From alone, frightened to remembered forever

The life story of the legendary late Ugandan music star and HIV/Aids campaigner, Philly Bongoley Lutaaya, who declared he was living with HIV/Aids in April 1989 when ostracisation was too high, has been published in a biography Born in Africa: The Story of Philly Bongoley Lutaaya by Ugandan journalist Andrew Ssempala Ssengendo.

Having struggled to achieve a breakthrough in the music industry for close to two decades, Philly re-emerged in Sweden with his 1987 classic debut album Born in Africa, which brought him instant fame at home and around the world.

Philly, who was living in Stockholm, released the nine-track hit album under the Swedish label Amigo Musik AB. The songs included the title track Born in Africa, Tulo Tulo, Naalikwagadde, Entebbe Wala, Nkooye Okwegomba, Philly Empisa Zo, Muserebende, The Voices Crying Out, and En Fest i Rinkeby.

Born in Africa, an Afro-reggae tune, was an instant hit in Uganda. In this song, Philly expresses his pride as an African-born musician. The song subsequently gained him some cross-over appeal among English-speaking people at home in Uganda and abroad, Ssengendo writes.

“I was born/Born in Africa/Sing my song/Music Africana,” goes the song that had more than 2.3 million views on January 2, 2024. 

“I was born to sing/I feel the music/It’s in the song/I was born to dance/I feel the music/It’s in the drums/Don’t worry where you are coming from/So wonderful when people meet/Down in Africa the land of the sun/We sing and dance it depends on the mood…,” it runs in part.

In The Voices Crying Out, Philly cites the rampant civil wars, hunger, poverty, human rights abuses and other social ills on the African continent.

In order to avoid any suffering that might result from marrying a beautiful woman, Philly opts to settle for a woman with better manners even if she is not beautiful in the song Naalikwagadde.

In the song Philly Empisa Zo, Philly sings as a woman who is asking her husband to be more humane in the way he treats her.

Since its release, Entebbe Wala has always evoked feelings of nostalgia and homesickness among Ugandans living abroad.

“After hustling for success for two decades, Sweden had finally given Philly the breakthrough he had long sought. The songs on the Born in Africa album had overwhelmed Ugandans so much that they actually had a soothing effect on their terribly battered souls,” Ssengendo writes, adding, “By Ugandan standards, the creativity and quality of Philly’s music was unprecedented. But even though his songs dominated the airwaves on Radio Uganda, the man behind this musical revolution was still widely unknown to many people in his home country.”

Golden 1988

In April 1988, Philly staged what was by far the biggest concert ever held in Kampala up to that time. The Born in Africa concert at the Lugogo Indoor Stadium was the most triumphant show in Philly’s otherwise difficult music career, Ssengendo writes in the biography published by the Uganda Martyrs University Press in 2023.

Philly was accompanied by members of the defunct Savannah Band on that historic tour of Uganda as ‘Philly Lutaaya and Friends.’ Philly also performed at Calendar Rest House and other locations in Kampala, and in Entebbe.

Philly released his famous Christmas album Tumusinze in 1988. According to Ssengendo, written in a mix of Luganda and English language lyrics, the seven songs on this historic collection have passed the test of time as Uganda’s greatest festive season classics.

Ssengendo says the songs Tumusinze, Gloria, Merry Christmas, Zuukuka, Yesu Anindiridde, Sekukkulu and Katujaguze have never been surpassed by any of the Christmas songs that have been composed in Uganda before or after.

In the lead song Tumusinze, Philly calls upon all people to come together and worship the Almighty God. In 1989, Bishop Misaeri Kauma added the song to the hymnal tradition of the Church of Uganda.

In Gloria, Philly recounts the birth of Jesus Christ from the moment the angels of God announce the good news to a group of shepherds. Elsewhere, in the song Merry Christmas, Philly asks God to give a peaceful rest to those who have died during the course of the year.

“Having worked closely with Lutaaya,” Hope Mukasa once said, “Tumusinze reminds me of my last years with him in Sweden. The album is great.”

Alone projects

Philly’s other albums were Alone 1 and Alone 2: The Legacy. Alone 1 had A Dream, First Time, Nakazaana, Tugende e Kampala, Anifa, Osobola Otya, Likambo ya Falanga, Ebika, Nazzagwaaki.

Alone 2: The Legacy had Sabasaliza, Diana, Nkowoola, Nsayuse Okukulaba, Mukwano Beera Nange, Sirimba, and Muserebende.

The hit song Alone and Frightened appears on both Alone 1 and Alone 2: The Legacy.

The lyrics of this six-minute song emotionally convey the sentiments and experiences of Philly as a person living with HIV/Aids.

