Nile Beat Artists

Group Information

The Nile Beat Artists are led by Haruna Walusimbi. Other performers include Robert Muwenda, Babayaza Sumaya and Kalungi Justine.

They are based in Jinja and perform traditional Ugandan dances. The group takes their name from the River Nile, which starts at Jinja on the edge of Lake Victoria.

A previous member of the band was Seby Ntege, who left Uganda in the early 2000s and moved to the UK, keen to evolve his sound. He plays the Kora, and much of his writing combines West African instruments with an East African writing style.

Song Meanings

“Ikobo Kobo”:  It is a type of herb.  It is a song about a girl who is very bitter because her mother will not let her play with her friends freely.  The mother explains to her that she was barren but the spirits helper her to conceive so the spirits set the condition that she should never play in the rain.

“Amagombe”:  This is a song about the death of the leader’s father.  He wrote it after his father’s death.  The song is about what his father told him before he died.

“Ebibira”:  This song talks about the dangers of deforestation.  The forest is where the spirits of  the fore fathers can rest.  If you destroy the forests, you destroy their homes so they will be loitering around and the living won’t have any peace.