Obituary: Ekuka Morris Sirikiti (1961–2024)

Ekuka Morris Sirikiti, who hailed from the Langi tribe of Lira, northern Uganda, passed away at the end of last year. He was laid to rest in his ancestral home of Abiya in a coffin designed to resemble the lukeme (thumb piano) instrument with which he had become synonymous.

Ekuka joined bands while still at school and slowly built his reputation as a lukeme player, performing at national functions and traditional marriages. He also became known for playing the ‘Me-Ekuka’, a drum-and-shaker instrument of his own design .

He took his role as a griot (storyteller) very seriously; in fact, ‘arabkop’, a word meaning ‘messenger’, was carved into the front of his lukeme. Many of his songs held important socio-political messages, including ‘Kwon Otino Anyira’, in which he urges parents to send both boys and girls to school. He even wrote a song about the importance of paying taxes, ‘Onyo Ocolo’, after which the Ugandan president gifted him a motorbike by way of thanks.

Ekuka gained international fame after Nyege Nyege Tapes went searching for traditional artists in the north of Uganda. Devoted fans played radio recordings of Ekuka to the label, and Nyege Nyege eventually met him after asking him to sing about the importance of education as part of an early-grade literacy programme.

After Nyege Nyege released Ekuka (2018), a compilation of Ekuka’s recordings for radio from the late 1970s onwards, he followed up with an album of new recordings, TE-KWARO ALANGO-EKUKA, last year. It gave fans the opportunity to hear his voice at studio quality for the first time. The album was a Top of the World in #203.

As his son Ogwal Francis Billington states: “Ekuka uplifted the spirit of the Lango [a sub-region of Abiya] through his great lyrical skill and utmost love for his culture. He proved to the world that one’s tradition, if upheld with passion, can make one great.”