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At the age of 24, at the height of Idi Amin's power, Oryema had to be smuggled across the Ugandan border in the trunk of a car, following the death of his father, a prominent government minister, beginning a life in exile. Idi Amin Dada Idi Amin Dada Oumee (May 17, 1928, Koboko, Uganda – August 16, 2003, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia) was an army officer and a President of Uganda (1971 - 1979) whose regime was notorious for its brutality. ...
Today his songs keep alive the languages of his youth - Swahili and Acoli and return to the lost country - the 'clear green land' of Uganda. Swahili (also called Kiswahili; see Kiswahili for a discussion of the nomenclature) is an agglutinative Bantu language widely spoken in East Africa. ...
Discography
Exile
Beat the Border
Night to Night
External links
Real World: Geoffrey Oryema: Night To Night (http://www.realworldusa.com/albumpages/oryema/default.html)
A conversation with Geoffrey Oryema (http://www.rootsworld.com/rw/feature/oryema.html), an interview by Opiyo Oloya
Amazon.com: Artist at a Glance (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/artist/glance/-/41930/002-3223396-5639239)
Born in Soroti, a town in the east of Buganda (the future Uganda) in 1953, GeoffreyOryema is descended from the kingdom's Acholi aristocracy.
Oryema's debut album achieved poignancy without going in for over-the-top backing and its sober feel marked something of a turning-point in African music, pioneering a new style of simple, acoustic arrangement rather than the big-band feel that had been in vogue throughout the 80s.
Oryema, who describes his music as "coming straight from the heart" and refuses to be "imprisoned in any kind of musical ghetto", has always concentrated his efforts on making his sound as "universal" and accessible as possible.
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