Frantal Tabu: Why I don’t miss my Kisangani home

There are plenty of tales the world over of musicians who had to make the difficult choice of rebelling against their parents to pursue their musical careers.

Salif Keita, for example, had to ran away from home in Mali because his family was opposed to his musical pursuit. He only returned home after achieving tremendous success.

Nairobi-based Congolese musician Frantal Tabu is no different. He has never gone back to his rural home in Kisangani, DR Congo, since he settled in Kenya 30 years ago.

Born 60 years ago, Frantal always had an ear for music. Though his father would hear none of it, Frantal would still sneak out to watch local bands perform. When his disappearing act was discovered, he secured a job as a carpenter close to where one of the bands performed. His employer noticed his love for music and allowed him to use left-over timber to make himself a guitar. Unfortunately, his father found the guitar and burnt it. His father would end up burning three of Frantal’s guitars .

“One day I came back home and found my guitar had been used as firewood,” he says. So he decided to practice at his friend’s house. At 15, together with a few of his friends, he formed a band.

One of his neighbours owned a famous bar in the area. In 1956, TPOK Jazz members staged a one-day strike over low royalty payments. The band playing at Frantal’s neighbour’s bar joined in the strike. Having seen Frantal and his friends perform, the neighbour asked them to step in.

“We could not say no. We were excited as it would be the first time for us to perform with electric equipment,” he says.

So, Frantal started performing at the bar in the evenings after school. Eventually, he graduated from school and was admitted to the University of Kisangani in 1971.

However, Frantal was reluctant to join university. He met a promoter who lured him to Bunia city. “I went back home, wore two trousers and two shirts, then headed to the airport. I did not tell anyone where I was going,” he says.

He settled in Bunia and, after three months, sent his parents a telegram telling them he was safe and sound.

In Bunia, he joined Bomaliwaza band and soon relocated to Bukavu city. Their manager then was a rich tax compliance officer. He set up a bar in Bukavu and bought music equipment for the band.

Unfortunately, the law soon caught up with the promoter. “With the success of the bar, speculation grew that our manager was corrupt. The police were not only after him but they were after us, too,” says Frantal.

So in 1974, they fled from Bukavu to Goma city, but the police stayed on their trail. They crossed into Uganda and moved to Mbarara town with nothing but one trumpet. In Mbarara, they spotted a club called Sabina, whose owner was happy to hire them.

“The owner wanted to see us perform, so we used the club’s equipment and did two songs, which he loved. We were immediately given food and accommodation for the next six months.”

Bomaliwaza became so popular in Uganda that they even caught the eye president Idi Amin. But this was not a good thing. “Idi Amin loved music. In fact every police department had its own band. We were asked to form another police band though we were not soldiers. We had to find our way out of Uganda.”

Bomaliwaza arrived in Nairobi in 1978 and immediately started recording with Melodika. They recorded singles like Nakokate and Lisolo ya Ndako, among others. They also got a contract to perform at Starlight club, situated at the current Integrity House.

Frantal met his friend Sammy Kasule the same year. In 1984, Bomaliwaza, together with Kasule, left Starlight and moved to Carnivore, where they performed every Sunday and Wednesday. In 1986, they met a Japanese drummer called Ishikawa Kazouri, who invited them to Japan to perform at his father’s club.

“On November 17, 1987, we travelled  to Japan and begun to perform at the Piga Piga African Jazz Bar. We stayed there for six months, returned to Kenya for five months, then went back,” says Frantal.

This went on until 1990 when the band broke up. Kazouri terminated the contact but he  recalled Frantal in 1992. “Kazouri asked that I do not travel with the original band members, so I replaced everyone expect Manicho, the bass guitarist. We travelled as Vundumuna band.”

In 1998 the Japanese economy took a nose dive and the club closed down. The band came back home but was soon recalled by the club’s new owner, a Congolese businessman. In 1999, the club closed down again.

“We came back home. Since then, I have travelled all over the world. I have been to Muscat, Tanzania, Malaysia and Dubai, were I worked for two years,” says Frantal.

In 2007, he started performing at Motherland Club along Ngong Road in Nairobi. Unfortunately, the club was burnt down during the post-election violence in 2008 and he lost all his equipment. In 2008 he moved to Club Vibro, where he performs to date on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

In the band, he plays the solo guitar and keyboard. Abdalla Wafula plays the bass guitar, Amboka Limbali plays the drums while on the vocals  are Fally, Madua Masudi aka Tsimba, Simon Ngenge and Robert Lomami.

His favourite bands in Kenya were Simba Wanyika before the split, Maroon Commandos, Hodi Boys and Mombasa Roots. ”The Kenyan government does not value musicians, unlike in Tanzania. They do not protect musicians from piracy. That was why I stopped releasing new songs,” he says.

Frantal is married to Hellen Tabu. They have three children — Otieno Tabu, Hudson Tabu and Philomena Tabu, who lives in the US.