Mum was my father â€" Isaiah Katumwa
FOR Isaiah Katumwa, Uganda’s saxophone connoisseur, ‘father’ is a word he has learnt to use only lately. That is why as the majority celebrate father this weekend, the jazz maestro will his celebrate mother instead.
By Nigel Nassar
FOR Isaiah Katumwa, Uganda’s saxophone connoisseur, ‘father’ is a word he has learnt to use only lately. That is why as the majority celebrate father this weekend, the jazz maestro will his celebrate mother instead.
His mother, Samalie Muwanga Kisakye, played both roles in his life — her own as mother, as well as that meant to be played by the boy’s absentee father, Jackson Katumwa.
Although the saxophonist and his dad now have a close relationship, which Katumwa is quick to point out, the facts remain indelible — he was never there throughout Katumwa’s childhood.
“My mother was the other wife,†Katumwa recalls. “But by the time I started understanding, she and dad, for reasons I have never understood till now, were not in touch.
So I grew up seeing mother do everything to make sure I ate, went to school and had a childhood.â€
Growing up in Mukono district, little Katumwa, now one of Africa’s best parapandas, lived a difficult childhood.
Because of her meagre means, his mother could not solely support him, so she kept ‘serving’ him up to different relatives to foster him while she ran all sorts of errands to make a living.
She always took part of her earnings to the said relative to help in Isaiah’s upkeep.
“There were times when mother came to see me and sensed I was unhappy, probably when that relative was fed up of me.
She took me away and while she figured out who else would accept me, I would wake up with her at 5:00am daily to go digging. Interestingly, these hard times are my favourite moments with mum.â€
The little boy was a lazy kid, so the one prayer his mum always said for him was that he grow up to get a good job and not have to dig.
Luckily for Katumwa, his hoe now is that shiny music instrument called the saxophone, which has endeared him to audiences worldwide.
Wherever he has played, people have tipped their fedoras. His scintillating saxophone melodies have summoned the best of people’s merrymaking moods at weddings, concerts and awards ceremonies.
And while all rejoice, they do not know that this talent is an outcome of one woman’s effort. She chose to forego everything to take care of this child.
She did not even know she was raising a star. She just did what mothers do best — dispense the love, which in this case was twofold.
His father had stopped paying his fees in P.3. He was seven. This would have been as far as he would go in school, but his mother luckily met Washington Mugerwa, the director of Reverend John Foundation School in Kitintale, who enrolled him in his school.
In the place of fees, his mother retired to the village, tilled the land and supplied food to the school. Come holidays, Katumwa would join his mother.
Together, they endured the long sunny days in the garden to make enough food for next term’s barter.
At this school, Katumwa excelled in music, dance and drama. When his mother attended talent shows at the school, young Katumwa outdid himself on stage to make his mother smile because he knew this woman’s story was so different from the others’ in that room.
It is also here that Katumwa excelled in playing instruments, especially the saxophone under the strict tutelage of Mugerwa.
Even after leaving Mugerwa’s school, Katumwa still played for the school band in exchange for school fees at Kyambogo College, where he finished O’ level before going back to the drawing board to figure out with his mother how to attend high school, which he eventually completed.
Today, the gospel artiste, also a graduate of sound engineering and music technology from City of West Minster, London, looks back at the calming waters and marvels at the power of God’s will.
Most of all, he wonders whether he will ever do enough to say ‘thank you’ to his mother, who now lives off him and tends her lawn and gardens in Mukono.
“Nothing I will ever do can thank her enough.
That is why at my concerts, mother, who quietly sits in the audience and admires her success story on stage, is ever my guest of honour.â€
At every concert, Katumwa plays the hymn Wind Beneath My Wings by Bette Midler, to honour her as the wind beneath his wings.
“No one knows it’s dedicated to her, but she and I do — it’s our little secret. And this weekend on Father’s Day, I celebrate you, mother.
