Freshley Mwamburi is one of Kenya’s classiest singers thanks to his ever fresh hit Stella Wangu. The ballad then gained a legacy when Freshley, who became leader of Les Wanjika, one of the most popular bands in all of East Africa, told all the backgrounds of that song, the true story of a platonic love that lasted more than Ten years and ended on May 17, 1992, exactly 25 years ago.
“Most local musicians have majored in love songs but I would advise them to be creative and produce music that listeners learn from. Even their beats cannot last long but Rhumba never fades,” he once stated in an interview.
Before that were years of letters, phone calls, hopes. Stellah left her boyfriend to move to study in Japan, and Freshley at the peak of success, never wanted to miss her affection and also decided to help her financially in her studies.
She wrote her dozens of passionate letters, but received in return only friendship and gratitude.
However, the musician never stopped dreaming that when he returned from the East, Stellah could decide to marry him. Freshley wrote other songs devoted to her, virtually her entire production.
On the day Stellah finally finished college, finally decided to return to Kenya, the eternal lover came to Nairobi Airport with his shoulder-guitar, ready to sing the song that made him famous everywhere.
But the scene that came before Mwamburi was absolutely unexpected.
From the plane of the plane along with her “Stellah”, a child came down in a stroller and a Japanese boy. The girl recognized the musician and went to see him embracing him.
“He’s my son – he candidly confided – and he is my husband, a college colleague known in Japan.”
At that point, Freshley decided not to bring grudge (and how could he) but to change the text of “Stella Wangu” which simply became “Stellah”, was engraved on a new record and told the whole story. A story that still has a lot of Kenyans ever, who even remembers on May 17 every year as “the day of Stellah’s return”.
Freshley Mwamburi is no longer talking about the story of Stellah, the song that in the meantime was engraved in afro, reggae and disco remix versions.
Freshley Mwamburi, then a struggling musician, met Stella, a University of Nairobi student, at a Machakos hotel in the early ‘90s.
Mwamburi and his band, Everest Kings, had just finished performing at the Garden Hotel when an encounter with the shy Kamba girl changed the course of his life, and music career, forever.
He went on to fall in love with Stella, but because good things do not last, their relationship was quickly tested when soon thereafter the girl hit him with the news that she was travelling to Japan to further her studies.
Mwamburi Mwakachola (Freshley Mwamburi) was born on 7th November 1958, in the slopes of Kilimanjaro in Wundanyi, Taita.
And so Mwamburi, being smitten, would turn the world upside down looking for money to facilitate Stella’s travel abroad as well as her expenses while there, knowing that – when she was done – she would return and they would sail into the sunset together.
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FreshleyMwamburiKaziNgoma
“We were in love and so I expected her to come back and marry me after the studies overseas. I gave the relationship my all, including disposing of my old car to cater for her financial needs while abroad,” he told the Standard during a past interview.
“We were in constant communication and all through, I knew she was all mine, that I would marry her. This Kamba girl was such a beauty…you know.”
The singer attended Changamwe Boys Day and Boarding School, before moving to Alidina Visram. He joined the school choir and discovered his passion for singing.
And so the story goes that Stella would jet back into the country on May 17, 1992, with an excited and fresh-looking Mwamburi waiting at the airport to pick up the love of his life.
But, lo and behold, Stella would get off the airplane with a baby on her arms and a “short” Japanese husband in tow.
Discography
- Safari ya Mombasa
- Panga Mipango
- Siri ya Moyoni
- Wanawake Hawana Wivu
- Tuelewane Ndugu
- Mtongwe Ferry
- Margy
- Jirani Musa
- Mashabik
Mwamburi, crestfallen and heartbroken, would then hit the studio and record the ‘Stella wangu’ smash hit song that has been passed down from generation to generation for three decades.