The song reveals the loneliness caused by the social stigma that the earliest Aids patients suffered. Alone and Frightened was one of the first songs in the world to be composed about the scourge.

Anti-Aids activist

While in Sweden, Philly discovered he was HIV-positive in 1988. The diagnosis of HIV was a bombshell and almost devastated him.

“…In a way, this was not a complete surprise to some of his close friends and relatives because around this very time, Philly had become conscious of a chronic problem with his health. This was due to a series of constant illnesses that severely weakened him and left him wondering why he had to visit the doctors so frequently,” Ssengendo writes.

“…It was a devastating revelation! Terribly shaken, his ways changed for the worst. Philly’s friends recall that he now started drinking heavily. Living with a heavy feeling of hopelessness, he sometimes boarded the underground trains in a drunken state, fell asleep and came to his senses several miles away from home. Sometimes he reportedly got up in the night and started walking about in a state of delirium,” Ssengendo adds.

It was at the time when being HIV-positive came with stigmatisation, the dreadful certainty of imminent death and the complete lack of proper medicine even for patients of good means.

“I was very much afraid,” Philly said in 1989, “and I knew I was in big trouble. I thought about my future and my past and I felt so alone!”

When he eventually came to terms with both his fate and imminent death, Philly set about living his last days on earth with a purpose. He launched an awareness campaign against the spread of HIV and stigmatisation of Aids patients in Uganda.

“I decided to come out…to launch a campaign, a crusade against Aids so that some of my fellow human beings might be saved! Aids is here, but people always wanted to ignore it and pretend as if it was not here,” Philly explained in 1989. 

Stigmatisation

Fred Tebuseke Ssemwogerere said when members of Savannah Band learnt that Philly had Aids, they were shattered and frightened. Some of them abandoned him. Those who still visited his home in Stockholm would neither take the food and drinks he served because they all mistakenly believed that Aids was contagious.

Soon, some of these fellows also stopped coming and the sick man endured a terrible loneliness. That stigmatisation is what inspired the writing of the famous song Alone and Frightened.

It was at the Sheraton Kampala Hotel on April 13, 1989, that Philly broke the tragic news to the world. This made him the first prominent African to declare that he was suffering from Aids. He wanted the people to check their sexual behaviour.

“Fellow comrades of Uganda, it is with utmost regret that today, I inform you that the sickness bothering me has been diagnosed as Aids. Surely, this will no doubt be a shock, but it is true; I am one of the victims of this dreaded disease, Aids. For me, this is what I see as the biggest crisis in my life. There won’t be another one, not for me. I have gone over the shock and I realised that despite all that, the world must go on…,” Philly’s speech read in part.

Aids patients were severely stigmatised even within family circles. Philly’s openness and confession broke the barriers of stigma, discrimination, and fear.

Soon after concluding his first Aids awareness campaign in April 1989, Philly eventually returned to his doctors in Sweden.

On September 27, 1989, Philly returned to Uganda. John Zaritsky, a Canadian film director and his wife, a film producer, Virginia Storring, shot a biographical documentary film, Born in Africa, on Philly as he took his campaign around the country in his frail state.

Philly launched his album Alone and Frightened on September 29, 1989 at the Sheraton Kampala Hotel.

“This album I have produced is a labour of love,” he declared at the launch.

Alone and Frightened, the album’s lead song, was quickly adopted by The Aids Support Organisation (Taso) and all Ugandan activists as the anthem of the anti-Aids campaign.

“Out there somewhere

Alone and frightened

Of the darkness

The days are long

Life is hiding

No more making new contacts

No more loving arms

Thrown around my neck,” the song Alone and Frightened runs in part.

“Take my hand now

I’m tired and lonely

Give me love

Give me hope

Don’t desert me

Don’t reject me

All I need is love and understanding…,” it continues.

“I wanted to put down something musical [and] artistic about my feelings and what I thought were the feelings of other Aids patients,” Philly said in 1989, adding, “the feeling of helplessness, the feeling of loneliness.”

His last days

Philly carried his awareness campaign to various schools, churches and communities around the country. Many people broke into tears when they noticed how thin and frail he appeared under his now seemingly oversized clothes.

All Philly’s speeches and activities were captured on camera as part of the documentary film about his life.

In order to encourage other Aids patients to be strong, Philly visited them at the various health facilities where they were admitted, “When I see my fellow victims,” he reflected in 1989, “it’s just like looking at myself. I know they have come through the things I’ve gone through.”

Backed by a choir of students from Gayaza High School on October 26, 1989, Philly held what would be his final concert in life at Nakivubo Stadium. At what was the biggest concert in Uganda up to that time, he used this moment to make one last stand in his awareness campaign.

