For Geoffrey Oryema, the brutal murder of his father, believed to have been sanctioned by Idi Amin’s government 39 years ago, and the eventual forced exile of his family is something that he is not ready to forgive the former regime for.

Recalling the events that culminated in the death of his father, Erinayo Wilson Oryema, then minister of land, housing and physical planning, in February 1977, Oryema told The EastAfrican: “I remember that mid 1968, Idi Amin visited my parents at our house and just before he left, he looked at all of us. He pointed his finger at all of us and he said: ‘One day I will come and bomb this place!’”

“And in actual fact, in January 1971, he did bomb the place — my home (on Baker Road in Nakasero, Kampala). Fortunately we had escaped that very night. Idi Amin accused my father of being part of a group involved in a plot to overthrow his regime and the rest is well documented,” he added.

Six years later, Oryema senior was arrested — on February 16, 1977 together with fellow minister Charles Oboth Ofumbi and Anglican Archbishop Janani Luwum on allegations that they were plotting to overthrow Amin’s government. They were all killed the following day.

Although the government claimed that they had died in a car accident, their bodies were riddled with bullets, the hallmarks of political assassination then.

Oryema senior was Uganda’s first African Inspector General of Police (1964-1971), and Cabinet minister from 1971-1977. By the time of his death, he was the longest serving minister in Amin’s government.

“I have not forgiven Idi Amin for the murder of my father. It was one of the most barbaric acts in modern times and I will never forget,” Oryema says.

Immediately after their father’s death, several members of his family decided to flee the country in fear of their lives.

Then aged 24, Oryema junior was smuggled across the Ugandan border to Kenya in the trunk of a car with the help of friends. He ended up in Paris where he settled, learnt French and acquired French nationality. He currently lives in the French province of Normandy with his French wife.

Early life

Recalling his escape to Kenya, Oryema says: “I was in the trunk of the car heading for the border. The most scary thing was being stopped and the soldiers asking the person who was driving the car, ‘What is in the trunk?’

“Something in me died immediately. They didn’t open the trunk. Then something in me said, ‘Don’t be afraid, you shall overcome.’ I think that was the luckiest day of my life,” he adds.

As to what happened to the rest of his family, Oryema says, “The rest of my family went in different directions. Some of them went to the UK, some to the US. Very few ever went back to Uganda.” He was one of 11 siblings.

Oryema equates living under Amin’s dictatorship to what “it was probably like, living under Hitler. There was this book Idi Amin wrote. I remember in the early 80s after Amin was overthrown, I bought a copy of that book. And there was nothing inside the book, every single page was blank. I think they just wanted to make a fool of him.

“Living in exile is never ever easy. It’s a struggle and of course there is a lot of nostalgia,” he observes.

During his early years in Paris, Oryema was forced to do odd jobs to survive, but in the early 80s he made his first demo tapes which would later jumpstart his music career.

Being in Paris, the European centre of African culture, Oryema spent years playing gigs and experimenting with diverse music styles at the heart of the city’s club culture and he developed a unique African pop style that in 1989, attracted the organisers of World of Music, Arts and Dance (Womad) an international arts festival.

He was invited to appear at Womad that same year and was eventually signed up by Womad’s Real World label, for which he recorded his first three albums, including the debut Exile in 1990 produced by the legendary Brian Eno. It features a rich musical mix, alternating guitar-based tracks with songs accompanied by the nanga (traditional harp), the sanza and the nyamuleré (flute).

Albums

Exile, which is based on Oryema’s experiences as a youth in Uganda, brought immediate critical and public acclaim, establishing his reputation as a significant African singer-songwriter in France. His first big hit Ye Ye Ye off Exile was picked to be a signature tune for a cultural talk show Le cercle de minuit, on France 2 (one of the biggest TV channels in France).

Oryema’s biggest song on the market right now is Makambo, released as a single on January 29, 2015 but taken from his album Exile.

His second 10-track album Beat The Border, spent 12 weeks on the Billboard World Music Chart, enabling him to cross over into the mainstream music market.

His other highly acclaimed albums are: Night to Night (1996), Spirit (2000), The African Odysseus: The Best of Geoffrey Oryema (2002), Words (2004) and From the Heart (2010).

He is working on a new album set for release in the next one year and a half, but it has no title yet.

