Calypso-Trinidad’s Folk Music rocks Uganda

When you see children dancing calypso in Kampala suburbs, do you think of the two island Republic of Trinidad and Tobago? This lively music with catchy rhythms and unmistakable style is becoming popular in Uganda again ever since its first introduction in the 1970s. According to the book Calypso Calaloo, the name Calypso can refer to either ‘any song that after about 1898 was sung at Carnival time in Trinidad, either in the streets by revelers or in staged performances by semiprofessional or professional singers.” Calypso may have been inspired by the historical African storyteller tradition that was brought to Trinidad by African slaves. Subsequently, cherished elements of African song, dance and drumming, along with French, Hispanic, English and other ethnic influences formed a matrix from which calypso eventually emerged. Calypso is respected for its biting wit and word picture style. Early calypso singers in Trinidad and Tobago had humour as their forte. People came to their tents principally to be entertained, to hear rumours and confirm events they had heard about. The upper classes, especially, came to hear what the lower classes were doing, while the governor and his entourage came to see how high or low their political ratings were.
In modern Uganda, it is believed that Mariam Ndagire reintroduced the dance in the musically liberal country but His Excellency Bobi Wine, the self styled Ghetto President popularized it in his PAM Award- winning Song of the Year 2006 entitled ‘Bada’. So the next time you are at your favourite joint eating ‘rollex’, chips, chicken and ‘kikomando’, or sipping malwa, busheera and cappuccino, enjoy the lively catchy sound and dance that has captured the imagination of young and old Ugandans alike.