Geoffrey Oryema

Geoffrey Oryema ( born April 16, 1953 in Soroti ) is a musician from Uganda.

Biography

Oryemas family belongs to the Acholi ethnic group. Oryema was still a child when he moved to the capital Kampala with his parents, who were part of the new intellectual elite of the country after Uganda's independence in 1962. His father, an English teacher, who also taught him in music and his mother, head of the dance group The Heartbeat of Africa, took him on tour. After finishing school Oryema studied drama at Uganda's National School of Dramatic Art and wrote inspired by Bertolt Brecht, Konstantin Sergeyevich Stanislavsky and Jerzy Grotowski first pieces. When his father Erinayo Oryema Wilson, now a Ugandan Minister, under dubious circumstances in the custody of security forces of dictator Idi Amin was killed, fled Geoffrey Oryema 1977 into exile in Paris. Here he talked with odd jobs and took on some demos that eventually got into the hands of the organizers of world music festival Womad. Festival founder Peter Gabriel invited Oryema and published in 1990 whose debut album, Exile, produced by Brian Eno, on his Real World label. After two more albums on Real World, Beat The Border (1994 ) Night To Night ( 1997), Oryema moved to Sony International and released the albums Spirit (2000) and Words ( 2004). In July 2005 he was one of the interpreters of the Live 8 concert in Cornwall and Edinburgh.

Discography

• Exile (1990 )
• Beat the Border ( 1993)
• Night To Night ( 1996)
• Spirit (2000)
• The Odysseus / Best Of (2002)
• Words ( 2004)
• From The Heart (mp3: 2010, CD: 2011)