Herbie: The Love Man, a man and a mission

WHAT MATTERS WORLD – This video is footage from December 2018, as Herbie Skarbie Kawuma shared a bit about his background with the Front Royal Rotary Club (when he made his first visit to the USA over the holidays).  The video concludes with a few clips of the song, “What Matters is your Heart” being danced to across the globe. Written by Beth Waller and sung by Herbie Kawuma (with Beth in the chorus), the song is available for download on all major music outlets. Beth is returning to Uganda on Sunday and invites all Royal Examiner readers to join her virtually by joining the Facebook group, “WHAT MATTERS/Light up Life Fan Page.”

Professing, “Love is my Religion,” Herbie travels around the world representing his Ugandan based NGO, Light up Life Foundations as he spreads love through singing, dancing and generosity. His efforts have been recognized worldwide with awards for both his performing career and his remarkable outreach efforts. In 2012 he was named Norway’s “Role Model of the Year” and just this year his most recent music video (staring his 8 year old son, Malcolm, an aspiring actor) has earned honors at many international film festivals.

Sharing his message of overcoming adversity with faith, love and hope, Herbie shares his inspirational life story to compel others to live and give in love. “The only thing worse than having no hope is having hope and then losing it,” says Herbie when he reflects on the many times growing up in the slums of Uganda when he lost hope for a better life. His mission is to foster continual hope, faith and love in the lives of as many children as possible, setting no biological or geographical limitations to those he embraces as “his children.”

“I didn’t choose this, it chose me,” he says of the calling he’s embraced to use his talents to light up lives.  After singing his way out of extreme poverty in his late teens, Norbert Kalyesubula, a popular Kampala area radio announcer, heard him perform at a church in 2003 and took the young artist under his wings. Herbie fondly recalls the first time he heard his song, “Sitani Vawoo” (which was the number one gospel hit in Uganda in 2004 on the radio). “I was struggling so hard and barely had enough money to buy food.  The feeling, I can’t express it, when I heard my song blaring on the radio of a fancy car that passed me by.”

Kawuma’s life has blossomed far beyond his childhood days spent learning to dance like Michael Jackson by using his neighbor’s lights to reflect his shadow as a mirror. As a kid, to entertain himself after the sun went down, he sang and danced outside with his shadow instead of going into his dark home that had no electricity.  His sister tells stories about his dancing as early as age 4 or 5 to entertain visitors at their family’s home. Their father would call Herbie to dance for guests and subsequently give him a small coin in appreciation after “the show.”

Herbie’s life was relatively normal until he was 8 years old.  Of course life wasn’t easy living in the ghetto, and money was scarce, but he always had food to eat and a loving family surrounding him.  He remembers the first time he danced in a public setting. It was at school when he was eight, and he fondly recalls how he could hear his mother’s voice above everyone else’s in the cheering crowd.  He treasures such memories of his mom, and remembers how she loved to lovingly rub her hands through his hair until that fateful day when when the HIV/AIDS virus took her life. As a nine year old watching her last breaths, he sprinted from their home to the nearest church and proceeded to make his way up to the pulpit (the pastor was preaching). Young Herbie grabbed him by the hand and started tugging at his clothes, begging him to visit his mother immediately.  The pastor quickly realized that he was not going to take no for an answer, and they rushed to his house only to find his mother had already passed on. At that moment, a devastated Herbie heard words that would comfort him for the rest of his life. The preacher said, “If you make it to heaven, you’ll see your mom again there.”

The years after his mother died were hard on the young boy, and he went through a rebellious period with his father.  When he was twelve years old, his dad became ill and moved out of their home to live with a woman who had come into his life after he became a widower. Herbie recalls that difficult time in his life when he turned to drugs to ease the pain of missing his mother, disliking his father’s girlfriend, and watching his dad become ill,  “I made some bad decisions I’m not proud of. I started to hang out with gang members, sniffed petrol, experimented with “Tina,” and smoked marijuana.”

As he continued to struggle with drugs and teenage challenges his relationship with his dad grew stronger as the man he admired so much became weaker.  His “General,” as he refers to him, taught him a great deal, and Herbie was his dad’s primary caregiver until he died in his arms of the same disease that took his mother.  At 13, as the oldest male in the family, Herbie stepped up to the role of the head of his household and took on the responsibility of providing for his three younger brothers and older sister.

Though the next years were not easy (he remembers working as many odd jobs as he could to earn enough to support his family), his singing and dancing skills provided a way for Herbie to earn enough to send his siblings to school, and to help support other friends who needed a home and financial support.  It was at that time he started assisting his best friend, Freddie, who is now a leader in Light up Life, and he provided help to many other young friends. “Thankfully I had singing and dancing as constants in my life and they got me through that rebellious patch that lasted until I was 17, and helped me to support my family and others in need,”  he added.

