At a hastily arranged house party in Munyonyo in early 2009 a maximum of twenty guests milled around the pool. At one point a whisper circulated amongst those in attendance that Qwela, then known as the band who played regularly at Emin Pasha on Friday nights, would be performing. By the time the band arrived they constituted about half the people in attendance. As they squeezed themselves and their equipment onto one side of the pool, the house lights illuminated the glassy surface of Lake Victoria and they began to play. Collectively, all the guests, many of them strangers before that evening, quieted down, compelled to focus on the complex rhythms, soulful melodies and razor-sharp musicality that emanated from the group of young musicians. After the show, Qwela had to push their van out of the mud where it had gotten stuck.

Over a year later Qwela is no longer stuck in the mud. On Aug 20 they held a much publicised and hugely well received concert at Serena Hotel at Shs 50,000 per ticket.

The band played, sang and danced for over three hours and left the stage to the applause of hundreds of spectators. One of the audience members, Darlyne Komukama, said that the combination of Kinyarwanda and electric guitar was “probably the best thing I have ever seen.”

The music incorporated strains of Fela Kuti, Santana, Eric Wainaina, Habib Koité and many more. The whoops coming from the crowd during guitarist Michael Ouma’s massively elaborate and extended solos seemed to draw surprise and delight. The production values, sound quality and professionalism exhibited at the show were also world class.

For Joe Kahirimbanyi, singer, guitarist and band leader of Qwela, it was just an indicator of what’s to come. He predicts that Afro-Fusion will “happen in a big way within the next two years.”

There are recurring themes in Afro-Fusion that separate this style from others: the musicians involved are remarkably technically proficient and have a wide variety of musical influences; they are determined to create something original, a truly Ugandan form rather than being derivative of pre-existing (and largely Western) styles; and they are interested in using their platform to address social and cultural problems, as they see them, in Uganda.

During the concert the material that dealt with social or political issues was the most striking. One song detailed the story of a child soldier in Northern Uganda, complete with thought-provoking graphics, pictures and statistics on the screens around and behind the stage. “Music has been referred to as the bloodless revolution,” explains Mr Kahirimbanyi. “If you have the platform, why not use it for a good cause?

Manana Francis, lead guitarist and manager of Milégé, another popular Ugandan Afro-Fusion band, explained that with this music there is a real desire to make a lasting impression not only in Uganda but for Uganda. “We want to create a sound for Uganda, one that people will recognise as Ugandan in the same way that Congolese music or West African music has a distinctive sound,” says Francis. “You know where it’s from as soon as you hear it.”

Qwela join a generation of young, hungry artistic Ugandans who are both fiercely proud of their nationality but acutely aware of the problems that come with it. Local filmmakers fighting Hollywood and Bollywood, young visual artists turning their back on the corrupt patronage of businessmen posing as art promoters and fashion designers determined to own their own image, all have experienced similar challenges.

The promise of the genre was evident at Qwela’s concert. The people in attendance were diverse in terms of race, sex and age but all of them were enjoying themselves. Probably the biggest cheer of the night came in response to Mr Kahirimbanyi’s rallying call: “It’s a little bit of Africa, a little bit of what we get from overseas, but this is authentic Ugandan music. This is our music, this is Africa, this is who we are.”

Most the Afro-Fusion bands have been around for two or three years, making a name for themselves by playing the bar/restaurant circuit around Kampala. Of course, playing as the ‘house band’ in such places limits the scope of what you can perform. Most sets need to be littered with cover versions of hit singles. The large concert gave Qwela the chance to showcase their own song writing talents and allowed them to express themselves fully.

Over the next month or so there are several high profile gigs for Afro-fusion bands: Bayimba Festival (September 17-19) will likely be an incredible showcase of Ugandan talent – and Qwela’s single ‘Maama Tokaaba’ has been receiving a lot of attention from Ugandan bloggers and music fans. But this popularity has been in the making for a while.

In 2009, Mr Kahirimbanyi realised that the rest of the music scene in Kampala was starting to pay attention to Afro-Fusion when, at a regular gig at Katch The Sun in Bugolobi, he noticed that the car park was ‘filled with Hummers and Escalades’ as a plethora of major stars – Bebe Cool, Chameleone, Mosey Radio and Weasel – trouped in to see what all the fuss was about. He couldn’t believe they were there to watch him rather than the other way around.

On the evidence of that astonishing concert at Serena Hotel it is a feeling he is going to have to get used to

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