IAN ORTEGA: Why Herman Basudde is Uganda’s greatest storyteller 

Herman Basudde is Uganda’s greatest storyteller. He set the bar too high. I also suspect that his songs were based on actual experience, it is almost impossible for all these songs to have been mere life observations or imagination.

1. Eggwala
In this song, he leaves his wife at home and takes his Busega side dish for a night out. While out, the Busega Babe gets tired and simply leaves unannounced. Basudde keeps thinking his babe has been stolen by a higher bidder. Unknown to him, the girl is sleeping at the back of the car. In the wee hours of the night, Basudde sets off, goes parks in the home garage. Next day was a Sunday. The wife wakes up to prepare ekyenkya and goes to get charcoal from the garage (until recently, charcoal sacks were kept in the garage). The Busega Babe is also waking up thinking they’re still at the bar. She calls out; “Dzaddy Bassu.” What happens next? You got to listen to the song.

2. Namuddu
Here, Basudde messes with a married woman, a one Namuddu. Namuddu was a wife to a Bitengi trader. So whenever the trader would go for safari, Basudde will come into the house. He warns that when you are messing with a married woman, you never take off all your clothes. On this unlucky day, Jjuko, the trader forgets his travel documents thus returns unexpected. Nga doesn’t Basudde get locked in the wardrobe, day one, day two. It turns out Jjuko had seen Basudde and played dumb about it. He chose to mentally torture the two lovers. What happened next after two days in the wardrobe? Listen to this song.

3. Kasamba Lyanda
Once again, Basudde messes with the wife of Kasamba Lyanda. They used to meet in a coffee plantation. But they longed for a moment they would fully enjoy themselves. Luckily, Kasamba Lyanda goes on a trip. Basudde also decides to take his catch to a lodge. Little did they know, Kasamba Lyanda had also taken a Namwandu to the same lodge under the pretext of a trip. After three rounds, Kasamba Luanda’s wife goes out to shower (those days lodges had communal bathrooms). Nga doesn’t Kasamba Lyanda collide with wife. Fight breaks out. Basudde comes out only to find Kasamba Lyanda. On this one, Basudde ran off and spent the night in a wetland.

4. Akadanyuma/Kelementina
Akadanyuma is really a follow-up to Kasamba Lyanda. But it is also a warning never to return to one’s ex. You never know what would have changed from the time you left each other. Ever since the lodge incident, he’d never heard from this woman again. They met at a funeral. And they try to re-do their love. Little did he know she was now HIV positive. Luckily he drank too much, there was no action. Thus the conclusion; ‘Akadanyuma Kanyuma NGA those days…NGA munsi Mulimu eddembe.”

5. Ekyali Mu Sabo
Having been single for quite sometime, Basudde decides to visit a shrine to seek some spiritual intervention in his matters. While there, one woman comes to bring the request of containing her co-wife. She gets a diagnosis and medication. Just as she is getting done, NGA don’t they spot the co-wife also coming. The Shrine lead asks her to be calm that they would give co-wife wrong medicine. So she hides in the dark as the co-wife makes request. But co-wife’s request touches the soft things, she is asking for the children to also die. Woman springs from hiding place, fight breaks out. Basudde uses all binogo to explain this moment.

6. Mukyala Mugerwa
This is the song that introduced me to Basudde. I could sing it word for word. I would lock myself in my Aunt’s house and just listen to this song, write the lyrics. Then I would perform it for money. Mukyala Mugerwa is about a woman who poisons her husband to death so that she can enjoy her love with Basudde without disturbance. Basudde breaks off the relationship once he learned that the death of his dear friend Mugerwa was orchestrated by the wife.

I respect Paul Kafeero (greatest linguist and teacher), I respect Fred Ssebatta (as a pan Africanist and relationship coach), Peter Baligidde as a teacher, Dan Mugula, but I must say, when it comes to weaving a story, Basudde occupied a space of his own.