Why Ruge’s legacy will live forever

The late Ruge Mutahaba. Photo |File

What you need to know:

  • On Monday evening, celebrities, senior government officials, friends, family and the general public converged at the late Ruge Mutahaba’s ancestral home in Bukoba, Kagera Region, for an emotional farewell to the man whose work will speak for him for decades to come

 

Dar es Salaam. Ruge Mutahaba was finally laid to rest on Monday evening at his ancestral home in Bukoba, Kagera Region, with thousands of mourners turning up to pay their last respects at an emotional farewell.

Those in attendance included celebrities, government officials, friends, family and the general public.

They all came to bid farewell to a man that many believe had the ‘Midas Touch’ in the entertainment and media fraternity.

Images of thousands of people lining up at both the Julius Nyerere International Airport (JNIA) and Bukoba airport to escort his remains were humbling and probably ones that will last for many years to come.

Touted as the man who dared commercialise the nascent Bongo Flava genre, Ruge Mutahaba had several initiatives that will forever touch people’s lives

Bongo Flava and Clouds FM

Towards the close of the millennium, something changed in the entertainment industry in Tanzania. A new radio station had been born, and at the helm was a young, soft-spoken man, who his charges only referred to as Ruge.

Together with his compatriot Joseph Kusaga, they had dared to dream of a new radio station, Clouds FM, that would change the perception of local talent and entertainment landscape.

In a book that is yet to be published, ‘Bongo Flava: The Evolution’, Ruge says they didn’t have the money, neither did they know how to do it; all they had was the belief.

Yet not even their own parents shared their chosen path, to them it was somewhat a wild-goose-chase.

“We believed there was room for us to make some money in the most unconventional ways, and to promote local content because some young men had started making music,” Ruge says.

It was a dream that was to materialise after they got a soft loan from Alex Kusaga (Joe’s father) with their first studios at NHC House before they moved to their permanent home. Today, it is probably the most popular radio station in Tanzania.

Here, they embarked on a journey to make Bongo Flava a force to reckong with on radio stations, something that earlier disciples such as Taji Liundi and Mike Mhagama had struggled with.

Summer Jam - Fiesta

Having started off with entertainment as their core business with Clouds Entertainment staging gigs across the country, they realised there was need for a better platform.

The birth of Summer Jam in 1999 which later transformed into Fiesta with Ruge at the helm was probably a turning point in the entertainment industry.

Fiesta which has run for almost two decades now has since become a platform where local artistes showcase their talent to the rest of the country.

Apart from local artistes the festival has also in the past two decades through its affiliate company PrimeTime Promotions flown in international artistes, especially from the US, such as Joe Thomas, Ludacris, Rick Ross, Lil Kim, Kate De Luna and many others.

The season to many artistes is one of harvest given the nature of the industry today where artistes no longer sale hard copy, instead they depend on gigs to make ends meet.

Many festivals that came after have modelled themselves around Fiesta in many ways, especially in terms of organisation.

Smooth Vibes

Among the projects that Ruge masterminded was the birth of what was probably the first record label in Tanzania , Smooth Vibes.

The year was 1999, a label that is hailed as a ground-breaking success story for much of the genres of music and several big names in the entertainment industry.

“When we started, the aim was to look for potential musicians and to have a platform to support them,” Ruge Mutabaha, told The Citizen in an interview in 2012.

He added: “The idea was to do projects, not management but we realised that artistes could not manage themselves, so we added the concept of management as well.”

Little know to many people, despite having a very busy schedule, he always had time to write songs, some were part of the songs that were included in the albums of the early artistes.

Lady Jaydee was one of the first beneficiaries of the Smooth Vibes Project and the result was a studio album ‘Machozi’ in 2001, one that thrust her into the limelight.

Sauti za Busara - Zanzibar

In 2004, a new festival was born in Zanzibar and its founders were quick to name it Sauti za Busara, which translates into ‘Sounds of Wisdom’ and over the years the festival has become one of the best in Africa.

Not much is known how the idea was born, but the festival that showcases unique African music live had Ruge Mutahaba alongside Emerson Skeems, Ahmed Juma, Yusuf Mahmoud , Stella Stephan, Simai Mohammed Said, Waziri Ali and Chuchu as the founding members.

With its home at the iconic Ngome Kongwe, the festival has turned the usually dull February a high season for tourism on the Isles with almost 20,000 attending the 2018 edition of the festival.

The festival too has become a platform where up and coming artistes showcase their talent to the global audience that turn up from almost every corner of the world.

Tanzania House of Talent -THT

Towards mid 2007, Smooth Vibes went on a sabbatical because most of the artistes that they had started with had either outgrown the label or were into other things, the game plan had to change.

“By 2007, the artistes we had started out with hard become grown, so we decided to stop for a while and do other things, “says Mutabaha

That sabbatical was perhaps where the idea of starting THT, an entity that has churned out several artistes.

Today the entity is proud of honing skills of musicians such as Linah Sanga, Recho, Ruby, Barnabas, Amini, Mwasiti, Marlaw, Nandy and many others who have gone on to dominate airplay on several radio stations.

Apart from these, others who honed their skills include producers such as Tudi Thomas, Santana, Charles Clinton, Ringtone, and Imma The Boy.

Fursa

There are so many things that Ruge worked on, but in 2013 he realized that despite Tanzania being a country with a host of opportunities, especially in agriculture, many young Tanzanians remained unemployed.

He launched the Fursa, a campaign that was meant to rally young men and women towards taking up opportunities that was available in their areas across the country.

Though the beginning it targeted a few regions where the Fiesta gigs were held it later expanded to include the whole country. This campaign, as many have come to admit, was an eye opener to many young people and it endeared Ruge to many young people who christened him ‘Mzee wa Fursa’.

Malkia wa Nguvu

This was an initiative that recognised women’s contributions in the economy, held annually with the climax coming on International Women’s Day. The initiative encouraged women to take up opportunities and to empower themselves in different fields. The last recipient of the ‘Malkia wa Nguvu’ crown in 2018 was Grace Msemwa who was crowned for her entrepreneurial skills.