The sleeve cover of Oryema’s album From the Heart released in 2010. PHOTO | MORGAN MBABAZI

Oryema describes his music as Afro-pop/rock, adding: “There are some traditional instruments in my music like the kalimba, the lukeme and the nanga. So I have traditional music on the one side and on the other side modern pop music.”

“Uganda was under British colonial rule for 60 years so we grew up listening to the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and other great bands. I’ve always been searching for new sounds that mix the traditional with the modern. And then I also sing in many African and European languages including Swahili, Acholi mixed with French and English,” he adds.

On fusing African rhythms with Western tunes, Oryema says: “I draw on my experiences, having grown up with traditional African music and also modern Western music. Both worlds influence my musical identity, since I borrow ideas from both sides.”

Oryema says his music is about hope, freedom, peace and love. Like other Ugandan musicians who do not play mainstream music, Oryema’s music is not popular in the country.

“I have been away from Uganda for nearly four decades but I know my music is popular in the hearts of many people in Uganda. It may not be receiving enough airplay but I know through my travels around the world that my music is popular with Ugandans in the diaspora and in the country too,” Oryema said.

Arguably Uganda’s greatest music export, Oryema performed in Uganda for the first time after 39 years in exile. The Geoffrey Oryema Home Coming Concert was held on December 17, 2016 at the Lohana Academy in Kampala during the inaugural Bayimba Foundation Honours ceremony.

“It feels like a deep wound. I’ve lived with those wounds for most of my life. This is a rebirth and a new beginning,” he said on the performance.

Background

Oryema was born on April 16, 1953, in Soroti, eastern Uganda to Erinayo Wilson Oryema and Janet Manjeri Acoyo. The young Oryema grew up surrounded by traditional storytellers, poets and musicians. His father, an English teacher by profession, taught him how to play the nanga (a seven-stringed harp), in addition to studying Western music in school.  

His mother was head of the national dance troupe, Hearbeat of Africa, and toured the country with him, opening his eyes to different regions and cultures of Uganda. It was then that Oryema learnt how to play the guitar, flute and lukeme (a metal thumb-piano) in his teens. He also began to write songs.

He originally set out to pursue a career in theatre, taking a series of courses at the defunct Uganda National School of Dramatic Art that was based at the National Theatre in Kampala. He specialised in the avant-garde methods of acting pioneered by Konstantin Stanislavsky.

Mixing these techniques with traditional African theatre, the result was a very original “theatre of the absurd,” embellished by African sounds and improvisation. He later founded the drama company, Theatre Limited, and wrote stage pieces.

“Growing up in an artistic family is the foundation of who I am today,” Oryema notes, adding; “My father introduced me to the nanga. He was a multi-instrumentalist who played the piano and many other percussion instruments. Music was his passion. And he sang as well. I inherited his deep voice.”

Oryema says he still plays the nanga, the flute, the lukeme and other traditional percussion instruments. He is however concerned that the art of traditional music accompanied by African musical instruments is fast disappearing.

“The problem is that we don’t have archives like in the West. We need to preserve our musical heritage,” he suggested.

Professional accomplishments

Although he has not recently taken part in theatrical productions, he said; “When I went to France I played some cameo roles in films that led to work on composing music for films. One of the French films I worked on was Un Indien Dans La Ville (1995). For the first time in France, there were three black composers working on a French film. The other musicians were Manu Kache and Tonton David.”

His music has also featured Bedazzled (2000) and I Dreamed of Africa (2000). “My songs can be heard in Sean Penn’s The Last Face, a film released this January. I’d love to have more of my work in film and work on film scores.

“I put theatre and film acting aside to concentrate on music. But when I’m on stage, all that experience and training, accompanies me on stage,” he added.

Oryema has performed around the world including at the Nelson Mandela concert, An International Tribute for a Free South Africa held at Wembley Stadium (UK) in 1990 and at the LIVE 8: Africa Calling concert in Cornwall, UK, in July 2005.

He has collaborated and shared the stage with stars like Peter Gabriel, Sting, Bruce Springsteen, Tracy Chapman, Michael Stipe, Lou Reed, Neil Young, Terence Trent D’Arby and Youssou N’Dour.

As to whether he has plans of settling in Uganda in the future, Oryema said: “I don’t have such plans. But I certainly won’t wait for another 40 years to return. My home is France but my roots are in Uganda. I want to keep that connection.”