By Mulengera Reporters
January this year, Bobi Wine was invited to perform at the annual Jamaican Rebel Salute Festival. And while in the Caribbean nation, Mr. Wine held meetings with the President of Jamaica and with his childhood icon Buju Banjon who gave him tips showing how Rastafarianism is deeply rooted in freedom-fighting. The two agreed on a callabo whose lyrics would highlight the political situation in Uganda which Mr. Wine says has been misgoverned by Mr. Museveni for now 34 years. Besides launching it in Uganda, the duo also agreed to hold joint concerts in a number of African countries as part of celebrations to mark 2019 being a year of Rastafarianism. Information available at www.Billodex.com, a website renowned for promoting Jamaican dancehall music, shows that September is slated to be the month when big name Jamaican dancehall acts will hold charity concerts in EAC region to raise cash to build schools in rural Africa. Kenya and Uganda are top on the agenda with the Kampala Lugogo Cricket Oval Concert slated for 14th Sept. Online ticket sales is already ongoing via www.Billodex.com. Price is $12/60K and $122/90k. Grammy Awards-winning Buju Banton, Morgan Heritage, Bennie Mann & others are some of the big name stars expected at the Kampala concert.
The event has created alot of nervousness in govt prompting security to write intelligence briefs alerting the President of the impending political catastrophe as the Jamaicans are expected to engage in lots of anti-regime political rhetoric while showing solidarity to their fellow Rastafarian Mr. Wine. Govt sources say, fearing the resultant bad publicity, global condemnation and heightened media scrutiny onto its human rights/governance track record, the M7 govt has planned to arrest the local promoters (like Ali Alibhai & others) in case Buju Banton or any other Rastafarian uses the September concert to decampaign the President at Lugogo. At an earlier Jamaican concert in Kampala last year, Tarrus Riley not only repeatedly chanted Mr. Wine’s People Power slogans on stage but also acquiesced as the crowd descended on Bebe Cool pelting him with stones & bottles to protest his open support for M7. Now the govt narrative relating to Sept is that nobody will be allowed to use a musical concert to promote Mr. Wine while demonizing the incumbent YK M7. The strategy is to give strict conditions to promoters requiring them to secure written commitment from Buju Banton & others that they won’t use the concert to bash the President. Failure to heed the terms, its the local promoter that will be jailed for promoting hatred against M7. This will be part of Mr. Banton’s worldwide “Walking to Freedom” tours aimed at celebrating his release from the 7 year US jail over improper conduct. Some of his very trending songs are politically very sensitive the latest notable one being “Country for Sale.” It’s surely going to be a huge dilemma for the M7 regime because acting brutally or even disallowing the concert will contradict their approach to market Uganda as a country to which foreigners are welcomed as we wholesomely market entertainment as part of our tourism fascination. Organizers are making it even more complicated by giving free tickets to 1000s of campusers with good CGPAs. This will result into a huge crowd that won’t be easy for security to police. (For comments, call, text or whatsapp us on 0703164755 or email us at mulengera2040@gmail.com).
