General Defao rolls back the years

He’s remembered for his peroxide hair, burly figure and great dance moves. Fast forward to 2010 and apart from losing the hair style preferring dreadlocks instead, the Lingala maestro, General Defao, hasn’t lost any of his magic.

Last Friday at Sabrina’s Pub, General Defao rolled back the years with a performance that included his yester year hits like Sala Noki and L’ Animation that had his fans excited. He sampled some of his new hits off his new album like Pur Encore (a track that features Papa Wemba), which were well received. Thanks to an impressive sound system courtesy of Sabrina’s Pub.

Lingala music in Uganda was all the rage in the 80s and 90s. However it waned with the emergence of home-grown local music. This development curtailed the numerous Lingala concerts that were always held in Kampala by the likes of the late Madilu, Koffi Olomide and Empire Bakuba.

Of late however, trickles of concerts have taken place at Sabrina’s with Bozi Boziana and Tshalla Mwana performing last year. The down-side of these concerts has been the lucklustre advertisement of them, leading to small crowds attending. This has shortchanged many Lingala lovers who always know about these shows quite late.

General Defao’s show was sponsored by Nile Special. By 1a.m, the burly General was still doing the Ndombolo dance moves to wild cheers from his fans who left Sabrina’s in the wee hours of the morning.