News — Entertainment

Composer, guitarist, pianist, storyteller Bukka White was born Booker T. Washington White on November 12, 1906, in Houston, Chickasaw County, Mississippi, to Herman and Sarah Farr White. He got his initial start in music, learning the violin with Cajun and blues tunes, and the guitar from his father. White’s mother and legendary blues guitarist B.B. King’s grandmother were sisters.

In 1919 when White was 13, he left for Chicago, where he played on the streets with a blind guitarist. At the age of 14 he returned to Clarksdale, Mississippi, where he stayed with an uncle. During that time, he contacted Delta blues legend Charley Patton, who taught him the rudimentary music theory for improvisation on the guitar and fiddle, and introduced him to other instruments. In addition to music, White pursued careers in sport, playing in Negro League baseball and, for a time, taking up boxing. He later served in the U.S. Navy from 1942 to 1944.

In 1930 White met and impressed Ralph Limbo, a talent scout for the Victor label and traveled to Memphis for his first recordings, singing the blues and gospel material. However, Victor only released four of the 14 songs White recorded that day. In 1937, Bukka recorded “Pinebluff Arkansas'” and “Shake ‘em on down” for the Vocalion label in Chicago. During the music session in Memphis, Tennessee police knocked at the door to arrest him for allegedly shooting a man in self-defense. While awaiting the trial, he jumped bail and headed for Chicago, making two recordings before being apprehended and sent back to Mississippi to serve three years at the Mississippi State Penitentiary called Parchman Farm. While he was serving time, White’s record “Shake ’em on down” became a hit.

In 1939 White, while still at Parchman, recorded for folklorist Alan Lomax’s American Music Project which eventually was housed at the Library of Congress. White’s album recorded for Lomax and called Sky Songs, Vols. 1-3, included more than 60 minutes of Blues. “Parchman Farm Blues” was one of the songs. The improvised songs allowed White to tell stories about the dusty street corners, dirt roads, juke joints, and jails that felt like home to him.

By 1970, White was still performing on the blues festival circuit.  He often experimented with new material but his fans waited to hear him play “Parchman Farm Blues.”  In 1973 White released the album Big Daddy which was a commercial and critical success for the 67-year- old bluesman. It was also his last album.

Bukka White died of cancer on February 26, 1977, in Memphis, Tennessee. He was 70. However, he was posthumously celebrated in 1990 by being inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame. On November 21, 2011, the Recording Academy announced the addition of White’s “Fixin’ to Die Blues” to its 2012 list of Grammy Hall of Fame Award.

Robert Kyagulanyi “Bobi Wine” Ssentamu is a Ugandan politician, singer, actor, and businessman.

Bobi Wine was born on February 12, 1982 in Nkozi, Uganda. He grew up in the Kamwekya slums in the northeast part of Kampala, Uganda and attended Kitante Hill Senior Secondary School, located in Kitante, a Kampala neighborhood. He attained his Uganda Certificate of Education in 1996 and later attended Kololo Senior Secondary School in Kampala. He received a Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education in 1998.

Bobi Wine entered Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda in 1998 where he studied music, dance, and drama. He graduated in 2003. Wine’s music career started in the early 2000s. The main genres of his music are reggae, dancehall, and afrobeat. He had many popular music singles, including “Akagoman,” “Funtala,” and “Sunda.” He led the band Fire Base Crew until the group was disbanded in 2007. Afterward, he started a group called the Ghetto Republic of Uganda. Wine has released more than 70 songs. He also had a film career in local Ugandan movies such as Cleopatra Koheirwe’s 2010 drama Yogera and he had a lead role in the 2019 film Situka with Hellen Lukoma.

In April 2017, 35-year-old Bobi Wine’s political career began when he announced his candidacy for the Ugandan Parliament in a by-election for Kyadondo County East constituency. He won the election by a wide margin, defeating two other candidates, Sitenda Sebalu of the ruling National Resistance Movement Party, and Apollo Kantiniti of Forum for Democratic Change.

