News — uganda

Westerners get to work in developing countries without little experience and no one to hold them accountable. This seems to have been the case with Renee Bach, who started Serving His Children (SHC) in Uganda at 18 years old. The organization has been linked to several children's deaths. