine singers such as Lutumba Massiya Simaro, Zitani Daliest ya Ntese who composed Bina Na Ngai Na Respect
9. Others included: Biallu Madilu System who composed Pesa Position and Sam Mangwana with whom he sang his last album, Forever, in 1989.
   By the time he died in 1989, TP OK had the finest musicians numbering more than 50.
10. n 1960, when President Mobutu banned foreign names so that people call themselves Congolese names, Franco changed to L'okanga La Ndju Pene Luambo Makiadi.
11. Between 1975 and 76, he changed from Catholicism to Islam and renamed himself Abubbakkari Siuddiki although he never went to a mosque until 1978 when he reverted back to Catholicism and recalled himself Francois Luambo Makiadi.

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Gwokto La'Kitgum

"Even a small dog can piss on a tall Building", Jim Hightower

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