By Elijah Mutabuza
There is a common saying that if you want to be remembered long after your demise, you should, while still living, either write things worth reading, or do things worth writing about.
Philly Bongoley Lutaaya (19 October 1951 – 15 December 1989) was a Ugandan musician who was the first prominent Ugandan to give a human face to HIV/AIDS. Before dying of AIDS, Lutaaya had spent his remaining healthy time writing songs about his battle with AIDS releasing his last album Alone and Frightened including his famous song “Alone” as well as touring churches and schools throughout Uganda to spread a message of prevention and hope.
Philly Lutaaya was popular in Uganda in the 1960s, and in the 1970s he toured Congo, Kenya and Japan. In the mid 1980s he settled in Stockholm, Sweden. There he recorded his hit album, Born in Africa, which is still popular in Uganda. The Nigerian-Swedish musician Dr. Alban, who has called Philly Lutaaya “one of the greatest African musicians” later released an album also named Born in Africa.
Philly Lutaaya’s Christmas Album, produced in 1986 remains his most popular album to date. The album whose songs were written in native Luganda remains part of a strong Christmas tradition in Uganda. It included classics such as “Tumusiinze”, “Gloria”, “Merry Christmass, Oh Happy New Year”, “Azzaalidwa” and “Zukuka” among others.
Form part of the lyrics to the late great Philly Bongoley Lutaaya’s hit single ‘Born in Africa’ released in the late 80s. This song and its accompanying album recorded at B10 B10 studios in Sweden in the same period is still a favourite in Uganda over fifteen years after it was released. According to Dr. Alban Nwapa, the Nigerian-Swedish musician who made his musical mark with Denniz Pop a few years later, Lutaaya was one of the greatest African musicians of the 80s.
Unfortunately the world purely out of his tragic demise did not get to fully appreciate the man and his works as his life was cut short in December 1989 before a logical conclusion of an otherwise promising international (globally recognised) music career. Alban who released a song and album (his fourth) coincidentally titled ‘Born in Africa’ in 1996, which was an afrocentric medical student who graduated into a professional dentist and was equally a disc jockey who had successfully made the transformation into a musician. Alban occasionally met Lutaaya at the Kilimanjaro Club, Stockholm where the latter performed with the Savannah band in Stockholm Sweden. Alban in proceeding years was based at the Alphabet Street club in Stockholm.
In Uganda Lutaaya is eulogized and his legacy continues as a surrogate patriarch of Ugandan contemporary popular music who is still envisaged as an eternal legend with works (especially the afro-reggae single ‘born in Africa’ and the poignant ‘alone and frightened’) that are local classics. His work as a renowned anti-HIV/AIDS activist fostered a dual legacy and throughout the western hemisphere it is this point that he is remembered for. Fondly referred to with reverence as ‘Omugenzi Philly’ (the late Philly), he is a guiding beacon to the careers of many musicians in Uganda.
We at EnewsUg, we take on a recon on what the greatest Hero of all time did and what he left behind…
RIP Philly Bongoley Lutaaya
