Goodbye my Musa Juma

It was with shock and sorrow that I and most Kenyans including those in the Diaspora received news of the death Musa Juma. Arguably Kenya’s biggest Benga maestro, Musa Juma passed away on Tuesday, March 15th, 2011 at 5pm in a Mombasa hospital and within an hour news had spread across the country like bush fire.

I first came in to contact with Musa Juma at a club in the heart of Dandora called Awendo in the early 2000 where he performed every weekend. Being a big fun of Rhumba and Lingala I got in to the club out of curiosity to see this ‘Zaire’ artist who was performing in a slum area.

I soon found myself returning to Awendo frequently. Thoroughly soothed, only later did I realise that the singer with a silver voice was actually Luo and not Congolese, and what he was singing was actually Luo and not Lingala. This set me on course to discovering the poetic Dholuo language and my interest grew from then on. My fall for his music was complete and overnight I became a diehard fan.

Much as I thought Awendo was dingy, soon I was to discover that my boss then frequented the place too. The Limpopo ballads drew people to follow Musa into the slum and wherever else he went.

Maselina

The crooner had a way with his lines that made one seek out the message in his songs. The first track I took to was ‘Siaya Kababa’ which means Siaya the place/land of my father, a song that for the longest of time struck me as a Rhumba import from Zaire. Soon my friends were to baptise me ‘Maselina’ after Musa’s track on the struggle between money and true love. I sing it word for word and even adding my own variations to convince Maselina how wealthy and significant a Jaluo I am…..

‘Nyoremo’ still does it for me up to date. I fly when I sing it and as much I understand not all the lines, I know that Nyar Gem K’Oremo is light and pretty.

Work once took me to Kisumu and I was all exhausted after a taxing day. Half-asleep on a cab ride to the hotel, I was jolted back to attention after chancing on a flyer advertising Musa Juma show. In the end the cab was diverted and it was not before six hours lapsed that I call back the cab and resumed my trip to the hotel. The cab driver wondered why I was so taken by songs whose messages I barely understood, but I sang along just as I would to Franco’s 'Chacun pour Zoi' or 'Francois'.

Musa had a way with the words and his voice was one to die for. It must has been in the genes, for even his late brother Omondi Tony too was a wonder.

Musa Juma played in a different league and no one can replace him or come close. I will remember him most for ‘Hera Mudho’, ‘Christina’, ‘Siaya Kababa’, ‘Freddy’, ‘Osiepe’, not forgetting his collabos with his late brother such as ‘Akinyi Judy’ and ‘Nyoremo’.

For now, I can only say that the Limpopo band is in heaven; the great combination of Musa Juma and Omondi Tony have taken the Limpopo band to where we will join them some day and enjoy the live band again. Goodbye MJ!