Nicholas Sengoba
30 June 2009
column
At that time, the reggae music of Bob Marley was fading away and booking itself forever a place in the realm of timeless classics. We are talking hits like Coming in from the cold, Jamming, Bad Card, No woman no cry, etc. But Marley didn't get the attention he deserved. His wasn't an easy act to copy as many young people are wont to do. There was a challenge in growing dreadlocks and dancing to reggae music was akin to jumping up and down.
Music was expensive as Uganda was recovering from the war of 1979. We did not have FM stations or the Internet from which to download music. The LP was dying out as it was becoming impossible to get spares for record players with brand names like Sanyu, Grundig, Blaupunkt, JVC. etc.
You got a copy of a "dubbed" cassette from "recording houses" like Segico Disco and music programmes on Radio Uganda or from the evening Kenyan music radio show Sun Downer.
My brothers Norman and Douglas plus their friend Roger Wamara who were teenagers then, were heros and it was through their frantic efforts and chatter that I got to know about music.
Of course I brushed some shoes to be allowed to touch stuff, listen in and be around. I also got bullied when the tapes got chewed or music was accidentally erased by the cassette player.
It is the time, when Michael Jackson (MJ) rose to the scene, this time with the genre of pop music. In Ugandan political currency, Apollo Milton Obote (R.I.P) had just won a disputed election prompting a rebellion in the tall grasses of Luweero.
The economic recovery programmes initiated by the Obote regime, and influx of "exiles" who returned with "sophisticated tastes" (the Francis Odidas) infused vibrancy into the social scene. That saw the advent of the video cassette recorder (VCR) and so we no longer simply listened to music but we also saw the musicians doing their thing.
Thus MJ was introduced in style. We "saw" Thriller, Beat it, Human Nature, Billie Jean etc. "live." All of a sudden everyone was trying a hand at break dancing. Most of the young people wore a pair of white socks, the more daring ones added a glove, and an ear ring while those with means capped it all with treated or "permed" hair -very expensive things then.
Those who were challenged in the department of dancing or counted themselves conservative were more inclined to the music of another icon of that generation, Lionel Richie (and the Commodores.) They brought us the great ballads like All night long, Penny Lover, Stuck on you, Wondering stranger, Three times a lady etc. But however good Lionel Richie, Marvin Gay (Sexual healing), Diana Ross and Donna Summer were, it was impossible to ignore the crowd favourite, MJ.
That is how some of us ended up buying and keeping copies of the great selling album Thriller; not because we loved his music, no, because the crowd loved him.
Recently, I dusted my collection. On the cover of Thriller is a handsome looking humble black MJ in a simple white suit without the weird make up and other accessories. This was definitely before success got to his head. And in that head like all of us MJ had his fair share of demons which many times guided him into spectacular moments of madness.
Unlike MJ, success has not gotten to the heads of many black people because we are very ordinary people who never succeed in the first place.
And that should be the greatest challenge MJ leaves behind. If a black man or woman must go through this white world leaving a legacy they are things we must learn from MJ.
Take your own path, be your own man, develop your own brand, do not be a copy cat, you are likely to stand out and be respected in your own right. Secondly, be at it relentlessly and consistently. You are likely to perfect your thing and make it uniquely eye catching.
Mediocrity follows black people for we launch into several ventures half heartedly. We will always remember the Bob Marleys and MJs of this world because they knew that the white world was tough and to get going, one needed to be tough if not, doubly tougher.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 The Monitor. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
