Rob Veith, a friend of Inspiro, and staff member Stephanie Biggs traveled to the northeast side of Lake Victoria to the city of Jinja. This area has many churches and much missionary influence. They were traveling to meet with Peter Ekulam, a local musician who had attended the Sounds of East Africa Media Forum through Heart Sounds International in 2019. In fact, Peter was part of a group of musicians who composed, recorded, and performed the event’s theme song, “Bwana Asifiwe.” Rob Veith had worked on this song with them, and it was at this point that he told Peter he would come back to record some of his songs. 

Stephanie and Rob were able to do live recordings of some of the songs Peter and his band have written. They are very skilled in playing both Western music and African pop. The recording location available to them was an indoor gymnasium, which wasn’t ideal but was made to work with the use of some extra side rooms. Heavy rain and power cuts also made the process difficult. In the midst of recording, Rob’s computer died. He was very frustrated, as he is passionate about recording songs by talented musicians that no one has ever heard, and he was afraid they had lost everything. However, when connected to better internet later on, all of the recordings opened with no issue! 

Rob spent the next couple of months mixing and mastering everything. In November, he finished mixing the songs. A couple of the recordings wound up being not workable, but two others turned out well. The songs incorporate three different languages and are a unique style that is not typical praise and worship or East African pop, but a blend. The instrumentation featured keyboard, electric guitar, bass guitar, and a local instrument called an mbira.

We are excited to see how the Lord continues to work in Jinja through Peter’s music. Please be in prayer for him as he continues writing music. He also has a passion for training the local youth – pray God opens doors in this area!