He soon became a target of the administration of President Yoweri Museveni.

On August 14, 2018 supporters of the independent candidate for parliament, Kassiano Wardri, attacked Museveni’s convoy in the northern town of Aru. Wine, an outspoken critic of Museveni, declared on social media that police at the same time had shot at his vehicle, killing his driver. Wine then endorsed Wardri’s candidacy against Museveni. The next day he was arrested for unlawful possession of firearms and incitement to violence. Those charges were dismissed by a Ugandan court, but on August 23, he was arrested again. In this instance the Ugandan State Prosecution withdrew the charges against him just before his trial was scheduled to begin.

Wine was arrested a third time and charged with treason. He was released on bail and traveled to the United States for medical treatment for injuries that he allegedly received while in custody.

On July 24, 2019, Wine announced that he would run for president in the 2021 general election. To promote his presidential bid, he joined the National Unity Platform Party. Wine faced President Museveni in the 2021 Ugandan General election. He lost to Museveni amid charges by his supporters of voter tampering and vote suppression. Despite his loss, Wine vowed to remain active in Ugandan politics.

Bobi Wine is married to Barbara Itungo. The couple, who wed in 2011, have four children, Soloman Kampala Nyanzi, Shalom Namagembe, Shadraq Shilling Mbogo, and Suubi Shine Nakaayi.

Rosemond Brown sprang into Ghanaian and modest West African popularity about five years ago due to her signature rants on video which were posted on her social media accounts. These rants were usually highly charged criticisms of socialites and entertainers in her home country.

Brown, nicknamed Akuapem Poloo, had something to say about this actress’s fashion sense and that actor’s typecast roles. Occasionally, she spiced things up with sociopolitical critiques, echoing the pains and problems of Ghanaians. She was not well educated and you could tell from her command over the English language. But that too was a point of attraction – passable English anchored to volumes of confidence and a very deep awareness as to how social media works.

Soon enough, she was the guest on TV and radio programs, thus beginning her own life as a sort of minor Ghanaian celebrity. But she is currently known among some West African film fans as she has managed to transform herself into an actress in her own right.

In 2019, Grammy Award-winning-rapper Cardi B announced she was going to be in Ghana and Nigeria to perform two separate shows as well as spend a few days enjoying what both countries had to offer in December of that year. This West African tour was publicized by Cardi B herself as well as the promoters in West Africa. American entertainers are de facto global superstars and certainly, not even the high cost of tickets in the two lower-middle-income countries was going to stop the thousands who had planned to see the New York rapper.

The likes of CNN and the BBC did not even miss out on the content as Cardi B landed and spent a few days in Lagos, Nigeria’s second major city. She performed there in Nigerian on a Saturday night only to get on a plane some few hours later to head westwards to Ghana. It was the occasion of Ghana’s Year of Return and African-American and Hollywood celebrities were not in short supply in the country. Cardi B met up with fellow rapper T.I., among a host of others.

TV and radio entertainment reporters tried to secure an interview and were told that the rapper had planned a meet-and-greet at the plush Mövenpick Ambassador Hotel in Accra.

But when the time came for the said meet-and-greet, the rapper did not show up. She would later claim that her team had failed to inform her probably because she was also trying to have some rest before her event in Ghana. But that did not stop a Twitter storm in Ghana, fueled by other local celebrities who had been to the hotel to say hello to Cardi B.

Not every one of these disappointed celebrities was critical of the rapper. One of Cardi’s defenders was Akuapem Poloo who guessed that the rapper may have been too tired to meet with her fans. Poloo’s vociferous defense, much like when she went on the offense against others, was appreciated by Cardi B who invited the Ghanaian actress to spend a few hours at the hotel.

The two later posted on Instagram and Twitter, their time together and even started calling each other pet names like “bestie” and “twinny”. Poloo spent Cardi’s days after the event in Accra with her, going places and meeting people.

