RWANDAN ARTISTE Sudi Mavenge, 54, admits he is not the primary owner of majority of his hit songs that he released since the beginning of his career.

During an interview with local radio station, KT Radio, he apologised to the public for not giving credit to the original composer and owner of the songs, Gaetan Kayitare, an artiste who died during 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

Mavenge said that most of the songs that he is known for, including Ku Munini, Gakoni k’abakobwa, Simbi, Kantengwa among others, belonged Kayitare, whom he said was a close friend, who played a big role in the growth of his music career.

"He is the one who trained me most of the things I know about the guitar, he used to teach me many of his songs and we would sing them together whenever we were together,” he added.

"He saw the ambition I had for music when I was still young and he helped me come out of my shell.”

According to Mavenge, Gaetan Kayitare was very talented and people loved his music even though they were not recorded in studio. He would, as an alternative, record them on tape at home and share them with his neighbours who would ask for them.

"After the Genocide against the Tutsi in 1994, which took the life of Kayitare and some of his family members, I decided to record some of the songs he taught me just to help people heal, by entertaining them and restoring their hope,” he said.

Despite their close friendship, Mavenge was not allowed to record and release Kayitare’s songs without the consent of his family, according to Michel Shumbusho, whom the family chose to talk to the media about the issue.

Shumbusho, who Kayitare raised,” told The New Times  that he approached Mavenge after he had released the first songs, but "he was not very cooperative.”

"I asked him to stop what he was doing and consult the family first, but he chose not to listen to me. We were saddened by this but we didn’t want to take the matter to court, even though we were against it,” he added.

Mavenge admitted to not giving credit where it was due, and apologized to the public.

"Some people who are close knew that they were not my songs, but I apologize to everyone. I made a mistake but I did not have bad intentions because for me Kayitare is a legend, and I thank him for what he taught me and what he did for me during my journey of music,” he admitted.

The truth was revealed 24 years after most people believed that the famous soul-touching songs sung by Mavenge were his original songs and that only four of them, Taxi Voiture, impanuro, Bihogo Nkuda, Navutse nkeneye kurerwa, were his original compositions.

Asked why the family waited for a long time before they could disclose that Kayitare was the primary owner of the songs, Shumbusho said that they were in the process of putting them together and digitizing them.

"We were able to collect some tapes that he recorded and give them to the neighbours and friends, and we are still calling on everyone who may possess any tape of his songs to share them with us,” he added.

Charles Kwitonda, the Chief Executive Officer of Rwanda Society of Authors (RSAU), told this publication that any act of calling another person’s intellectual property their own is against the law.

He added that when the ‘victim’ or his/her family claims the said property, the person who committed the offense is to be judged according to the law regarding intellectual property.

"It is advisable for two parties to reach a mutual agreement in order to end the issue peacefully, but when this fails, the next step would be to look for a mediator,” he added.

When both steps fail, he said, the next step is to take the case to court, in that case the law is applied, and the guilty would be fined according to the law.

About the case of Mavenge and Kayitare’s family, Kwitonda advised them to get to a mutual agreement, because even if Kayitare is dead, his family now owns the songs.

Gaetan Kayitare lived, in now Ruhango District, Kigoma, he was a tailor by profession, an artiste and ‘good’ guitar player who composed a lot of songs but was not able to take them to the radio. Instead, he shared the tapes he recorded with friends and family.

He died during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, leaving behind three siblings, and five children. His family said that they are collecting all the songs he recorded so that they can make albums and make them available to the public.