During the shooting of Born in Africa, Philly preached against reckless sexual behaviour and the need to work for a new generation free of Aids.

Philly’s anti-Aids campaign had its sceptics. Most Christian and Muslim leaders in Uganda were initially displeased by Philly’s candid public discussion about sexuality.

“I wanted to go on shouting loudly about this crisis,” Philly said. “I ignored people who were calling me a liar, people who were calling me an opportunist. I knew time would come when they would understand.”

After the Nakivubo concert, Philly returned to Sweden on October 28, 1989, with the promise that, if God allowed him, he would stage another show at Lugogo Indoor Stadium sometime in December 1989. Unfortunately, the final show was never held.

When Philly returned to Sweden, his condition deteriorated. He boarded his last flight from Europe to Uganda on December 1, 1989. He was thereafter transferred to St Joseph’s Hospital Nsambya in Kampala, where he died on December 15, 1989. He was 38 years old. He was laid to rest on December 16, 1989 at Bunamwaya off Entebbe Road.

“…He left at the peak of his creativity and there were indications that he would have become a more globally acclaimed musician now that he had gained international exposure and access to excellent recording studios in northern Europe…,” Ssengendo notes.

His legacy

In life and death, Philly has been recognised for his legacy as Uganda’s greatest anti-Aids activist. The Ugandan government has since set October 17 as Philly Lutaaya Day. This was done in order to commemorate Philly’s contribution to local music and the anti-Aids campaign.

Ssengendo told Sunday Monitor that he was motivated to write about Philly Bongoley Lutaaya by the raving reviews that he has always received on various radio and television shows.

“I was always impressed by his legacy as spelt out by various analysts on World Aids Day, Philly Lutaaya Day and all through the festive season. After working for a short time as a journalist in 2017, I decided that I should become a professional biographer so that the lives and legacies of men like Philly Lutaaya can be preserved for posterity,” he said.

He added: “I realised that there is a shortage of biographical writings in this country in spite of the fact that many truly great men have lived and died before their life stories got written down into a biography. This is the first book I have published but certainly not the last.”

Giving it all up for music

Philly was born on October 19, 1951 in Mengo Hospital in Kampala to Tito and Justine Lutaaya. He had three siblings, who included his eldest brother, the late former general secretary of the National Council of Sports Abbey Lutaaya.

Philly attended Budo Junior School and Kololo Secondary School in Kampala. While in secondary school, he started spending more time with live bands around Kampala. Barely 17, in 1968, Philly faced his parents one day and formally made it known to them that he was giving up his studies in order to focus on his budding musical career.

He terminated his formal education in Senior Three.  His parents accepted his decision more as an irrevocable misfortune.

He started his full-time music career in 1968 with Kololo Club. He joined Vox Nationale Du Congo Kinshasa (National Voice of Congo-Kinshasa) that played at New Life Club and Suzana in Kampala. When members of Vox Nationale returned to Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo or DRC) in 1970, Philly decided to go with them on what was something of a musical pilgrimage.  

According to Ssengendo, his intention was to learn as much as he could from the Congolese masters so that he could perfect his own performances on stage and in the recording studio.

Philly left the DRC and returned to Uganda in 1973, and played for The Cranes Band and River Nile Band.

Meeting his wife

Philly met with his future wife, Annet Nsuuzi Nantume, sometime in the mid-1970s. He actually sang about her in a 1980s song called Nsuuzi watali. They had three children—Jastin Nampeewo Gwokyalya Lutaaya, Tezra Nakiganda Lutaaya, and John Lenon Kaboggoza Lutaaya.

The musicians in Uganda then were not able to reap bigger financial and material rewards from their trade. As a result of Philly lacking a regular income, Annet abandoned his home. She left the children with their paternal grandmother.

Philly went to exile in Kenya in 1981, where he reportedly performed on stage and in various recording studios.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Philly released his songs, including Philly Empisa Zo, Nkowoola, Tugira Tulinda, Baasi Namakwekwe, Bwoba Osiimye, Asaba, Nsuuzi Watali, and Univumilie.

Philly left Kenya for Sweden in mid-1984. Together with fellow Ugandan musicians Hope Mukasa, Shem Makanga, Billy Mutebi, Fred Tebuseke Ssemwogerere, Richard Mudhungu, Joseph Nsubuga, Sammy Kibirige Kasule, Gerald Naddibanga, and Frank Mbalire, he formed Savannah Band in Stockholm.

From the accounts of his former colleagues in Uganda and Sweden, Philly was a rare gem of a musician. “He was a good composer,” Ssemwogerere said in 2012.

“He used to play drums, the trumpet and the lead guitar.”