And so when in April 2021 Akuapem Poloo was sentenced to a 90-day prison sentence over a nude photo she publicized along with her son, Cardi weighed in. Poloo had been arrested in the middle of 2020 after the photo first came out. Those who made calls for her arrest, including child rights activists pointed to the fact that her son was a minor. Her defenders described as hypocritical the effort to jail her over a situation that was probably happening in many homes – children seeing their parents naked. The court agreed with the conservative public opinion.

Cardi tweeted: “I seen a lot of Americans do photoshoots like that .Even tho is not my style I don’t think she was going for sexual more going the natural idea. I think jail is a bit harsh .Maybe social media probation or community service.”

Ghana does not have penal options for community service. As at the time of going press, Akuapem Poloo was in a medium security prison.

Not everyone is a fan of the new National Geographic historical docuseries Genius: Aretha and this crowd surprisingly includes some from the demographic you would think were jumping at the chance to see the Queen of Soul brought back to life.

A myriad of reasons has been attributed to what effectively counts as a boycott of the series by many African-Americans. Many of them have registered their displeasure with the fact that Franklin was played by a non-American Black woman, Cynthia Erivo. The 37-year-old actress is a Nigerian-British actress who has won acclaim and accolades including an Emmy, a Grammy, a Tony, and two Oscar nominations.

This is not the first time Erivo, cast in the role of a cherished African-American figure has been greeted with contempt by Black Americans. In 2019, Erivo appeared in only her third movie (she has spent most of her acting career on stage) as Harriet Tubman in Harriet. She won nominations for Golden Globe and Academy Awards’ Best Actress slots for her portrayal of the heroine of the Underground Railroad. But the question that was asked was if producers could not secure a Black American descendant of a slave.

When Harriet came out, it was also revealed that Erivo in 2013 had tweeted a mockery of how many African-Americans talk, calling it the “ghetto accent”. The tweet, which she apologized for, was interpreted as not only a dislike for African-Americans but hatred for her Black identity.

At the premiere of Harriet at the Toronto International Fim Festival, Erivo was forced to respond to the backlash generated by the tweet: “As for the tweets, taken out of context without giving me the room to tell you what it meant–and it wasn’t mocking anyone, really. It wasn’t for that purpose at all. It was to celebrate a song I had wrote when I was 16.”

Calls by Black people in America to have historical Black figures, as well as American Black characters played by African-Americans, have been ongoing for the last few years. When the Oscar-nominated Judas And The Black Messiah was released in late 2020, it was met with the same sort of outrage because the role of Fred Hampton was portrayed by Uganda-British actor Daniel Kaluuya.

But with Genius: Aretha, the problems are not simply because Erivo is on screen. Kecalf Cunningham, a son of the singer posted on his Instagram page in February that producers of Genius “pushed through without [the family’s] consent”. He also said the family held no ill-feelings towards the actors who were just “doing their jobs” but “if you are a true fan [of Franklin’s] please do not support [Genius: Aretha]“.

Cunningham’s call was reiterated on Twitter before the first episode of the series was broadcast on Sunday. It continues to gather moss as more and more on the social media platform are tweeting their support for the family.

Country music singer Mickey Guyton is set to sprinkle some Black girl magic at the 56th Academy of Country Music Awards (ACM Awards). This makes Guyton the first Black woman to host the yearly awards ceremony and she will be sharing the stage with Australian native country singer, Keith Urban.

This will be Urban’s second time hosting the show. He took the reins last year and even played the piano to accompany Guyton’s performance of her critically acclaimed hit, “What Are You Gonna Tell Her?”

Guyton has a lot to celebrate this year. She’s become one of the most celebrated people in the Nashville music community in recent times although she is yet to release a full album.

She is a first-time mom, welcoming her child in February. The singer has been nominated for New Female Artist of the Year for the ACMs and has another nomination for best country solo performance for the ever-timely song “Black Like Me” at this year’s Grammys which will air on Sunday, March 14.