Herbie was primarily a rapper during those years and remarkably got connected with the most popular comedian group in Uganda through exposure from singing and dancing competitions.  “They called me ‘Baby Herbie’ because I was the youngest in the crew,” he recounts. One night, however, as his substance abuse continued, he found himself so high on drugs that he started to hallucinate, and he thought he was losing his mind. He raced to church and slept there through the night, because even when he had lost his way, he knew that he needed God in his life (as a song he’d later write called, “I Can’t Make it on my Own,” would testify – you can watch the music video on YouTube).

Though he continued to struggle with peer pressure and substance abuse (which grew to include alcohol), he found himself using drugs less and less, “I remember sometimes I would pretend to smoke weed and not inhale, because I knew if I kept up like I was, I wasn’t going to make it.”   But it wasn’t until one night when he was 17, after having an asthma attack and feeling certain that his lungs were failing, that his trajectory truly changed. As he feared he was taking his last breaths, he got on his knees and prayed that God would forgive him and welcome him into heaven so that he could see his mother again, “if I don’t die I will live for the rest of my life to serve you,” he uttered as he pleaded for his life.  The next Sunday, he went to church. It was the same church he had slept in that night when he had his terrifying high years ago. “I remember walking in and thinking people were staring at me and wondering what a thug was doing in church. But during that service, I made my way to the front of the congregation. It was then that I confessed Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior and was born again,” he said.

The years that followed were filled with blessings for Herbie, blessings he shared with as many people as possible.  He began using his personal life experiences to help motivate youth to make smart choices and embrace their own hope and faith.  He taught Sunday school, became a youth counselor about HIV/AIDS, and transitioned from rapping to singing & writing gospel music.

By the time he was 20 in 2005, Herbie’s exciting life was a sharp contrast to the life of hardship he experienced as a youth.  As one of the most popular performing artists in his country, Herbie soon forgot about the suffering he had experienced as a youth and had fame and fortune in the forefront of his mind.  As he walked through the same slums he’d race to work in after school (to try to earn $1 to feed his family of 5), people now recognized and respected him. One nine year old boy in particular, named Matthew, seemed particularly in awe of the now local legend. “Teach me to dance, Herbie” Matthew would shout as Herbie passed the ghetto area (a place known for drug dealings and crime) where the young boy spent his days.  Herbie ignored Matthew’s pleas for dance lessons at first, feeling annoyed that the child was not in school (since he had himself paid for his own and his four siblings’ education, even as an orphan). But finally, Herbie told the eager youth, “Go to school and I’ll teach you to dance” to which Matthew replied, “My father doesn’t have the money to send me to school.”

Herbie was outraged that a father would not provide for his children as he flashed back to the sacrifices his diseased parents made for him while they were still living.  He decided to use his influence as a local celebrity to talk some sense into Matthew’s father. “Take me to meet your Dad,” Herbie said, “and when his father opened the door it was just like what you hear people speak of when they talk about life-changing moments,” he confessed.  He looked at the ill man and memories of his own ailing father flashed before his eyes. He looked down at Matthew and suddenly recalled his own 9th year as he watched his sickly mother take her last breaths. When Herbie saw Matthew’s Dad (who was also suffering from HIV/AIDS among other illnesses), rather than scold him for not sending his son to school, he asked the frail stranger if he could provide for Matthew himself.

At that moment, in that doorway, the spark that would become Light up Life Foundations was ignited.  Because of that persistent boy not giving up in his asking his idol to teach him to dance, thousands of youth have benefited from Herbie’s remarkable passion to help children facing the same challenges he overcame.  After that monumental day, word quickly spread of Herbie’s altruism. Within a short amount of time, Herbie was providing for more than 25 youth. He continued his singing and dancing career, spent a great deal of time at church teaching sunday school and opened his home as well as his wallet to as many people as possible.

In 2007, Herbie met his biological daughter for the very first time.  Manuela’s mother, his girlfriend from ages 14-19, moved to South Africa after she became pregnant in 2004. She got married while abroad and didn’t return to Uganda until the baby was a toddler.  In looking back, as hard as is was to not be a part of his first born child’s life, Herbie believes everything happens for a reason. He thinks it is no coincidence that the year his first daughter was born is the same year he met 9 year old Matthew and started providing for him as if he was his own son.  “If Manuela was in my life I often wonder if I would I have only concentrated on providing for her. I may have never visited Matthew’s home on that life-changing day,” he ponders. He also reflects on the irony that Desire, whom he’s been caring for as his own daughter for the last four years (she recently changed her last name to Kawuma) was also born in 2005 and is the same age as Manuela. He met Desire when filming the music video for “Together we Can,” his song about fighting HIV/AIDS (you can find it on YouTube). In retrospect, he believes that video’s purpose was to allow him to find Desire so that Light up Life could care for her and her brother.

