Down memory lane with the Soul Mwiri moves.
Before the advent of the internet in the ‘80s, Ugandans today aged between 35 and 60 watched only one television station – UTV for those whose families could afford a television set, and they listened to one radio station-Radio Uganda. Photos were printed in black and white. Chances were, families that owned a television set had video cassette players from which they would watch movies. Music was played on radio cassettes and people borrowed video and radio cassette tapes to watch and listen.
Children visited friends without being invited, they ate and played games such as hide and seek, kwepena, dulu, kawuna, among others. Festive seasons such as Christmas were celebrated from mid-December until almost end of February. Eating, drinking and dancing was the order of the day.
Family friendships were solid and the bond between families and children was very strong to the extent that parents sent children to the same schools and they knew what was happening to each other’s child. Much as day discos also known as vigour were a common thing, at the beginning of the school holidays and at the end, some industrious Ugandans such as Capt Mike Mukula, Charlie Lubega, Patrick Bitature, Karim Hirji, Okumu Ringa, Charles Twagira, Cruscent Baguma and Francis Sembuya discovered a way of making money from entertainment.
DJ Alex Hunt, an old boy of Mwiri on set with a vinyl record. Photos/Stephen Otage
According to DJ Paul Kato, Ugandans aged 50 to 60 today, used to patronise Club Chez Joseph, Tropicana 110 White Nile Katwe and Sussana Night Club Katwe. However those aged 40 plus are familiar with Pulsations, Club Crocodiles at Sheraton Angenoir, Club Silk, Club Clouds and Viper Room which popularised Old School Music. The 50-year-old twin, who like his brother have dedicated their lives to playing music, says in the 1980s and 1990s day discos were very popular because students would escape from school to dance during the day and they would never be seen in the club at night because their parents would also be in the clubs. With no computers then, all their music was played on Vinyl Records.
“We do not have trained DJs in Uganda now. The computer took 90 percent of the work the DJ is supposed to do, that is why most DJs today cannot play music without a computer,” he says.
He explains that since he started playing music on Vinyl in 1988, he has never played it in any other material because of the quality of sound of the music and that type of music resonates very well with the age group of people who danced and listened to it at the time.
On Saturday, the Mwiri Old Boys converged at Nzani Café Bukoto to celebrate the Mwiri Salvos and reminisce the mischief and the deeds of the good old days while listening to the old music on the vinyl.
According to Dennis Kajubi, the chairperson of the Old Boys Association, Salvos was a short cut that students used to use to escape out of school for various reasons. For six months now, they have been meeting Old Boys for a monthly drink-up and as they listened to old school music, they decided to check out if vinyl music can still be found and they discovered it sounds the way it played back in the day.
They are now using the monthly meetings to mobilise each other and find out how they are faring so that they can start doing business together because according to them, old school friends are the best friends anyone can have.
“We know each other very well. You know who used to urinate on bed, the ones who hated bathing, the one who used to bully students, the one who used to steal. Wherever you are and you have a problem, reach out to us and we help you,” Kajubi said.