Making another history as the first Black female solo artist to be nominated in the country category at the Grammys, Guyton will perform her nominated song at the ceremony, according to Billboard.

She has become more vocal in recent times on gender and racial issues and her Grammy nomination is for a song that was released at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement.

“As I’ve said before ‘if you can see it, you can be it,’ and it’s such an honor to step onto the ACM stage as the first-ever Black woman to host the show.

“Over the years, the Academy of Country Music has always been a home for me through opportunities both onstage and throughout their work on diversity and inclusion. This is a moment of great significance for me, and I am so thrilled to share it with all the fans.”

In the promotional video for the ACMs, Urban playfully asks Guyton to be his co-host. “I’m beyond thrilled to be co-hosting with my friend Mickey,” said Urban in a statement. “I love that finally, everyone will get to see her infectious energy and uber-creative spirit in full light.”

According to Variety, there are prominent Black male country singers but not so much for Black female country singers. Guyton has been in the game since 2011, working her way into the hearts of country lovers with her outstanding vocals.

Guyton is signed to Capitol Records Nashville. She released a self-titled EP in 2015 which earned her a nomination for her first Academy of Country Music Award for New Female Vocalist in 2016.

Last September, amid the pandemic, Guyton released another EP, “Bridges”, which has the Grammy-nominated “Black Like Me”. The protest-themed song made it to the Top 2020 songs by NPR, Billboard, and Associated Press.

Also making Black history at this year’s ACM Awards are three other artists — first-time nominee John Legend, Kane Brown, and Jimmie Allen.

The 56th ACM Awards will air via CBS on Sunday, April 18, at three different centers in Nashville — the Grand Ole Opry House, the Ryman Auditorium, and the Bluebird Café. They were the same venues for last year’s show due to COVID-19 safety protocols.

Jeresneyka Rose woke up one day to tones of congratulatory messages from family and friends on social media. She was being cheered for striking a deal with Walmart to sell her artwork on the platform.

Worldwide, many businesses strive to have their products listed on Walmart for sale and so the buzz around the sale of her painting on Walmart was understandable.

However, the unfortunate aspect of the move was that her artwork, a digital portrait of late rapper Nipsey Hussle, was being sold on Walmart without her permission. The multibillion-dollar firm sells the artwork in its stores for $14.99.

“People were tagging me on social media to congratulate me on a collaboration that I had no idea about,” Rose told Yahoo Life. “I would have never known had it not been for social media.”

Hussle was fatally shot two years ago in a parking lot in South Los Angeles and Rose created the portrait in his memory. She published her tribute to the late rapper on her social media with an option to download. She, however, added five watermarks to prevent theft. Shockingly, Walmart allegedly removed all but one of them.

“They edited the picture and removed my signature and changed the background to yellow, but my watermark was still in the hair,” Rose told Southeast Express. “I guess they couldn’t get that off, and that’s what saved me.”

Among other things, Rose is exploring the potential of legal action to get her due, noting that this is not the first time an artist’s work has been put up for sale without his or her consent by big corporations.

She told Yahoo Life: “I’m not well-versed when it comes to things like that, but there’s so many other artists out there that this happens to and they never find out — they never get their due diligence, so I just would like to see what the process looks like. I just know right is right and wrong is wrong — and this is wrong.”

Rose, of Colorado, is the founder of Art By Rizzo. According to her, she started taking her artwork seriously after trying out some corporate jobs and noticing that she could no longer fit in. She now makes much of her money from her artwork in which she sells online or at community events in Colorado Springs, her hometown. She told The Express that she was financially hit by the pandemic and that she found Walmart making a profit off her back egregious. 

Rose said she wants to use her predicament to bring to fore how big corporations are exploiting the artwork of small businesses, especially Black-led ones, for monetary gains. 

“It’s not just the fact that it’s one corporation — this happens every day to black artists and people of color and women, and impoverished people that don’t have the resources and funds to fight for themselves,” she said. “We don’t have a standing chance. It’s bigger than me.”