In flashing back to his younger years, an extremely monumental time was 2008 when Herbie moved to Norway after a missionary from his church told him about the educational system there.  The transition was extremely difficult. The language, culture and climate proved more challenging than he had expected. Studying, learning a new language, working many jobs and facing the pressure of being responsible for the financial well being of so many he supported in Uganda was almost too much to bear at times. But Herbie refused to abandon his faith, hope and love. “ I remember sitting in the snow and crying when I was delivering newspapers and had little income to provide for the children in Uganda. People would offer to buy me a cup of coffee but I’d ask if they could give me the coins they would spend instead and I’d save up and send them to my family.  I wanted to go back home and I couldn’t. I was caught up in two worlds and didn’t know what to do in life.” he shared.

His years in Norway (where he currently resides) have been filled with blessings and heartache. Finally, in late 2009, he landed a job as a dance instructor teaching kids with special needs, but it was a part time job once a week. Soon after, tragedy struck his family once again.  “I’ll never forget that terrible phone call in 2009 when I learned that my brother, Ivan, had been murdered. I thought his dreams were finally coming true and his life was taken by jealous boxers who were competing against him.” Ivan had just advanced in the competition that would have enabled him to move to Vancouver, Canada to represent Uganda in boxing. “Something changed inside my heart after losing my brother, a man I had basically raised.  I had loved and supported my sibling his entire life and he was gone in an instant.” It was then that Herbie decided to further eliminate the concept of blood/biology in his definition of family. He vowed to treat everyone with the same love and care that most people reserve for family.

Herbie’s big break came in 2010 when he had an invitation to sing at the wedding of a teacher from the bible school he attended.  After performing Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror,” one of the guests approached him and handed him a card. She asked if he could go to the address on the card and teach children to dance.  Little did he know that within less than a week from that invitation, he’d be at a national TV station choreographing for a popular children’s talent TV program. Because he looked like a youth himself, he was eventually asked to open the program with some of his Michael Jackson moves. Doors soon opened for Herbie and performance opportunities flooded in. “I called my sister in Uganda and told her that I was now the richest young man in East Africa and that she should find as many children in need as she could and tell them we can help them,” he recalls.

Herbie’s faith was further challenged in In 2011 when his brother Steven also died tragically. Steven was defending the family’s home place (from false ownership claims from a neighbor) and he refused to back down.  He was being beaten by police and died from related injuries. Herbie reflects, “I’ve had losses and I have had blessings. And I have learned much through my losses that has made me who I am today. I have a strong faith that I rely on and a personal relationship with Jesus.” His life-long journey to seek God, especially his path since his spirit was awakened that day in church when he was 17, has lead him to a belief system that goes beyond standard religious framework. “ Literally, love is my religion, and spirituality, rather than traditional religious practices, is my focus.  Religion has separated people on this earth and I believe all need to stand together as one in love,” he added.

“The search for God and the power beyond has been something deep in my soul, and I always run to God, especially in my times of desperation, to seek His guidance. He rescues my soul. At one point in my life I asked for God to give me a sign that he has called me to a higher purpose. A scripture came into my heart, Isaiah 42 6-10, which begins, ‘I am the LORD; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations’.

As with most performing artist’s careers, Herbie’s has come with highs and lows, wealth and struggling, but through it all he credits God for always ensuring he can provide for the people counting on his support.  “In 2012, I didn’t know how I could carry on at the rate I was having to work to provide for Light up Life and my three biological children. My savings were dwindling. But God saw to it that I received Norway’s Role Model of the Year Award and the $20,000 grant that came with it,” he recounts with a thankful smile.  “Again in 2017 I was feeling the pressure of increased numbers and needs from the children and youth under my care in Uganda. I decided start posting about Light up Life on Facebook and started sending friend requests to strangers. I didn’t want to overstep by reaching out to friends of my Facebook friends, so I started sending out random friend requests,” he added.  He had no idea that one of those random requests would lead to one of his mission videos being viewed in April of 2017 by someone who would chose to make one of her biggest missions in her own life helping him fulfill his. What you have just read is her attempt to share the story of his life before they met. Stay tuned to watch as the story continues to unfold, the story that will prove that WHAT MATTERS is your heart.