Sukuma Bin Ongaro: My 60 years in the local music industry

Legendary benga artiste Wilson Omutere, popularly known as Sukuma Bin Ongaro, has been in the music industry since 1962.

Born in 1946 in Ebukambuli village in Mulwanda, Kisa Central, in Kakamega County, Ongaro lost his father at a tender age.

“I was very young when my father, Ongaro Omondi, died. I don’t remember the exact year. In fact, I could not understand it when I saw people mourning in our home,” recalls Ongaro.

His mother Jessica Kubondo became the family’s sole breadwinner. The fourth-born in a family of eight comprising five brothers and three sisters, Ongaro says it was difficult for their mother to take care of the family.

She used to brew traditional beer, busaa, which earned her money to take care of her eight children, said Ongaro during the interview at his home in Mulwanda.

He did not attend school, because he would spend the day helping his mother brew busaa. He would also graze the family cattle at the nearby grazing fields.

“Our mother could not afford to pay school fees for my elder siblings, all of whom had dropped out of school. But I learned Kiswahili and a bit of English from my friends,” he says.

Drawn to the music he listened to on the family radio, Ongaro grew particularly fond of the music of David Amunga and Isaiah Mwinamo.

At 13, Ongaro made his own first guitar from the wires of a sieve he stole from home. It was used to sieve the flour from dried cassava ground on a stone.

“I went with the sieve to the grazing fields, where I dismantled it and used its wires to craft a six-string guitar. It sounded awful, but it was the beginning of a lifelong undertaking.”

He later made several guitars, hoping one would be good enough. His mother caned him for destroying the family sieve, but that did not deter him.

After making three guitars, Ongaro says, the fourth one sounded much better. “My neighbours would gather around to listen to my music, though the guitar output was not the best.”

He requested his mother to buy him a good guitar, but she could not raise the money to buy one from the nearest music shop in Kakamega town, about 50km away.

“Luckily, my elder sister got married and two cows were paid for her dowry. I was shocked when my mother offered me one cow to sell and buy a guitar.”

After acquiring the guitar, the young Ongaro again approached his mother, asking for money to travel to Nairobi to record his music.

In 1962, his mother reluctantly offered him the fare. He had never been to the city before but was determined to go and meet Amunga and Mwinamo.

On the travel date, he woke up early and walked from his Ebukambuli village to the Yala railway station to board the train to Nairobi.

Being so young, the attendants doubted whether he was eligible for a ticket. Ongaro says he was asked to raise his right hand and touch his left ear.

“I passed the test and was given the ticket,” he says. “We arrived in Nairobi the following day at 8am. Since I didn’t have a place to go, I opted to remain at the railway station.”

When asked by the railway askaris why he was not leaving, he lied that the person who was to receive him had not shown up. He stayed at the railway station until evening, and the kind askaris gave him a place to sleep.

“What they didn’t know was that that house would be my home for several days. I stayed at the station for two weeks.”

He made friends with the guards, as he would entertain them.

After two weeks at the railway station, Ongaro one day bumped into a familiar person from his home village.

Ongaro narrated to the neighbour his ordeal and his intention to meet Amunga and Mwinamo.

The neighbour took him to Amunga’s office in the city centre and introduced him.

“Amunga asked me to sing some of my songs. He loved them on the spot. He told me to see him after five days. So I went back to my ‘home’ at the railway station.”

When he eventually met Amunga for the first production, Ongaro produced two songs — “Ongaro Alikufa”, a song about his late father, and “Leunidah Ang’iyo”, a woman he used to date from Butere.

He says Amunga gave him Sh50 for the two songs and took over their copyrights. “I didn’t know I was working to make someone rich,” he says.

The songs hit the airwaves and people loved them. Amunga barred any other producer from working with him.

After several years working with Amunga, Charles Apondi, a benga producer from Ugunja, Siaya County, who owned Sang’alo Studios, signed him up for Sh300 per song produced.

After two years with Sang’alo Studios, an Asian producer called Chandarana signed him up forSh600 per song.

“It is like I had become a beautiful lady that every man was chasing after. My music was indeed selling.”

After Chandarana, another producer of Asian origin, called Kundi, offered him Sh1,000 per song before Oluoch Kanindo poached him and started paying him Sh2,000.

Ongaro says he has worked with so many producers that he cannot remember all of them. The last producer of his secular music before he shifted to gospel music was Wycliffe Nyamwata.

Some of his famous hits are  “Wacha Waseme”, “Kazi ya Msumeno Imenishinda”, “Kila Siku Suku”, “Oluchendo Lwe Mwalo”, “Amajini Keshirandu”, “Jirani Kuno”, “Malaba Border” and “Nerea Utaolewa Lini?”

Ongaro has two wives — Beatrice Ayoyi, with whom he has seven children, and Rose Khatenje, with whom he has five children.

In 2010, Ongaro “was called by God” and he got “saved” together with his two wives. He now composes gospel music and has changed his name from Sukuma Bin Ongaro to Willy Sukuma Bin Yesu.

His firstborn son, Charles Ongaro, who plays the solo guitar, has taken over his father’s band and renamed it Ongaro Junior Band. His last-born son, Lucas Amakobe, is a dancer in the band.