Deena Herr

Born in Baden Baden, Germany, Deena refers to herself as a musical diva dedicated to getting the African language heard and celebrated. She thus sings in Luganda, Kinyarwanda, Kiswahili and English. The biggest surprise about Mumuleete is not the white girl nailing our mother tongue, but the fact that she syncs well with her lyrics and manages to pull off a song better than many local artistes.

Deena first visited Uganda about three years ago, when she worked as a volunteer in Rwanda for a year. In an email interview (she is currently in northern Uganda), she says she has been back to Uganda about five times since, and already loves "the country, the people, finest foods, culture and above all, Ugandan music styles".

She sings in African languages to show how beautiful it would be if everyone expressed themselves in their indigenous tongue. She describes the African talent and languages as "so lovely and unique".

"Many [non-Africans] can sing in European languages and English, but singing in African indigenous languages is a challenge that most can't take so, I decided to take it," she says.

She adds that her biggest inspiration is seeing Africans doing American genres such as hip hop, RnB, reggae, rap, pop, and so on, in English, but forget how superb and unique it would be, singing all that in their local languages. Much as Deena sounds flawless singing Luganda, she is still studying the language but is good at perfecting what is written for her.

She notes that Mumuleete is not simply a one-off; more than three songs are already in the works, all written by Meddie Menz. Her favourite local acts are Mowzey Radio and Weasel, but she is quick to add that she listens to all local stuff.