I join the millions mourning the passing of Moses Matovu, but I mourn him from a particularly personal place.
For more than a decade, Moses was my partner in an extraordinary cultural journey.
I first met Moses in London in 1991, when we sat down to discuss what was supposed to be a business arrangement involving Afrigo Band.
That meeting began a relationship that would continue for more than ten years. From 1992 to 2001, through African Culture Promotions (ACP), I promoted Afrigo Band, its concerts, and its music internationally.
Yet, looking back, I realise that neither Moses nor I was driven primarily by money. Something deeper connected us: a love and respect for African culture and a determination to promote it through music and cultural practices
The name Afrigo itself captured that spirit — Africa Go. It fitted almost perfectly with African Culture Promotions, which I had established in London to promote African cultures.
Looking back more than three decades later, I can see that those years were part of a much longer journey. ACP eventually came home, evolving into the ACP–Community Research and Training Centre in Uganda, with its work extending into research, training, and social development.
That same underlying vision would later help inspire the founding of the Global People’s Network (GPN) , global in outlook, but still carrying something of the conviction that connected Moses and me all those years ago: that African cultures, knowledge and experiences have value not only for Africans, but for the wider human family.
Perhaps that is why my memories of Moses go far beyond concerts, recordings, and business. We were participating, even then, in something we both believed in.
Those were difficult years for Ugandans at home and abroad. HIV/AIDS was devastating families and communities, particularly in Uganda. Many Ugandans in Britain were also living with uncertain immigration status and the emotional burdens of displacement. Bringing Afrigo Band to Ugandan communities abroad, therefore, meant much more than organising concerts.
For a few precious hours, people could gather, hear familiar languages, dance to familiar rhythms, and feel connected again to home.
And what adventures we had!
On one occasion, in my enthusiasm and perhaps my naivety, I took the entire band from London to Stockholm* without having obtained the necessary work permits. We were stopped at the airport. After what seemed like an eternity of uncertainty, we were eventually allowed into Sweden. Those were perhaps more forgiving days!
What stays with me, however, is how *Moses and the band* took the whole episode in good spirit. There was no drama and no recrimination.
That was Moses
Our journeys to the United States were equally memorable, particularly our trips to *Boston and Chicago,* where Ugandans gathered to experience a little piece of home. Looking back, these were not simply international tours.
We were carrying Uganda with us.
Afrigo’s music also carried messages. Songs such as Speed Control spoke directly to communities about HIV/AIDS, prevention, and responsibility. The music entertained, certainly, but it could also educate, comfort, and reconnect a scattered people.
My relationship with Afrigo went well beyond promoting concerts. Through ACP Records, I served as Executive Producer, financing, producing and releasing six Afrigo Band CD albums from 1994 onwards. This was not simply a distribution arrangement. ACP invested in recording Afrigo’s music and taking it to wider audiences as part of our larger mission of promoting African culture.
And how could I ever forget the recording of Mp’eddembe?
I spent an entire night in a London recording studio with Moses and the full Afrigo Band recording it. By the time we emerged, I was so exhausted I could barely see straight! Yet it remains one of my treasured memories, watching Moses at work, surrounded by his musicians, creating the music that we would later release through ACP Records.
Those recordings, including Jim, Mp’eddembe, Obangaina, Sikulimba, Julie, and others, gave me the privilege of working alongside Moses during one of Afrigo’s most creative periods.
But after all these years, what do I remember most?
His humility
For someone carrying such extraordinary musical talent and influence, Matuvu remained remarkably humble. I witnessed it through successes and difficulties, airports and concerts, recording studios, and long journeys. I knew not only the Moses Matovu audiences saw on stage, but *Moses the working musician and bandleader — patient, committed, creative, and remarkably unassuming.
Perhaps one of his greatest legacies is not simply the music he created, but the generations of younger musicians who passed through Afrigo and benefited from his example and mentorship.
African live bands have come and gone. Musical fashions have changed. Generations have changed. Uganda itself has changed.
Afrigo remained
That, perhaps, is one of the greatest tributes to Moses Matovu.
I send my deepest condolences to his family, to every member, past and present of Afrigo Band, and to the countless Ugandans and Africans whose lives have been accompanied by his music.
Moses has left us, but the music has not
Perhaps the most fitting tribute is contained in the name itself:
AFRIGO — AFRICA GO.
So Afrigo must go on.
Rest peacefully, Moses Matovu.
Thank you for the music, the friendship, the humility — and, above all, the journey.
Gertrude Kamya Othieno Former Executive Producer, ACP Records Founder & Vision Bearer, *Global People’s Network *GPN)
