How the Kenya-based, Tanzanian Musician lost copyright war against the ‘vulture’ from Congo

It is nearly 33 years now, since the Tanzanian musician who was based in Kenya, lost his copyright infringement war against the Congolese Rhumba star, Lokassa ya Mbongo.

The 1994 copyright battle between D.O. Misiani and Lokassa Ya Mbongo, and by extension Soukous Stars, remains one of the most fascinating copyright disputes in the history of African music.

The background of the situation started more than two decades earlier.

In 1976, Daniel Owino Misiani released a song titled “Kiseru Pek Chalo Kidi,” which became an instant hit.

Kiseru is a Luo clan from Shirati, Tanzania, historically associated with a mythical reputation for powerful traditional medicine and witchcraft. This section of the song was simply acknowledging the power attributed to the clan.

On January 20, 1994, Lokassa Ya Mbongo and Soukous Stars released “Nairobi Night” in the album Megamix, Volume. 1, in which they adapted sections of several East African songs, including D.O. Misiani’s “Kiseru Pek Chalo Kidi.”

Remember, the song was initially recorded in 1989, but it was largely regarded as an unofficial party medley and was not included in any official Soukous album until 1994.

“Nairobi Night” became a huge hit, quickly turning into an anthem on East African airwaves and in entertainment joints. Misiani felt that a section of his song had been used without his consent and decided to pursue the matter legally.

Compilation was essentially an unlawful plagiarizing of a number of popular songs from East Africa, including Tabora and Western Jazz bands of Tanzania, only that it was just Owino in Nairobi, who stood up to complain.

Through his lawyers, Owino hurriedly wrote to Ibrahima Sylla, the Senegalese producer who owned Syllart Records and produced “Nairobi Night.”

Ironically, Owino soon discovered that he did not actually own the copyright of his song “Kiseru Pek Chalo Kidi.”

His producer, Phares Oluoch Kanindo of the PK label, had quietly retained or acquired the absolute intellectual property rights to the catalogue (PK-036) without Owino’s fully informed consent.

This meant that if anyone was legally entitled to initiate a copyright lawsuit, it was Kanindo, not Owino.

There was another complication, Kanindo and Ibrahima Sylla, the owner of Syllart Records, were not strangers. They knew each other very well and were friends.

Soukous Stars was based in Paris at the time, and “Nairobi Night” was recorded, protected, and distributed through Syllart Records which was also based in Paris. 

So, while Owino maintained that Soukous Stars had plagiarised his song, the legal ownership of the recording was held by Syllart, just as the rights to his own composition were held by Kanindo.

Because Owino did not legally hold the independent copyright documentation for his composition, and Kanindo was not prepared to challenge Ibrahima because of their friendship, the legal case eventually fell through.

Owino never received official international royalties from the massive success of “Nairobi Night,” and despite the attention the dispute generated, the case never really got off the ground.

Daniel Owino Misiani, born in Tanzania on 22 February 1940 and died in Kenya on 17 May 2006) was a musician based in Kenya, where he led the Shirati Jazz collective.

D.O.M was known as the “King of History” in Kenya; overseas and in Tanzania.

His other artistic title was that of “the grandfather of Benga,’ an East African guitar-driven Music Genre which he pioneered.