Oryema’s musical odysseys, from rooftop bar to stardom

Kampala. His remains will be cremated and interred abroad, in France, Saturday mid-morning. But Geoffrey Oryema’s soulful tunes will play on, long after his fans have said final prayers at Saint Pierre De Ploemeur Church 56, Morbinhan, France.
Oryema, Uganda’s best known music export, breathed his last on Friday in Paris, France, where he had lived since 1977.

A brief statement from his nephew, Gerald Omwony, only said: “Uncle Geoffrey had been battling cancer for quite some time.”
But the simultaneous outpouring of emotions across continents loudly shout out the celebrity status of the music icon that was Oryema. For his 40 years in exile, Oryema was feted as one of Africa’s top innovative artistes, performing with big names as Sting, Tracy Chapman, Bruce Springsteen, and Peter Gabriel.

With Brenda Russell, Oryema also did backing vocals on Martin Page’s contemporary hit song – In the House of Stone and Light – while Robbie Robertson played guitar and Page playing all the other instruments.
To his name too were standout hits as Land of Anaka, Payira Wind, Bombs are Falling, and La Lettre, with YeYeYe proving a massive hit in France, and becoming the theme tune for a big TV show. La Lettre implores all sides to the conflict to negotiate peace.

Oryema’s music then took him to festivals in France, Germany, Austria, USA, Japan, and Brazil, among others. Little wonder that an outpouring of emotion at his passing gripped social media.
From Rob Bozas, his music promoter and friend for 23 years, to his big Ugandan fan and artiste Joel Sebunjo, and fans worldwide, news of Oryema’s demise rebounded.

But Oryema, remembered by Bozas as “a giant of a man, a true artiste, statesman, activist, father, and friend to many” is no more, yet his creativity lives on. As Peter Gabriel lionizes him, “A big man has gone and left a big hole, but he leaves behind a lot of warmth and many beautiful and emotional songs.”

Born April 16, 1953, Oryema was son of Erinayo Wilson Oryema; Uganda’s first African Inspector General of Police between 1964 and 1971. His father as minister, together with Anglican Archbishop Janani Luwum, and Interior minister Charles Oboth Ofumbi, were murdered by the brutal regime of former dictator Idi Amin on February 16, 1977. It was on the heels of these executions that Oryema, at a tender 24 years, was bundled into a car boot and slipped into exile across the Uganda-Kenya border.

And Oryema bottled up these traumatic loss and pain. Even as he embraced warm multicultural France, the shock of the murder of his father and elder brother, haunted Oryema; belting them out in Exile, his debut album. And as Bob Ezrin says in tribute; Oryema’s “voice bore the smoke of his beloved, beleaguered country.”

Many more hits and albums followed with Peter Gabriel’s record label, Real World, churning out his first three albums, until he moved onto Sony International. But not all are songs of sorrow.
His soft but sweet and tearful as well as nostalgic Sardinia Memories; done on accordion, relives his first love, and teenage days as good, wild, and sweet; savoured in Kampala’s nightspots – Arts Club, Sardinia, and Silver Springs. His cousin and teenage buddy Bill Lajul Allimadi joyfully recaptures their teenage years.

“That sundown song echoes experiences of being in love for the first time. We had beautiful girls around us. We were young and rich. We had the latest fashions. Girls were honest and decent and safe. I also remember soul singers James Brown and Buddy Guy coming on tour doing concerts at the Apolo [now Sheraton Kampala Hotel]. The bar area was cosy and opened directly to the open air roof,” Allimadi recalls.

Road to stardom
But these escapades were also Geoffrey’s formative musical years and road to stardom. Often, the pair slipped out to the Leopard’s Lair, a rooftop nightclub at the Apolo. But Oryema’s creative juices also spilled over from his parents’ twin love for the arts.
He often sat at the foot of his dad, who played both Acholi and European instruments. Bill and Geoffrey were also frequent visitors to the National Theatre where his mother Janet, and Allimadi’s mum Daina, also his aunt, coached Uganda’s foremost national dance troupe; the Heart Beat of Africa.

But Allimadi says it was one of Uganda’s best known dramatists, Robert Serumaga, who perfected Oryema’s stage performances at the National Theatre.
In Europe, Oryema exploited his repertoire of rich Acholi traditional tunes and beautifully wove them with his Western influences. By 1990, Oryema had refined his works enough to join Neil Young, Lou Reed, Tracy Chapman, and Youssou N’Dour, among other towering artistes, to perform at London’s Nelson Mandela concert that advocated a free South Africa.

