The Unsung Hero: Biography of Boniface Mganga

Abstract

Boniface Mganga was an accomplished musician, composer, arranger, organist, founder and consummate director of the world famed Muungano National Choir. In addition to his artistic contributions, Boniface Mganga demonstrated diverse leadership skills in the civil service and political arena. It is against this background that this research study sought to document his life narrative. In this research, I focused on documenting the life of Boniface Mganga considering his immense contributions in choral music. I argue that the available written literature about Boniface Mganga does not capture a complete portraiture of his life and therefore a comprehensive research is justified to fill the existing gaps. These gaps range from his familial background that provides the musical gene that flows in the family, birth, early stages of his musical talent, leadership skills, academic, social and political dispositions and how his early experiences contribute to his growth and musical contributions. Guided by the Interpretive theory of Biography, the research documented the life of Boniface Mganga in line with the theory‟s conventions. The study employed unstructured and structured interviews with family and close respondents. Both primary and secondary data sources were also explored to enrich the study. The qualitative research relied on data collection through different tools, analysed, the data collected and documented the life of Boniface Mganga. The findings of the research proved that the life narrative of its subject merited documentation due to several information gaps that hindered appreciation and comprehension of the life of Boniface Mganga. Key Words: Boniface Mganga, Biography, Interpretive theory of Biography.