You are my queen and I love you more than you can imagine. Still, I celebrate father for seeking me out and explaining everything. I love you dad, and happy Father’s Day,†he says.
FOR Isaiah Katumwa, Uganda’s saxophone connoisseur, ‘father’ is a word he has learnt to use only lately. That is why as the majority celebrate father this weekend, the jazz maestro will his celebrate mother instead.
His mother, Samalie Muwanga Kisakye, played both roles in his life — her own as mother, as well as that meant to be played by the boy’s absentee father, Jackson Katumwa.
Although the saxophonist and his dad now have a close relationship, which Katumwa is quick to point out, the facts remain indelible — he was never there throughout Katumwa’s childhood.
“My mother was the other wife,†Katumwa recalls. “But by the time I started understanding, she and dad, for reasons I have never understood till now, were not in touch.
So I grew up seeing mother do everything to make sure I ate, went to school and had a childhood.â€
Growing up in Mukono district, little Katumwa, now one of Africa’s best parapandas, lived a difficult childhood.
Because of her meagre means, his mother could not solely support him, so she kept ‘serving’ him up to different relatives to foster him while she ran all sorts of errands to make a living.
She always took part of her earnings to the said relative to help in Isaiah’s upkeep.
“There were times when mother came to see me and sensed I was unhappy, probably when that relative was fed up of me.
She took me away and while she figured out who else would accept me, I would wake up with her at 5:00am daily to go digging. Interestingly, these hard times are my favourite moments with mum.â€
The little boy was a lazy kid, so the one prayer his mum always said for him was that he grow up to get a good job and not have to dig.
Luckily for Katumwa, his hoe now is that shiny music instrument called the saxophone, which has endeared him to audiences worldwide.
Wherever he has played, people have tipped their fedoras. His scintillating saxophone melodies have summoned the best of people’s merrymaking moods at weddings, concerts and awards ceremonies.
And while all rejoice, they do not know that this talent is an outcome of one woman’s effort. She chose to forego everything to take care of this child.
She did not even know she was raising a star. She just did what mothers do best — dispense the love, which in this case was twofold.
His father had stopped paying his fees in P.3. He was seven. This would have been as far as he would go in school, but his mother luckily met Washington Mugerwa, the director of Reverend John Foundation School in Kitintale, who enrolled him in his school.
In the place of fees, his mother retired to the village, tilled the land and supplied food to the school. Come holidays, Katumwa would join his mother.
Together, they endured the long sunny days in the garden to make enough food for next term’s barter.
At this school, Katumwa excelled in music, dance and drama. When his mother attended talent shows at the school, young Katumwa outdid himself on stage to make his mother smile because he knew this woman’s story was so different from the others’ in that room.
It is also here that Katumwa excelled in playing instruments, especially the saxophone under the strict tutelage of Mugerwa.
Even after leaving Mugerwa’s school, Katumwa still played for the school band in exchange for school fees at Kyambogo College, where he finished O’ level before going back to the drawing board to figure out with his mother how to attend high school, which he eventually completed.
Today, the gospel artiste, also a graduate of sound engineering and music technology from City of West Minster, London, looks back at the calming waters and marvels at the power of God’s will.
Most of all, he wonders whether he will ever do enough to say ‘thank you’ to his mother, who now lives off him and tends her lawn and gardens in Mukono.
“Nothing I will ever do can thank her enough.
That is why at my concerts, mother, who quietly sits in the audience and admires her success story on stage, is ever my guest of honour.â€
At every concert, Katumwa plays the hymn Wind Beneath My Wings by Bette Midler, to honour her as the wind beneath his wings.
“No one knows it’s dedicated to her, but she and I do — it’s our little secret. And this weekend on Father’s Day, I celebrate you, mother.
You are my queen and I love you more than you can imagine. Still, I celebrate father for seeking me out and explaining everything. I love you dad, and happy Father’s Day,†he says.