By Peter Luzinda
NATIONAL
For nearly six decades, Moses Matovu’s life was spent around music.
From the Namirembe Cathedral choir where he started singing as a child, to the stages of Kampala where he would later lead Afrigo Band, Matovu built a career that outlasted changing musical fashions, political eras and generations of performers.
When he died on September 24, 2026, aged 77, Uganda lost one of the longest-serving figures of its live-band era.
But Matovu’s story was not simply that of a musician who stayed on stage for decades. It was also the story of a man who helped build and preserve a band as a working institution at a time when Uganda’s music industry was undergoing constant change.
Early beginnings
Born on June 19, 1949, in Kawempe, Kampala, to Abdallah Bukenya bin Adam and Solome Nakitto, Matovu spent much of his childhood with his mother and her family.
His introduction to music came early.
At about four years old, he began singing in the Namirembe Cathedral Choir. He later attended Namirembe Primary School and Kibuli Secondary School.
Matovu would later recall that music was already part of his family environment.
“My mum and her family were good singers, so maybe I picked the interest and talent of singing from there,” he told Sunday Monitor in an earlier interview.
By the late 1960s, music had moved from childhood interest to profession.
In 1967, Matovu joined Thunderbirds Band as a vocalist. He moved to the Police Band the following year and then to the Cranes Band in 1969.
It was his time with Cranes Band that would eventually lead to the formation of the group with which his name became synonymous.
The birth of Afrigo
In 1975, disagreements within Cranes Band contributed to its collapse.
On August 31 of that year, Matovu and fellow musicians Tony Ssenkebejje, Jef Sewava, Charles Ssekyanzi and Jessy Gitta formed Afrigo Band in Kampala.
The group drew from Congolese rumba, Ugandan traditional rhythms and folk music. Its songs were largely performed in Luganda, alongside other local languages and Kiswahili.
For Matovu, Afrigo became more than a band.
It became his working home.
Over the years, he served as its leader, vocalist, saxophonist, flutist and composer. He was also involved in the band’s business side, an aspect he considered essential to its survival.
“To have a band, it is not just about performers or musicians,” he once said. “You have to look at the side of equipment.”
That approach helped Afrigo survive for decades while many other Ugandan bands disappeared.
The sound of generations
Afrigo’s music travelled through several generations.
The band produced albums and songs that became part of Uganda’s live-music culture, including Afrigo Batuuse, Jim, Mp’Eddembe, Nantongo, Maria, Teri Mubi and others.
Matovu himself composed several songs, including Nantongo, Silina Anantwaala, Teri Mubi, Emiziro, Ekkizi Ekadde, Sofia and Genda Osome.
But he did not see music as something to be rushed.
When Afrigo released Teri Mubi, Matovu said the album had taken four years to prepare.
“As an old musician I don’t rush with my things,” he said, explaining that returning to recorded material after some time could reveal mistakes that were not obvious initially.
The comment captured his broader philosophy: music, for him, demanded patience, preparation and experience.
Keeping the band alive
Afrigo’s longevity was not accidental.
The band maintained regular performances, including its long association with Club Obbligato in Kampala, while also performing abroad in countries such as Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, South Africa, China, Denmark, Sweden, the United States and England.
Matovu understood that a band could not survive on nostalgia alone.
“There are two sides to this question,” he said when comparing Uganda’s older music industry with the modern one. “Side A it was better then. Side B is we have got so much money today.”
He also spoke openly about piracy and the difficulty musicians faced in earning royalties from their work.
Having served two terms as chairman of the Uganda Performing Rights Society, he advocated stronger enforcement of copyright and royalty payments.
Rather than relying on individual financial support, Matovu argued that musicians needed an industry in which their work generated sustainable income.
More than music
Away from the stage, Matovu had another longstanding passion: football.
As a young man, he played for clubs including Kibuli United, Nakivubo Boys, Express, Police and Buganda Province.
His association with football continued long after he stopped playing.
When Nakivubo Boys evolved into SC Villa, Matovu became closely associated with the club. He served as treasurer in the 2013–2014 period and was a trustee at the time of his death.
His connection to the game also extended into his family, with his sons Adam Bukenya and Sajjabi playing in Uganda’s top-flight football.
For someone whose public identity was dominated by music, football offered another window into Matovu’s life.
A teacher at heart
As he grew older, Matovu increasingly thought about what would remain after his performing years.
He spoke about becoming a music tutor and establishing a music school where knowledge could be passed to younger musicians.
“I am 70-years-old now and if all goes well I would like to be a music tutor later,” he said in an earlier interview.
That desire reflected his concern about continuity.
For Matovu, the survival of Ugandan music was not simply about producing another song. It was about developing musicians, understanding the business and preserving knowledge.
His own career had stretched from an era of vinyl records and large live bands into one dominated by CDs, mobile phones, digital platforms and streaming.
Afrigo changed with the times, but Matovu remained attached to the discipline of live performance.
The final journey
Matovu’s death came suddenly.
According to police, he was involved in an early-morning confrontation in Kibuli on September 24. He sustained serious injuries and was taken to Kibuli Hospital, where he later died. Police opened a murder investigation and arrested a suspect as investigations continued.
The circumstances of his death brought attention to a life that had otherwise been spent largely in the public eye through music.
At 77, Matovu had remained closely associated with Kibuli, the neighbourhood that was both home and an important base for Afrigo Band.
The legacy
For many Ugandans, the simplest image of Moses Matovu will be that of a man holding a saxophone and standing before Afrigo Band.
But the career behind that image was more complicated.
He was a singer who began in a church choir, a footballer who remained involved with the game, a bandleader who turned Afrigo into a long-running enterprise, and a musician who spent years arguing for greater professionalism in Uganda’s music industry.
He also understood that longevity required work.
Reflecting on his years leading Afrigo, Matovu once compared the band’s survival to a football team accustomed to competing at a high level.
“It does not just come like that,” he said. “You have to work for it.”
For almost five decades, that work kept Afrigo on stage.
And in doing so, Matovu became part of the history he had spent his life performing.
