Samite was born and raised in Uganda, where his grandfather taught him to play the traditional flute. His primary schooling was within the King's courtyard where the royal musicians played for the King. That daily influence permanently instilled within the young boy the rhythms and patterns of the traditional music of his people- the Baganda. Samite fled Uganda in the mid-80s and now makes his home in Ithaca, New York. In the United States, Samite has continued to create the traditional music of Uganda, woven into his own compositions.

It was Samite's music that took him back to Uganda after a 15- year exile. He spent the summer of 1998 traveling throughout parts of Africa filming a PBS documentary, "Song of the Refugee." It was inspired by a desire to present African refugees' hope for the future in spite of the suffering a loss they have endured. Samite remembers that, "At first I was apprehensive about performing for my fellow Africans amidst their suffering. But to my surprise, I found that my music moved adults and children alike to open like flowers to warm sunshine. I saw a new light appear in the eyes of old and young alike. As I sang and played my kalimba (finger piano) or flute, people pulled out drums, tins cans, and anything handy with percussive quality and offered their own songs and dances in return--songs that had been pushed to the sub-conscious since being uprooted from their homes." Samite's travels in an Africa that is renewing itself, the people, and particularly the children that he met there, were the beginning of this newest album. It is an album about peace, about renewal, about forgiveness and grace, and about joy. "The Uganda I returned to was not the same place I had fled--where people moved about in fear. I found the Uganda that I knew as a child--peaceful, moving forward. I saw new buildings going up, children getting a good education, people moving about in a spirit of unity and reconciliation. Yes, Uganda has come full circle and even I have come full circle--I was complete again."