My music is about life lessons – Ssesanga

When Beth Ssesanga composed the song, Ajakununula or “He will deliver you”, she was just like any other musician who meditated on life and wrote a song. “It was a song of exhortation,” she recounts. “You get to a situation and think ‘there is nothing more to life for me. Everyone has given up on me, and I have lost faith for living’. But the hope is when such happens; even at the blink of death, it is never too late for God to deliver you.”
These were Ssesanga’s meditations on how, sometimes, life gets hard. Early 2009, little did she know that she would not simply sing but live the song. Months later after composing the song and singing it on various platforms including her local church – she is a choir leader at Kansanga Miracle Centre. Late 2009, Ssesanga fell sick.

Life’s hurdles
Her health went from bad to worst and visits to several hospitals did not yield anything. The well-built brown energetic young woman became a pale yellow slim helpless woman. “I was wasting away,” she recalls. “I confined myself at home, not moving anywhere not even to church. Whenever people saw me, they were like who has brought this corpse here. I was slim and looking terrible. The most frustrating thing was every time I visited a hospital, the first thing health workers asked us to do was an HIV test. I don’t know how many tests I did, all in vain.”
For three years, Ssesanga was bedridden for unknown sickness. “It was on my sickbed, looking at the ceiling that a question dropped into my mind , ‘Beth do you believe the words you sing for others, do they work for you, do you believe Gwe Katonda ajakununula (God will deliver you)?”
It was a wake up call to raise her faith again. And through prayer and encouragement from friends and family, God delivered her from the sickness. “I don’t sing because of the knowledge and experience I have in music but I sing about what I know, I have a testimony.”
That is the testimony Ssesanga is set to share with her fans today at Kasanga Miracle Centre as she launches her Ajakununula album.

Her director says
With 18 songs and three albums to her name, Ssesanga is one of the gifted gospel musicians in the country. Timothy Katende, a music director at Makerere Full Gospel Church has known Ssesanga for more than 15 years. “Beth is passionate about music. She’s got an excellent voice. She is a worshipper and choir trainer. There are not many people I enjoy playing a keyboard for but Beth is one of the few. When she sings, and I’m playing the keyboard, I feel the connection,” he says.
Maybe her talent is not surprising. Ssesanga is born in a family with a history of music. Three of her sisters are singers and one a music trainer while their father, Charles Ssesanga was a music director before he retired.
Despite this history, Ssesanga says she always works hard to make her music better. “Yes, we (my sisters and I) don’t struggle with singing but for everything in life you have to work on it to make it better. I always work on my style and vocals.”

Some of her work
Ssesanga has been singing since 2004. Her songs include New beginning – she sings about God being able to open new avenues, Ebigaanye bimukwase – surrender to God what is impossible for man and Njakusituka – I will rise up again no matter the hurdles.

Challenges
“It is always challenging to get airplay. You have to continuously follow up your music at radio and or TV stations. Sexual exploitation is also common. You seek to promote your music and there you find someone who says ‘I have the money but…’ You know it is on condition. So you have to choose whether it is the money or you and your body that you want.”

On love
She is single. In her words,“Love will melt down the strongest man on earth. Yes, cowards live longer but sometimes miss out on a lot. You have to take some risk; faith is about taking risks. We can never check people’s heart, but it is good to love.”

To upcoming artistes…
Don’t stop dreaming; there is always a way. You just need to be careful not to follow any way. God has already provided; you just need to find a way to get to that provision.”

Education
Ssesanga has a diploma in theology from Highway of Holiness Bible College. She went to Old Kampala Secondary School and Caltec Academy for O-Level and High School