Samite

In the stillness of night, the gentle and rhythmic melodies echo his boyhood in Uganda and reflect the man he is today, the voices singing to him in an imaginary language that only he knows. As day breaks, he heads downstairs to the studio at his Ithaca, New York, home to capture what he's heard, translating the words into his native Luganda -- or sometimes leaving them as is and letting the spirit speak for itself.

At age 53, Mulondo -- best known to African music fans as Samite of Uganda or simply Samite -- has seen more than his share of dark days, from fleeing his homeland to the deaths of those closest to him. Yet his heart remains full, because the music heals his deepest wounds, and that blessing is what he hopes to share with the world.

Samite first heard the music when he was a small child. As the son of a prominent Baganda family in Uganda's capital city of Kampala, he attended primary school at the palace of Bugandan King Edward Mutesa II. Sometimes during classes, workmen outside would enjoy raucous impromptu jam sessions on native instruments such as kalimba (thumb piano) and flute. When family members rented out an apartment block, he'd spend hours with the tenants learning their tunes.

He also found inspiration from his maternal grandfather, with whom he lived in his early teens. Although close to Kampala, his grandparents' house was far enough away to be among forests, monkeys, and other wildlife. Although his grandfather was a staunch Christian who believed in the rejection of worldly things, he harbored a love of music, too. "I'd bring him [recordings of] harmonies of people singing, and you could see him just completely leaning in and enjoying the voices. He used to play the traditional flute, and I picked that up from there," Samite said in an interview earlier this year at his Ithaca home. "I feel very lucky, because my father's side of the family, they don't sing at all. They don't dance and they don't sing."

Tensions about Samite's future would simmer through high school, when a British teacher recognized his potential and put a Western flute in his hands. Soon he became one of the most promising young flautists in East Africa, and he had his first professional gigs in a band called the Mixed Talents, who covered tunes from Rod Stewart, Kenny Rogers, and Bob Marley. His father, though, had other ideas. He wanted Samite to have a role in the family business, a sizable Nissan auto dealership, and sent his son to Uganda Technical College to be a mechanic, with the possibility of also becoming an accountant sometime down the road.

Though he said, "There's something relaxing about breaking down a whole car engine into a million pieces and then putting it back together," Samite knew, "They wanted me to be business-minded, but music was pulling me." He continued to play concerts in Kampala, but his father never attended any of them.

During Samite's formative years, Ugandan politics darkened. In 1966, Prime Minister Milton Obote overthrew King Edward Mutesa II, then president of Uganda, and drove him into exile. Elections were suspended as Obote assumed control and sparked conflict between the nation's northern and southern ethnic groups. Then, in 1971, Idi Amin seized power in a military coup and began a brutal reign of repression that earned him the nickname, "The Butcher of Uganda." An estimated 300,000 people were killed and thousands more tortured as the paranoid dictator stamped out free expression and decimated the country's economy.