Oryema’s creative and yet harmonious marriage of traditional and Western influences yielded his second soulful album; Beat the Border (1993). Produced by Bob Ezrin and David Bottrill, these melodies, chanted to classical Acholi instruments, ran close to classical European music, winning over more fans that idolised him.

Even as he dumped the nanga or lyre and lukeme thumb piano for the guitar, Oryema continued his musical chants in Acholi and Swahili, and once in a while in Lingala. On a few occasions; throwing in the mix both French and English.
But Oryema’s lasting legacy, as music promoter and friend for 23 years Rob Bozas says, was his “ability to turn adversity into a force for good … fight for better human rights, to make the world a better place, to rally the call against child soldiers and to call for peace in northern Uganda.”

Before long, Bozas says, Oryema “started touring the world telling his story and passionately fighting for human rights.” He was soon tapped by Amnesty International for worldwide human rights and anti-child slavery tours.
Oryema then collaborated and did concerts with music greats Loy Ehrlich, Sting, Tracy Chapman, Bruce Springsteen and Peter Gabriel. One such a gig was in Boston, USA, and headlined by Peter Gabriel, Bruce Springstein and Sting, among others.

Feted film soundtracks
Even as his songs hit top charts, Oryema seemed to enjoy even more success with the movie industry that sought his songs for soundtracks. Morgan Freeman’s debut directorial job Bopha, staring Danny Glover alongside Afrie Woodward, uses Oryema’s Piri Wango Iya from his 1990 album, Exile.
Other films with his music include Charlize Theron’s 2016 drama The Last Face, Kim Basinger and Daniel Craig’s I Dreamed of Africa, and 2005 the documentary, War Dance, among others.
For his big achievements; rising from an asylum seeker to world famous artiste and rights advocate, an emergency housing centre for asylum seekers – Centre Geoffrey Oryema, has been dedicated in his honour. Oryema inaugurated the centre at Bobigny in the suburbs of Paris, on March 11, 2017.

Uncelebrated prophet
But the celebrated artiste was, in his home country, not as feted as he was globally. Oryema’s only concert in Kampala, after 40 years out, came with mixed emotions.
He was mobbed by relatives and fans that had not seen him for 40 years, leave alone experience his music. There was also the frenzy by younger Ugandans who had only heard about him, and the public that had mostly just read about him.

But to crown his homecoming in 2016 was one fan, a young man from Anaka, his ancestral home, who sold a goat to travel to Kampala and be at Oryema’s show! And Oryema’s deep, traumatic, and penned up emotions broke upon arrival home. It was a cathartic return to home country and his beloved Land of Anaka.
“Today, I’m crying tears of joy because when I left 40 years ago, these tears were soaked in me,” Oryema told Gulu-based journalist Pat Larry King Larubi. Indeed, Oryema’s return marked a new beginning because he had closed an old sad chapter and opened a fresh new page; a new beginning with fatherland Uganda.

But this was to last only a short time. Oryema’s promise of a second coming had a fatalistic lace. Oryema, unbeknown to his fans, foretold he would not wait for 40 more years again before he returns. And, indeed, Oryema returns, not to perform, not even in person, but only his spirit – to rest in the land of Anaka about which he fondly and tearfully sung.
Before his death on Friday, Oryema had been working for the past years, on what may now be his final album. And as he performed in Kampala in 2016, a jovial Oryema teased his audience with a song, From Africa with Love, and said his homecoming to Uganda was fuelling inspiration for him to finish the project.

And for many artistes back home, Oryema stoked their inspiration, with rhythm and blues star Maurice Kirya and Joel Sebunjo excited about working on musical projects with Oryema. But this is now never to be. His kith and kin will congregate for his funeral service at a chapel on Saturday, before his remains are cremated and interred abroad, in France.
In France, as Peter Gabriel says, Oryema made his home and “found great love with his wife Regine and children Chantal, Ajoline and Oceng.
Perhaps, no better farewell is said than by Bozas: “Geoffrey … Your work here is done and you are needed elsewhere. May you travel with [the] Payira wind; go safely.”

Asylum centre

Oryema on opening centre. “If someone had told me 40 years ago that someday, an emergency housing centre for asylum seekers would bear my name, I wouldn’t have believed it. Yesterday, I had an immense honour of inaugurating the Geoffrey Oryema Centre at Bobigny, in the suburbs of Paris.”

Albums

1.Exile, 1990
2. Beat the Border, 1993,
3.Night to Night, 1996
4.Spirit, 2000
5.The Odysseus/Best of, 2002
6. Words, 2004
7.Masters at Work (Piri Wango Iya) - Rise Ashen’s Morning Come Mix, 2004
8.From Africa with Love (unreleased)
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