by Emil I Mondoa, M.D.
Jacob Nguni at Social House Hall, Newark Delaware, October 23, 2009
There are people who get into music for the chicks and there are others who do it for the money or for both. Then, there are the rare ones, the real musicians who enter the field for the love of music. I have known Jacob Nguni since we were kids in Sasse. He is one of the later, and I will tell you how I know.
When Jacob took up the guitar in Form 2, he instantly knew that it was what he wanted to do as his life's work and he pursued it with a ferocity that I did not see in any other of my schoolmates, who did not really know what they wanted in life. He practiced until his hands were calloused and bruised, but he kept on practicing until he achieved what sounded to me like perfection, and he still continued to practice. He could play the popular tunes of James Brown, Jimmy Cliff and others with ease, but his benchmark was much higher, the spectacular genuises of Congolese guitar. Such names as Vata Mombasa, Ricos Kinzonga are not well known, but they were the magic fingers behind the guitar pyrotechnics of Orchestres Lipua Lipua and Bella Bella. Jacob could play the most demanding guitar licks and riffs of these giants with complete accuracy.
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