Jay-Z is probably the busiest Black entrepreneur in the market, making one deal after another. He recently sold half of his champagne brand, Armand de Brignac, to LVMH, the luxury goods company and also launched a marijuana brand.

The rapper is back in the news after selling a majority ownership stake in Tidal audio and video music streaming service to Square, a digital payment platform run by Jack Dorsey.

Square will pay a mix of cash and stock in the value of $297 million and Tidal’s superstar shareholders, including Beyoncé, Madonna and Rihanna will remain in place, making them the second-largest co-owners. Jay-Z will join Square’s board of directors.

“Why would a music streaming company and a financial services company join forces?!,” Dorsey posted on Twitter, confirming the deal. “It comes down to a simple idea: finding new ways for artists to support their work. New ideas are found at intersections, and we believe there is a compelling one between music and the economy. I knew TIDAL was something special as soon as I experienced it, and it will continue to be the best home for music, musicians, and culture.” 

In a thread, the Twitter CEO further explained: “Given what Square has been able to do for sellers of all sizes and individuals through Cash App, we believe we can now work for artists to see the same success for them, and us. We’re going to start small and focus on the most critical needs of artists and growing their fanbases.”

On his part, Jay-Z said TIDAL remains “a platform that supports artists at every point in their careers. Artists deserve better tools to assist them in their creative journey. Jack and I have had many discussions about TIDAL’s endless possibilities that have made me even more inspired about its future. This shared vision makes me even more excited to join the Square board. This partnership will be a game-changer for many. I look forward to all this new chapter has to offer!”

Jay-Z first acquired Tidal for $56 million in 2015 but the platform has since struggled to keep up with other music streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music. In 2017, Jay-Z announced that he was selling a stake in Tidal to Sprint, a telecoms company.

The $200 investment from Sprint was not enough to keep Tidal afloat as it still struggles to rival Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music. According to Forbes, the streaming service’s financial woes have been going on for years. In 2014, it lost $10.4 million, $28 million in 2015 and then nearly $44 million in 2016.

Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall have disclosed that they were forced to put a White actor in Coming to America in order to prevent the cast in the iconic 1988 movie from being all-Black.

The two comedians and actors opened up on the reason behind that directive and also explained how Louie Anderson was ultimately cast during an interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Monday, Independent reported. Anderson played the character Maurice, an employee at McDowell’s. The fictional restaurant was owned by Cleo McDowell (John Allen Amos Jr.), the father of Prince Akeem’s love interest, Lisa.

“I love Louie, but I think we were forced to put Louie in it,” Hall revealed to the show’s host. “We were forced to put [in] a White person.”

“The whole cast was Black and this was back in the Eighties,” Murphy added. “So it was like ‘We have to have a White person, there has to be a White person in the movie.”

The 59-year-old continued: “I was like, ‘What?’ So who was the funniest White guy around? We knew Louie was cool, so that’s how Louie got in the movie.”

Hall said he was presented with a list of three White actors to choose from, and he opted for Louie. “It was official. I had a list. They gave me a list with three White guys. They said, ‘Who would you rather work with?’ I said ‘Louie.’”

In the first installment of the movie, Prince Akeem (Eddie Murphy) leaves the Kingdom of Zamunda to America, where he seeks a wife. He is accompanied by his personal aide and best friend, Semmi (Arsenio Hall). For the second installment which is set to be premiered on March 5 on Amazon Prime, Prince Akeem finds out he has a son in America and travels back to Queens, NYC, with Semmi in search of the next heir of the Kingdom of Zamunda.

As previously reported, Coming 2 America features some popular Black actors and celebrities joining Murphy, Hall and some of the original cast members. The new faces in the sequel include Jermaine Fowler, Leslie Jones, Wesley Snipes, Tracy Morgan and Teyana Taylor.

Stacy Osei-Kuffour will sprinkle some Black Girl Magic on the all-new ‘Blade’ played by Mahershala Ali as she becomes the first Black female to write a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie. Osei-Kuffuor was chosen among a list of other potential Black writers as a hallmark of Marvel’s Phase Four to increase diversity behind the scenes.

