With glad heart, it seems to us that Ras Banamungu and his Det-n-ators International band cannot help but go from strength to strength. Only last month his song ‘My Sunshine’ was presented the prestigious ‘Best Reggae Song’ award by The Akademia, a well-established Los Angeles-based music promotion and broadcasting company. Working alongside their top boys, his music can be found on radio stations all over the world.
His celebrated video for ‘My Sunshine’ received over 300,000 views in little over a month and the count is ticking away steadily. The rising popularity is well-deserved for this likeable and good-natured Rasta, who has devoted much of his life involved with the treatment of mental welfare. Frequently performing in orphanages and helping with the care prior to his departure for Australia in 2013. He tells us that his next video will concern his tune, ‘I in Need of Thee’ and will highlight Det-n-ators Cedella Sikalia and Dave Valvic on vocals along with Ras himself.
Alongside that, his ‘Laughter Percussion’ therapy is about to enter Australia’s educational system after being accepted whole-heartedly by The Australian Communities . Drawing on both his musical experience and that of his years tending to the mentally wounded following the genocide, Ras, when not pursuing his musical career, also works in a very similar capacity in the gold-mining town Kalgoolie, Western Australia; some 500-odd miles inland East from the WA Capital, Perth.
Always a man of ideas, ‘Edutainment’ is one of his many brainchildren; ‘Education in Entertainment’ being one of his favourites. Education in that many of his songs contain messages from the Oneness of God, or ‘One Love’, and the entertainment clearly within his very successful ‘Laughter Percussion’.
Coming across ‘Laughter Yoga’, while working in partnership with holistic therapy lecturer ‘Angel’ Kimmy O’Meara, he later become a major part of an International team treating mental trauma sufferers following the 1994 bloodshed.
Ras added drums, song, his own special touch and off he went. With the help of the KBCCI and the YMCA, Ras Banamungu will be introducing his Laughter Percussion classes on a regular basis to the broader Goldfields community in February and there has been much interest in the communities he serves; both mining and Aboriginal.
This coming March 9th, Commonwealth Day, Ras and the Det-n-ators will be performing for a Government event in the Queensland capital, Brisbane, a major Australian arts center. Representing Rwanda in this multinational extravaganza, Ras will sing two of his numbers, yet to be decided, from his hit album ‘I am Messenjah’. Going by the enthusiastic reception he received at last year’s Coast to Coast event in Melbourne, Brisbane’s large audiences will surely grab this chance to catch him live.
It is looking likely Ras Banamungu future shows will be joined by his long-time friend and songwriting partner Steve Dean, Musician, Det-n-ator and Teacher of Truth as described within the Holy Teachings of A Course in Miracles. Both part of the international team already mentioned, the partnership, entitled Abadahigwa International Movement (AIM), was established in 2013, when they began writing songs together in their spare time. Steve was responsible for Ras’s journey to Australia, where they continued to write and perform together until Steve left for the United States in 2016. They have previously played live together in Rwanda at both the 2013 Bob Marley festival in Kigali and at the famous Golden Monkey Hotel at Nyamagabe.
Their reunion at the future events promises to be a great event indeed. Ras Banamungu is a true ambassador for Rwanda, telling of her culture in song, dance and medicine. Without a doubt, he will return to his home country as one of her greatest sons.
My Sunshine’, the latest video release from the always-listenable Ras Banamungu”
The Express News
