It’s 5 a.m. at the Uganda Waragi Nyege Nyege Festival, and the crowd is anything but tired. The stage is alive with energy as DJ Ssuuna Ben takes over, unleashing his signature Ebinyaanyanyanya beats.
Amid a lively crowd waving banana leaves, sticks, crates, and flags, partygoers from Kampala, Nairobi, and even beyond are swept up in the excitement. For many, it’s a new and thrilling cultural experience. For Ssuuna Ben, it’s proof that his journey from a humble beginning in Masaka has paid off.
Born in Masaka to the late John Kayondo and Proscovia Namata, Ssuuna Ben considers himself a “villager” who has worked relentlessly to bring his music to the masses.
After losing his father in 1993 while in primary three, he transferred schools, eventually completing his Primary Leaving Examinations at Kijjabwemi Primary School with the help of a family friend. His mother later enrolled him at Masaka Vocational Institute of Technology to study vehicle mechanics, but his heart was never in it.
“I loved electricity and wanted to be an electrician,” he recalls.
After two years, financial constraints forced Ssuuna to drop out. It was then that a family friend named Abedi, who had been his father’s acquaintance, offered him a lifeline—selling music tapes in his salon.
“Before my father died, he owned one of Masaka’s biggest sound systems, Smart Sound. I used some of his equipment to start selling tapes,” he says.
The Birth of Ebinyaanyanyanya
Ssuuna’s unique sound—known as Ebinyaanyanyanya—is a genre-defying style of mixing tracks with an accelerated tempo. It emerged organically during his time at Equator FM in Masaka, where he experimented with faster beats during a radio show called Zoom Africa. “Listeners loved it,” he says.
“People would hire me to play this kind of music at events, and I started gaining a following,” he says.
With its infectious rhythm, Ebinyaanyanyanya quickly became a staple at local functions, earning Ssuuna his first significant paycheck of Shs100,000 after years of playing for just Shs5,000. “That was the moment I realized I was on the right track,” he says. Soon after, he was recruited by Radio Buddu, Masaka’s biggest station, which catapulted him further into the spotlight.
For years, Ebinyaanyanyanya was considered a “local sound,” thriving mainly in rural and peri-urban communities.
But Uganda Waragi Nyege Nyege 2024 proved otherwise. Urban audiences, known for their cosmopolitan tastes, have now fully embraced Ssuuna’s energetic beats.
The sight of city elites—branches and crates in hand—dancing with unrestrained joy to what was once labeled a “village sound” marked a seismic shift.
“I never imagined my style of deejaying could cross over like this,” Ssuuna admits, visibly humbled by the reception at Nyege Nyege. “Seeing people from all walks of life enjoying Ebinyaanyanyanya is proof that our culture has a universal appeal.”
The Ebinyaanyanyanya wave has only just begun, and with Ssuuna Ben at the helm, it’s clear that this “villager” is taking his sound far beyond Masaka.
