It is never easy to leave your country of birth, grow up in a foreign country and return to your country only to be considered a total stranger by some.
That is the life story of Ileni Wahengo, who left Namibia with his mother as a six-year-old, grew up in the refugee camps of Swapo in Angola and Zambia, went to school as a teenager in Cuba and returned to Namibia as a young man.
Popularly known as Set-son, the dread-locked star who is also a member of the dynamic shambo band Mighty Dreads, has made a name for himself as one of the finest guitar players, singers and composers in the country.
“I was exposed to music at a very young age. My mom played the guitar in church, my dad was a priest and an ardent music lover and we were always exposed to music growing up,” Set-son explains.
“I grew up listening to the sounds of kizomba in Angola and there was also the influence of kwassa kwassa in Zambia. We also heard Namibian music from the likes of the late Tate Kwela while Jackson Kaujeua and his freedom songs also remain a massive influence.”
He says while at secondary school in Cuba, he was exposed to Latin-American salsa which remains a big influence in his musical career.
“Also, Cuba is very close to Miami [in the United States thus we also listened to American music, while the reggae music from Jamaica was considered revolutionary and it was popular. I fuse all those different types of music to create my own concept of shambo music,” he notes.
Set-son and the Mighty Dreads gained fandom in Namibians, and their style of music is greatly mistaken as reggae because of a few elements of that genre.
Currently, the singer is freelancing as a tour guide and is in the Erongo region with a group of tourists.
“In Namibia it is just impossible to survive on music alone. Firstly our population is too small, which translates to small crowds attending live shows. Most importantly, there is just no money in our country because the mines are sucking out our minerals with no return,” he says.
“The mines and the multinational corporations are leaving nothing in the country for our government to develop. They are shipping out our raw material in order to create jobs in their countries and the rulers of the land seem too hapless to arrest the situation.”
Set-son says he remains a little hopeful that the new administration can bring about a few changes.
“What is shocking is the fact that people are looking at us musicians and mock us that our career is just a waste of time, while we are also victims of the general situation in the country. How do you expect musicians to prosper in an economy that is static?” he asks.
“I mean the hospitals are falling apart, the education system is nothing to write home about and even our sport infrastructure is wanting. We are currently on a campaign to try and qualify our senior national team for its first World Cup, but our games are played away from home.”
Set-son is adamant that Namibia’s current situation will improve drastically once the government can renegotiate all mining contracts and demand a bigger cut of the cake and not be held ransom with the concept of employment creation.
The ‘Kanailonga’ hitmaker is making music in his new home studio.
“I am fortunate to have been able to save up enough funds to set up my own studio at home. Being a composer I am now able to hear my music with a more critical ear because I have enough time to work on my songs. I realise that my previous songs were just demos,” he says.
“Even some of the songs that people considered hits are just too shallow. I have decided that henceforth, I am only going to release singles because what is the use of dropping a 10-song album if the people are only going to listen to one song? Is that not a waste of time?”
Set-son, who was a regular feature with his band at the /Ae //Gams Music Festival and the New Year Celebration Bash, also received opportunities to perform overseas – firstly in China with Ndasunye and the late Tunakie, then in New York with Axue and Kaujeua.
Set-son names Kaujeua as his favourite Namibian singer and says Namibia has a lot of talented musicians, but the state of the economy is detrimental.
“The talent is there aplenty but we only don’t have the means. We don’t have money, there is no money in the country and our currency is too small. We can even be better than we are now but there are a lot of challenges impeding us from going forward. My own music career was more nightmares than highlights,” Set-son says.
The shambo star is advising his fellow musicians to think smart and not only rely on their music career but to acquire other skills to supplement their income.
