Mganga: music wizard who loved the fine things in life

When Boniface Mganga’s car recently rammed into a trailer near Voi, killing him instantly, Kenya’s golden era of choral-acapella music equally went to the gods.

The man who defined this golden era started out as a David among Goliaths. Back in 1978, when the journey began, Mganga was a nobody, according to Crispin Kodi, the last founder member of the National Muungano Choir to speak to him the evening before his death.

In a city of proud and accomplished music conductors that he struggled to identify with, Mganga was an underling. Standing at barely five-foot-six, he was a short man with no name, no job and no respect among peers.

But he would rise to become President Moi’s favourite musician, a conductor of international repute, a Member of Parliament and assistant minister.

Like a villager

Back in those days, Christian and choral music was in vogue in Nairobi. The diminutive man from Taita Taveta, who laughed and shook hands like a villager – with his heart and hands out – wandered from one small choir to the other.

He lived in Mbotela and frequented St John’s, Pumwani, but he did not shine among the more competitive choirmasters in the city. When President Kenyatta died in 1978, the nation’s first state funeral heralded the era of mass choirs.

The Nairobi Mass Choir had 1,250 members drawn from Christian church choirs around the city.

They were trained and conducted by choirmasters from Nairobi’s leading churches: the late William Wasike of Our Lady of Visitation Catholic Church, Makadara; the late Darius Mbela of St Stephen’s ACK, Jogoo Road; the late John Madege and Arthur Agufwa of Makadara Friends Church; Dr Arthur Kemoli of Kariakor Friends; and Mr Otiende of St Barnabas. These men took turns conducting the mass choir. Their chairman was Mr Wasike.

Mganga had no recognised choir, so nobody paid him any attention. But his quiet passion for music, humble demeanour and effective conducting at Pumwani had caught the eye of one man: Chairman Wasike.

One day, Wasike asked his colleagues why they didn’t let Mganga conduct the mass choir. They all looked at him like he was mad. Nobody wanted to waste his breath explaining that Mganga was far from the class of Kenya’s top conductors.

Put foot down

Crispin Kodi says Wasike, a firm, no-drama leader, put his foot down. After the huge choir performed in front of newly inaugurated President Moi one day, Wasike sought the President’s ear.

“Mzee,” he said, “some of our highly educated members here have no jobs.” He pointed to Mganga, a graduate of the University of Nairobi.

According to Kodi, the President asked that Mganga report to State House the next Monday. When he showed up, the President offered him a job on the spot, first as an undersecretary. He would become a district officer.

The new President, whose love for choral music was obvious, took over the huge choir as patron and asked that it be trimmed down to a manageable number. It was reduced to 450 members and named the Nairobi Quarter Mass Choir.

According to Victor Elolo, an early member now living in Maryland, USA, the majority of members came from the Jogoo Road trio: Our Lady of Visitation, Catholic, St Stephen’s ACK, and Makadara Friends.

A few members trickled in from other churches in the city. Over the years, members would come from many more Pentecostal and Evangelical churches.