Kampala, Uganda | URN | Veteran musician and Afrigo Band icon Moses Matovu has died after he was attacked by unidentified assailants in Kampala. Matovu breathed his last at Kibuli Hospital on Thursday morning, where he had been rushed following the attack.
Preliminary information indicates that the veteran musician was attacked as he made his way to a mosque for morning prayers. The circumstances surrounding the attack and the identity of the assailants were not immediately clear.
Matovu, who was 77, was one of the founding members of Afrigo Band, which was formed in 1975 and went on to become one of Uganda’s longest-running and most influential live bands.
He joined the music industry in the 1960s, first performing with the Thunderbirds Band before joining the Police Band and later the Cranes Band. Following the collapse of the Cranes Band, Matovu and other musicians founded Afrigo Band in 1975.
He remained the band’s central figure for decades, serving as its leader, saxophonist, vocalist and composer.With a career spanning nearly six decades, Matovu became one of the most recognisable figures in Uganda’s live-band music tradition and played a major role in keeping the genre alive through successive generations.