Ali, 46, is replacing Wesley Snipes, 58, who had played the sword-wielding half-man, half-vampire hunter in the three franchises; the first in 1998 by New Line Cinema, then in the 2002 sequel and in 2004.

Snipes gave his blessing to the two-time Oscar winner, who was involved in the screening of the writers together with the studio bosses.

“To all the DAYWALKERS losing their minds right now, chillaaxx. Although the news comes as a surprise, it’s ALL GOOD. Such is the ‘business’ of ‘entertainment!’ Much peace to the MCU crew – always a fan. Honor and respect to the grandmaster Stan,” Snipes said.

“Congratulations and Salaam to Mahershala Ali, a beautiful and talented artist whose expressions I look forward to experiencing for many years to come,” he added.

The three films starring Snipes, which were all written by David S. Goyer, grossed about $418 million globally through 2004, according to Variety.

Although no director has been attached to the Blade reboot yet, Ali expressed interest in the role and the Marvel Studio chief Kevin Feige who nursed the reboot of Blade jumped at it when they believed it was time.

“Now with Doctor Strange and the supernatural elements coming into the MCU, it felt like we could definitely start exploring that.

“Mahershala wanted to come in and meet with us, and when Mahershala Ali wants to meet, you take the meeting.”

Osei-Kuffuor, the Watchmen writer, earned a nomination for her script in a Season 1 episode of Hulu’s “Pen15”. She has also worked as a story editor on Amazon’s “Hunters” and HBO’s “Run”. She is now among the Black women making history in MCU. Nia DaCosta was recently selected by Marvel as the first Black woman to direct a Marvel Studios film with “Captain Marvel 2.”

DaCosta has had little stints in the industry but it was the 2019 indie movie “Little Woods,” starring Tessa Thompson, that served as the springboard which fully launched DaCosta’s career. It opened the door for her to direct the new “Candyman” movie produced and co-written by Jordan Peele.

Marvel Studios is known to work with different directors for their movie sequels to bring different perspectives to their movies.

Rozina Negusei, the wife of award-winning Senegalese-American musician and entrepreneur Akon, has announced she is going to invest $12 million in the Ugandan entertainment industry over the course of five years, local entertainment platform, Sqoop, reports.

Negusei, who is the President and CEO of Zanar Entertainment, Entreeg Records & Entreeg Entertainment Group, is reportedly in the East African nation to explore a host of business opportunities to invest in.

“We are here to explore new opportunities in Uganda, we are focused on investing in Agriculture, solar, and real estate. Our main focus is to see how we can bridge the gap between East Africa and West Africa in terms of business and trade,” she said.

Negusei was invited to the country by the Managing Director of the East African Partners (EAP), Isaac Kigozi. She also came with a contingent of Turkish investors, and they are set to visit some government departments, agencies, as well as some private sector establishments.

“We wanted to bring entertainment in Africa, we are looking for a hub, a home to be the Africa Hollywood; America became America not because of Agriculture but because of the entertainment industry. If we bring entertainment whether movie, music award, every year, Uganda can become the home of the entertainment industry,” she added.

“It’s our job to bring the African movies, music, take it to the next level by recognizing ourself, we don’t have to wait for other cultures to recognize us, we are good enough to recognize ourselves.”

As part of her visit, Negusei also met with President Yoweri Museveni, and was full of praises for the 76-year-old, Blizz Uganda reported.

“I was pleased to meet such an honourable, genius leader and a walking library. He called me a daughter and gave me a name, Estella Ihangwe. It was amazing to be in the presence of such a knowledgeable leader. I have met several leaders, but President Museveni is exceptionally knowledgeable. You guys are lucky to have such a leader. Seriously, you won’t realize it until he is no longer here,” she reportedly said.

