I arrived in Kampala last Tuesday night just in time to say farewell to the Afrigo Band, which left a few days later for its first trip to America. Afrigo is East Africa’s top tradiitonal dance band and is best known in the U.S. for its role in King of Scotland, the Hollywood melodrama centered on Idi Amin and filmed largely in Kampala. Afrigo was the band playing at the wild parties thrown by Amin, and one of the band’s songs made it to the movie’s sound track. Afrigo is a large band, mixing West African highlife with Congolese soukous and a dash of American jazz. The band’s leader, Moses Matovu, is a fine alto saxophonist in the tradition of Johnny Hodges. Though Moses doesn’t sing, he follows in the tradition of Nigeria’s Fela Kuti, another alto player who ran a big band. Afrigo toured China on an official visit two years ago. The U.S. tour is more ad hoc, and the initial gig is for a Ugandan cultural organization in the northeast. But Moses is resourceful and over the next month American audiences may get a rare chance to hear one of Africa’s great band. The only shame is that Moses’s sponsorships were limited and he left his wonderful trio of dancers behind, including the incomparable Jasintah Wamboka, whose classic soukous-inflected song, Shusa (or Change Your Life), is a staple of the band’s exciting book.
Before leaving, Moses, Wamboka and the two other dancers shot a TV commercial, drawing on some of the band’s classic licks and dance steps. Alas, a poor consolation for the women, none of whom have ever been in America.