Inzu ya Masaaba to honor Bugisu anthem authors

Mbale, (UG):- Bugisu Cultural Institution; Inzu Ya Masaaba has unveiled plans to honour and recognize the brains behind the composition of its anthem in a move aimed at promoting creativity in the kingdom.

The Bamasaaba cultural anthem which traces its origin to the establishment of the Inzu Ya Masaaba is quite old in terms of years, although its authors and composers have never been brought into the limelight for recognition for their efforts.

The cultural anthem begins with the stanzas; “Khusiima weele lwe  Shishalo Masaaba, Shillimo umukuka wee ffe Uweshirifa, Shillimo imwanyi ni Lukingi masaaba, Shillimo bibindu biyangisa babanu.

The encased summary states, “We thank God for the land of Masaaba, which land has His  Highness the Umukuka, the land has coffee and Mt Masaaba and other wonders that can mesmerize people. The anthem continues outlining the relevancy of unity and hard work among bamasaba people.

The anthem of bamasaba is a true departure from the oral traditions of bamasaba which claims that Mundu and Serah were the creators of bamasaba and that they evolved out of a hole on top of Mount Elgon. This appears to ignore that old narrative of creation and exalts what is captured in the Bible as more authentic in terms of creation than the mundu mythic view.

Mrs Eleanore Songoh Hanyiga says the various stanzas in the anthem were proposed by Professor Nabudere, Professor Wangusa, and Mr. Wakiro among others.

Mrs Hanyiga as she is fondly called is an  English and music-trained teacher and hails from Sironko, while Professor Nabudere and Mr Wakiro were promoters of the inzu ya masaba.

Prof Wangusa is a prominent linguist, scholar and academic and served as a minister in Museven ‘s Government in the formative days of the NRM including working as a lecturer at Makerere University.

The New leadership of Inzuyamasaba led by Umukuka III of Bamasaaba His Highness Jude Mike Mudoma is set to recognize writers and composers of the Lumasaba cultural anthem locally known as Shishiwooya or Khukhuwooya since anthems can’t be sung.

Some of the original proposers of the anthem like Professor Nabudere will have to be recognized posthumously, while the living ones like Professor Wangusa, Mr Wakiro and Madam Hanyiga will meet the Umukuka in person for recognition and other cultural honours.

Mrs Hanyiga says much of her work was assembling the words as suggested by the original authors and she was more of a consultant hired to assemble what the Inzuyamasaaba members had forwarded to her for production.

“I was paid for my services and we did the recording using my son’s recording studios and choir team,” says Mrs Hanyiga who eventually was paid 500,000shs, adding that the biggest credit should go to the likes of Nabudere and Wangusa.

Mrs Hanyiga says she distanced herself from some stanzas in the anthem proposed by late Professor Nabudere which appeared to equate God with Umukuka. She says attributing the word Shirifa to both God and Umukuka was wrong, as God is above Umukuka, a trillion times.

Since even somewhere in the stanzas God is requested to protect umukuka, Hanyiga says she replaced the word Shirifa with Uwelukoosi, though old bits of the anthem still have Umukuka Uweshirifa putting the cultural leader on the same plane with God.

Inzu ya Masaaba is not the only cultural institution with an anthem, Buganda, for example, has its “ekyitibwa Kya Buganda” or [the pride of Buganda ] which was composed way back in 1939 and the Bunyoro anthem composed by Reverend Nkurukenda as a reward to bunyoro for educating him. Many of these composers of the cultural anthems were either music teachers or poets in a way while other anthems like that of Israel were written as poem.

The Inzuyamasaba or Bamasaba anthem has continuously created unity among bamasaba, encouraged love of their territory, and tickled the youths to focus on agriculture, education and above all defending masaabaland and serving God. This anthem should be followed by every Umumasaba whether in Kenya, diaspora or here in various parts of the country. Our motto as bamasaba is a further amplification of the various stanzas in our anthem which rallies all bamasaba to the defense of masabaland.

We can defend masaabaland using spears, arrows and horns to alert bamasaba in case of trouble from bamya (foreigners) who want to attack masabaland.

The various stanzas encourage us to educate and farm instead of stealing from others, it is not our culture to steal, we are encouraged to be custodians of what we are mandated to protect and not robbers.