“The West told Libya that Gadaffi was a dictator. The Libyans believed them and destroyed their own country. Open your eyes, do not believe everything the west tells you.”

Akon is also expected to later join Negusei in Uganda.

Not earlier than 2019, there were some within and outside that country who held doubts about the potential for a former musician to cause trouble to Yoweri Kaguta Museveni‘s seemingly eternal reign as president of Uganda.

The skepticism was founded not so much in the readiness and efficiency of the iron-strong antagonism Museveni has reserved for his critics and opposition challengers. Rather, they doubted Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu – his understanding of the political climate, his ideology, his discipline and his ability to remain steadfast.

We may not yet say those people have been proven wrong. When Uganda’s election authority announces the final results, Museveni does look like the man who will carry the January 14 poll with a strong majority of votes. Kyagulanyi, or Bobi Wine as he has been known throughout much of his public life, will allege irregularities bordering on criminality. He may even declare that he won the vote.

But somehow, the finality of this process is not the most important aspect. I aim to convince that the lesson to pick up here is the way Museveni has undeniably been rattled by a man who shouldn’t have come this far, per his obstacles of public relations in addition to the deathly hostility with which he has been met.

Bobi Wine had no business leading this movement against Museveni. In his own words, Wine comes “from the ghetto”, where the poor have carried the brunt of Museveni’s failures. He grew up in a slum in northwestern Kampala, counting on his love of music as the ticket to sail out of where nothing good really comes.

What has become of the man who escaped on the ticket of music is that he stands toe-to-toe, fearlessly against one of Africa’s more determined strongmen. To say he had no right to come this far is to put Bobi Wine in comparison with Museveni’s last two competitors: Dr. Kizza Besigye, Museveni’s friend-turned-foe who was once his personal doctor, and Dr. Paul Ssemogerere, an astute academic. Either man, but particularly Dr. Besigye, offered the promise of rebirth that Museveni had began to renege on circa 2006.

Dr. Besigye, in his own right, was a courageous politician. Anyone who comes up against a strongman is. His unpopular support for gay rights in Uganda, something we cannot say for Bobi Wine, would continue to be a feather in his cap in the eyes of a considerable lot of his compatriots. Consequently, he laid the grounds for future opposition to Museveni but he was surprisingly not quite an embodiment of the protest against the authoritarian tendencies of Museveni.

One would have to remember that Museveni vs Besigye was one of the longest presidential election battles in postcolonial Africa. In 2001, 2006, 2011, and 2016, the physician unsuccessfully tried to wrestle power from the former guerilla leader. That antagonism was symptomatic of Ugandan politics. For Bobi Wine to overtake Dr. Besigye in under four years, begs a lot of explanations, one of which is the fact that we witness the pulling ahead of a comet with the momentum.

The average age in Uganda is under 20 in a country of more than 44 million people. According to a piece published by The Guardian, about 80% of Ugandans were born around or after Museveni first came into power in 1986. Bobi Wine himself was only just 4 when Museveni claimed his coming marked a “fundamental change” in Uganda’s history and sets the country toward the path of “democratic government”. He was believed then as Wine is now.

It was evident for about two years that Wine commanded massive support among Uganda’s young. He had remade himself in the image of the aspirational revolutionary, a far cry from the reggae and pop musician who threw shots at politicians and volunteered political suggestions in hit tunes. And you would like to see that, would you not? That your aspiring politician transcends the hedonism and debauchery popstars are known for. You could tell Wine had grown into this new skin when he questioned Museveni’s education credentials.

All this has been done by Wine with a fair bit of grip on the everydayness of Ugandan life, touting the life of the ordinary people as his inspiration for politics. He is the man of all the people, yesterday’s Museveni in action today. That is remarkably unlike Dr. Besigye or Dr. Ssemogerere. And maybe, more than anyone on the face of this earth, Museveni sees this – that this one is different.

