We, the Bongoland family, have lost one of our own. I have known Justin for more than 10 years. Our initial engagement involved the possibility of releasing a music video for his songs. That never took off until we started talking about Bongoland.
He was happy about Bongoland the movie and was willing to participate in the project. I wanted to make music videos for his old albums because he was the only artist in the country who was using Kihaya in most of his songs. The importance of this to me was that he was a person who cared about his culture and was going out of his way to make sure that it is maintained.
Justin was a man of few words. As much as he wanted to convey different messages, you almost had to force him to express his opinion publicly. When it came to singing, it was a different story. Justin sang about many issues—women, love, money, the powerful. And he always sang about the underdog. The little guy.
In a song like Wamachinga, about street vendors in Dar, he lamented to the government and public about the mistreatment of street vendors in that city. He sang about AIDS orphans and the way they are abused by relatives who are supposedly looking after them—instead turning them into child workers.
In Ganyira Nyoko, he sang about rebellious teenagers who grow up and stop listening to their mothers. In this song he is warning them to be kind to their mothers since they are the ones who brought them into this world. He reminds them not to forget that the first words that they uttered were “mama, mama, mama.”. Or as he put it, “Ebigambo byo wagambire mbele ni Mama, Mama, Mama….”
Kalikawe cared a lot about his culture. He often talked about the continual erosion of our music, our way of life. He always thought that in spite of the need for development, like the arrival of TV, there will always be a big price to pay. Angalia vijana wanamuziki wa siku hizi, wanajifanya wamarekani kuliko wamarekani wenyewe, meaning look at young musicians right now, they try to be more like Americans than the Americans themselves.
To deal with the issue of cultural erosion, Kalikawe wrote and sang songs in Swahili and Kihaya. This made him very popular in the Kagera region and the whole of East Africa. He was admired by many for not jumping on to the Hip Hop bandwagon that is swallowing many African musicians.
Kalikawe lived a very simple life in Bukoba. As much as he had an opportunity to leave this small town of Bukoba and go to the big cities like Dar or even neighboring Mwanza, he preferred to make Bukoba his home base. It was amazing to hear the local radio broadcast from Mwanza (Radio Free Africa) playing one of his tunes, and then later that day to meet him on foot buying fish in the Bukoba market.
Last January 2003, as I sat in my house in Kibeta Bukoba, Kalikawe came in one afternoon and we talked for few hours. He wanted to have a video made for his song Ugenini. We set a date and one afternoon he took us to a perfect location in Bukoba to shoot this video. I had lived in Bukoba almost my entire life and I had no idea this spot existed.
We shot different videos for this song. As it got late, a small crowd gathered around us, watching their hero—a local celebrity. In his humble style, he took time to greet people and let them know to keep quiet because we are recording a video. He conversed with these people (neighbors) in Kihaya. Waitu mulesiza twinao akalimo, mulatuganyila waitu. “Please we need you to be quiet, we are taping a video here, please be kind.”
I always knew Kalikawe was ahead of his time. His vision about the future was amazing. I don’t think he made much money from his music, but his total dedication to his message was amazing. He produced more than 5 albums. His last one was Kaitu Kaira. In this album he included the song Ugenini, which he composed specifically for Bongoland. In this album, Kalikawe is also singing in Luganda from the neighboring Uganda.
In my opinion, the success of current musicians like Saida, also from Bukoba, can be attributed to the foundation laid by Kalikawe. He made it normal to sing Junomwatani in Kihaya and make it a popular song in the whole of Tanzania. This is what Saida has done by singing most of her songs in Kihaya and then enjoying acceptance from the whole of East Africa.
In the last few years, Kalikawe was very concerned about the introduction of copyright laws in Tanzania and he was personally involved in enforcing these laws. Looking at street vendors in Bukoba town selling his pirated music, Kalikawe said unawasikia wezi hawa, meaning “listen to these thieves”. They passed from street to street blasting his music loudly to get the attention of would-be buyers. He served on a regional chapter of artists against pirating. He expressed his frustration about how to enforce these laws. Watu wengi hawajui hata haki miliki ni nini – people don’t even know what copyrights mean.
It is very difficult for me to write about Justin Kalikawe as though I am writing about a certain character in a movie. This is because I shared with him a vision of the future of our culture. This is why we connected to collaborate in Bongoland.
I am also very sad that he never saw Bongoland as a finished product. I hope wherever he is, he can still see it as I believe he is still with us to a great extent.
In the words of JFK, Death should be accepted as a natural part of existence, part of the bargaining met with life at birth. So, for all that has been, thanks; and for all that is to come…yes. The yesterdays are not for us to recover, but the tomorrows are for us to win…
Mungu baba mwenye rehema, ibariki roho ya kaka yetu Justin. Mweke mahali pema milele hata milele. Amina.
Kwa ndugu na jamaa wote wa pale Bukoba na sana sana pale Kitendagulo, tunawapa pole sana. Mungu amweke mahali pema peponi.
We will miss you, Justin!!!!!
- Josiah Mwesigwa Kibira
You can listen to one of Justin's songs at http://stockholm.music.museum/mmm/africa/justkali.html.