Rwandan star in collabo with Ugandan artist

Renowned US based Rwandan artiste Jean Paul Samputu is set to record a single with Ugandan stars Juliana Kanyomozi and Joseph Mayanja also popularly known as Chameleon. The reconciliation song comes amid Samputu’s intense efforts to promote peace and reconciliation not only in Rwanda but also in the region. It is expected to be ready by Easter.

Friday, February 13, 2009
Music maestro: Jean Paul Samputu.

Renowned US based Rwandan artiste Jean Paul Samputu is set to record a single with Ugandan stars Juliana Kanyomozi and Joseph Mayanja also popularly known as Chameleon.

The reconciliation song comes amid Samputu’s intense efforts to promote peace and reconciliation not only in Rwanda but also in the region. It is expected to be ready by Easter.

Apart from the historic wars that have rocked the region in the past decades, the instability that has marred the countries’ leaderships is what brought the trio together to preach reconciliation through entertainment.

Chameleon confirmed this development and hailed Samputu for the talent and effort to restore a country whose people had been torn apart by the Genocide fifteen years ago.

Plans were underway to record the duo in the US when Chameleon was injured in an accident that left both his legs broken.

He fell off the third floor of a hotel in Arusha after a performance and was hospitalized for over two months but has since regained fitness and ready to hit the road to fame again.

"I am now feeling very much better and have patiently waited for the opportunity and now is the time,” Chameleon proudly said.

Samputu who is currently in the country for a one week campaign to promote forgiveness as a tool to achieve sustainable peace and development said that it was a chance for him to also capture the East African market. He is more famous in Europe than in his own home and Samputu is determined to change the trend.

"I had died in grief but my resurrection was after I forgave those who killed my relatives in the genocide. I then realized that producing a song would have a greater impact to rejoin our divided societies,” Samputu said in an interview.

Vincent Ntakirutimana killed Samputu’s father in 1994 but surprisingly after confessing, pleading guilty and serving his punishment, the duo are travelling the world practically showing the world the power of true forgiveness.

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