Popo traces his mighty steps

It is early evening on shores of the Indian Ocean and Jacques Murigande aka Mighty Popo’s vocals fill the air as he entertains at the Golden Tulip Hotel in Dar es Salaam during the Francophone week.

Popo’s journey into music hasn’t been an easy pursuit as he forms part of the Rwandese community that was born and grew up in the Diaspora.

His journey can be experienced through his five albums, from the blues-driven self-titled 1997 debut to 2010’s “Gakondo”, a mix of original and traditional songs of Rwanda.

“It really began, became possible, after the liberation of Rwanda in 1994,” Popo said of his return to the land of a thousand hills.

“My father returned in 1996 and I came here, for the very first time, in 1998, which was around the time that I was recording “Dunia Yote”, which came out in 2000. And, while that album was recorded in Ottawa, it was well informed by my travels home.”

The 48-year-old Popo was in fact born in neighbouring Burundi in a small village called Ngagara.

His parents, both Tutsis, had left Rwanda in 1960, his father having spent three months in jail after being found in possession of a Grundig radio and binoculars.

“Ample proof,” Popo wryly explains, “that my father was whatever the government, were accusing him, a young educated Tutsi, of.”

Rwanda is home to an equal number of those who were born outside of the country as those who are native born. Exiles, like Popo who left Burundi in 1987 to come to Canada, continue to return to take part in Rwanda’s rebuilding.

His upbringing has a lot of influences in the music he plays today.

“In the neighbourhood where I grew up there was so much creativity going on around, I saw a lot of creative people around.”

In his early days he listened to different types of music and his major passion was playing guitar but then instruments were very hard to come by.

“I always got goose bumps when I saw a guitar and I obviously had to learn how to play one and it’s the instrument I play to date,” he says.

Growing up in a refugee camp always left him empty, all he wanted was to grow up like any other child and lead a normal life and get full access to opportunities and priorities.

This was a major reason behind the decision to move to Canada in 1987 to start another life where they live for over two decades.

“I came from speaking Kinyarwanda, French and a little bit of Swahili into a completely different world with different weather and new ways of life but then I had to adjust.”

After a few months in Canada he met Francois Champagne who helped him establish himself musically.

Popo soon started playing in different bands and gigs with commercial value.

“I started making money, meeting more people, making new friends, going places but most importantly he bought guitars for me and so I got more time to play in my spare time and perfect my skills.”

The Rwanda genocide in 1994 was some turning point as it triggered his passion to write more about liberty and love.

“I started getting more lyrical in the message of universal love and why people should live together in harmony and encourage freedom among individuals.”

In 1998 Popo finally decided to go solo and he released his first album which was self titled and a testament to his travels.

In the same year he went back to Rwanda for his maiden visit and found his grandmother who greatly taught him the beauty of Rwanda, the land he had never stepped on.

“It was this holiday and my conversations that made me reflect on why I should use my musical skills to promote my culture and the beauty of Africa.”

Mighty Popo creates deep, rooted music that pays tribute to ancient, diverse traditions by weaving Rwandan and African poetry, rhythms and vocal styles.

His music kept growing, had more gigs and tours across Canada, made more money and his name kept growing, released an album after the other as nominations coloured his journey.

He got signed by Canada Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and he mentions this to have been a major breakthrough. He would soon record “Dunia Yote,” “Ngagara” and four others followed. The ‘World’ musician as he categorizes his music elaborates what helped him breakthrough in the Canadian music market was to first taking time to understand the system of the market.

He continues saying that this was made easy by connecting himself with right people for carrier development plus embracing good and right attitude to work.

He returned to Rwanda in 2012 after more than two decades in Canada to help in the country’s music rebuilding.

In March 2014 he opened a music school he called the Nyundo Music School that recruits young people annually from across Rwanda and East Africa to nurture their talents.

The school is government funded and it recruits 30 students annually who undergo a Three-year intensive course .

Popo is also the brains behind KigaliUp Festival which is a mega music festival conducted annually to bring together local and international musicians featuring world music, reggae, funk, blues, hip hop and others.

He explains his favourite kinds of music being Jazz in terms of musicality and Reggae for content. The Rwandan artiste identifies himself as a family man as he and his Rwandan wife Umurerwa Beatha have four children. Their first born Isimbi, 20, is a university student in Canada studying music majoring in performance in violin. Their other children are Ntwali (7) Isaro (5)and Juru(4months), they all live in Rwanda.