Daudi Kabaka Biography
Daudi Kabaka was born in Uganda in 1939 and named after Kabaka Daudi Chwa, the Buganda king who died the same year. He was a benga musician who died in 2001.
Daudi Kabaka Early Life and Education Background
Although Kabaka’s ancestral home was Tiriki in Western Kenya, he actually spent little of his childhood or adult life there. He was born in Kyambogo Uganda (near Kampala) in 1939 (and named after Kabaka Daudi Chwa, the Buganda king who died that same year). By 1950, his father, a railway worker, had been transferred to Nairobi and Daudi came to join him and to enter St. Peter Clavers Primary School. At the age of twelve, his father found new accommodations for him with some young men who had guitars and a phonograph. This exposed him to the music of Jean Bosco, Losta Abelo, and Léon Bukasa, among others.
Daudi Kabaka Music Career
In 1954, Daudi Kabaka recorded his own composition, Nie Kabaka Naimba, for the CMS label (Capitol Music Stores).
He continued with music and school up to 1957 when he took a job with a hotel and catering company. However, his career as a food and beverage manager was short lived.
In 1959, he began working with Equator Sound Studio and soon became a salaried member of the Equator Sound Boys. As suggested above, it was a time of close cooperation and collaboration between some of Africa’s most gifted musicians. While owner/producer Charles Worrod was certainly looking after his interests in registering himself as the composer/arranger of Equator label songs, he also provided a fruitful atmosphere where his salaried staff could experiment, learn, and develop.
In the late 60s, he enrolled six of his core musicians including Daudi in a two-year course at the Conservatory of Music in Nairobi to learn music notation and theory.
In 1960s, he was one of the salaried musicians to work at Equator Sound Studio in Nairobi alongside other well-known musicians of the time: Gabriel Omolo, George Agade, David Amunga, Nashil Pichen, Peter Tsotsi, and Charles and Frida Songo, and Fadhili William. Daudi’s guitar or voice is heard in such hits as Fadhili William’s Malaika, Pole Musa by Peter Tsotsi and Nashil Pichen, Taxi Driver with Fadhili, and Gabriel Omolo’s Lunch Time. For more than a generation, one of Kabaka’s compositions, Harambee Harambee, was played hourly on the Voice of Kenya (now KBC). It was a signature tune, played at the end of every news broadcast.
That goodwill soon ended however for Daudi when Worrod learned of Daudi’s membership in the PRS (Performing Right Society) in London.
He resigned from Equator Sound and, in 1972, with some of his old Equator colleagues, they launched their own production company, African Eagles Recording, Ltd. The studio band worked under the name African Eagles Lupopo and had a number of successful releases through the mid-70s and tours through Zambia, Malawi, and Uganda.
Following the demise of African Eagles Recording, Ltd., Daudi continued to record, collaborating from time to time with old colleagues and new partners like the Maroon Commandos, though during this period, the big hits eluded him. The late 80s and early 90s was a period of semi-retirement.
While the use of Harambee Harambee was undoubtedly a source of pride if not income for Kabaka, he was perhaps even more pleased by his status as “King of Twist.” That is, “twist” in the Chubby Checker sense.
Over the next few years, Kabaka composed a series of songs with references to “twist” in the lyrics and titles, a number of which became big hits throughout East Africa: African Twist, Bachelor Boy Twist, Bush Baby Twist, Taita Twist, etc. For Kabaka and his fans, however, it wasn’t the lyrics or the titles that made it twist. It was the beat. Daudi based his twist style on the South African kwela beat. In essence, it was a fast “wemoweh” rhythm. Yet, each of his songs had something unique or innovative about them. Even his Harambee Harambee is a version of twist. The melody, however, sounds like the old American chain gang song, Worried Man Blues (popularized by the Kingston Trio as, A Worried Man). While the strumming rhythm guitar provides the twist beat, the bass is walking up and down the scale on the beat, the tambourine is on the backbeat, and the lead guitar is off doing rockabilly solos. While African Twist is, as its name suggests, a twist song, it has a much different sound than Harambee. It is a more “unplugged” sound reminiscent of other finger-picking guitarists of Western Kenya. In this case, one guitar strums chords in twist rhythm and plays a bass part on the 1st and 3rd beats; a second fills-in, for the most part, in a picking style during the verses and in solos imitating the melody. That melody is in two part vocal harmony with the twist beat also being maintained by a shaker and a timing stick.
Another of Kabaka’s twist tunes, Helule Helule, caught the attention of the British pop group, The Tremeloes. They borrowed the chorus, added some English verses and made it to number 14 in the British charts in May, 1967. For its use, Kabaka did share a substantial licensing fee with his Equator Sound producer, Charles Worrod, though Daudi questioned why he never received any further royalties. Twist was certainly not Kabaka’s only style. Kilio Kwetu has the same unplugged sound as African Twist but its beat is more like a rumba. One of my favorite songs is Western Shilo, shilo being a traditional Luhya dance rhythm. This one is an interesting mix of electric and acoustic instruments in a rhythm that is something like that of a fast trot. There is a lovely acoustic cover of this same tune spelled Chiro on Ayub Ogada’s En Mana Kuoyo CD.
Daudi Kabaka Songs
- Pole Musa
- African Twist
- Msichana wa Elimu
- Harambee Harambee
- Helule Helule
- Safari Tanganyika
- Western Shilo
- Bush baby twist
- Taabu ni kwa Mwanaume
- Kabaka Says
- Shemeji wa mjini Lilumbe
- Mulofwa Moja
- Taabu Mwanza
- Bibi Mweupe
- Bachelor Boy Twist
- Shemeji Lumbe
- Silshiwi na Ndoto
- Kilio Kwetu
- Polisi Waliamua
- Taita Twist
- Kujisifu Ulevini
- Jele Kubwa na Viboko
- Kiswahili Kipya
- Wacha Nitoboe
- Kifo Hakijui Tajiri
- Kwaheri Bwana
- Mchezo wa Shilo
- Bibi Anataka Shamba
- Njagala Twist
- Bachelor Boy
- Kifo cha Mama
- Nitakununulia Sikuta
Daudi Kabaka Photo
Daudi Kabaka Video
Harambee Harambee
This the song we normally sing every Madaraka Day Celebration