The good doctor did not have young people adopting fashion styles to make anti-establishment political statements. Before you underestimate the relevance of this, you have to know that Museveni’s government did not; they tried to ban the signature red berets members of the National Unity Platform (NUP) wore. It is fair to understand that adopting a fashion style to signify your politics and annoy power plays out on a critical plane of human self-expression.

Wine’s fiery speeches against Museveni were a mark of his campaign in 2017 when he vied for the Kyandodo East parliamentary seat in a by-election. They have continued and indeed, turned up a few notches with every bullet fired at him and his supporters and with every life lost in his campaign. In November after he filed forms to contest in the presidential election, 54 people were killed in clashes between his supporters and the police. That is more lives lost than in the entirety of the 2016 electioneering process.

Museveni is anything but an idiot. In the last few years, observers of the African political scene like myself have had to concede that the 76-year-old makes the closest to a formidable argument for serial power-wielders. They are not to be booted out simply because one thinks their time is up or that they are old. The fragility of the African democratic process and its evolution means that life and living shall not easily be trusted to the devices of teething institutions. Strong fixtures, i.e. benevolent strongmen, are necessary while democracy is young.

I understand it is aberrant to argue that while democracy crawls, benevolent strongmen are useful. In fact, in his case, Museveni has spent 34 years not creating and empowering the institutions that can guarantee Uganda’s democracy. He is rather devolved into a paternalistic and condescending bully unrecognizable from the revolutionary of the 80s and 90s.

Far be it from me to hold the citations of honor given by America as a sort of scale but in 1997, Magdalene Albright called Museveni a “beacon of hope” in a “uni-party democracy” in Africa. The solution to the Ugandan AIDS crisis and the relative stability enjoyed by the country is chiefly due to Museveni’s governance. But somewhere along the line, the plot was lost and the light gave way to soul-shattering bleakness.

“Why did such a prized revolutionary decide to become one of the world’s most despised dictators?,” Bobi Wine asked himself in an interview with the BBC in 2019. “Only the idea of building strong institutions that can save us from ourselves.”

Before these institutions will be built, from scratch or in continuance, the old has to give way to the new spirit. Museveni will survive today’s battle but the future has been previewed and he knows it. It is incumbent upon him, and only him – as the most important politician in that country – to begin to make plans for his exit. Having seen what the young think of him, it would be most irresponsible if he plans to sink his claws in further like his late friend Robert Mugabe did.

Nicki Minaj has agreed to pay $450,000 to seasoned singer and songwriter Tracy Chapman to settle a copyright lawsuit the latter brought against her for allegedly sampling her song without her permission.

According to The Guardian, the award-winning rapper and her representatives contacted Chapman to request for clearance to sample her 1988 single “Baby Can I Hold You” for her Nas-assisted track, “Sorry”. Chapman, however, repeatedly rejected their request.

And though the song – which was set to be featured on the 38-year-old’s 2018 album Queen – was never released officially, it was leaked on New York-based radio station Hot 97. The Super Bass rapper agreed to an out of court settlement instead of proceeding to trial, court documents reportedly revealed.

“I am glad to have this matter resolved and grateful for this legal outcome which affirms that artists’ rights are protected by law and should be respected by other artists,” Chapman said in a statement after the settlement. “I was asked in this situation numerous times for permission to use my song; in each instance, politely and in a timely manner, I unequivocally said no. Apparently Ms Minaj chose not to hear and used my composition despite my clear and express intentions.”

Chapman is reportedly on a “do not sample” list which means she does not allow other artistes to use any of her works. Minaj, who claimed she had “no clue” her song sampled Chapman’s single, initially took to social media in 2018 to appeal to the Grammy award-winning musician to give her the green light. “I’m torn, y’all help,” she tweeted. “Tracy Chapman, can you please hit me. omg for the love of #Queen.”

She also revealed the hold-up with regards to gaining the sample clearance for the single had left her in a dilemma over the release date for her album. “Do I keep my [release] date & lose the record? Or do I lose the record & keep my date? … Ugh! I’m torn, y’all help,” she wrote in a since-deleted tweet, NPR reported.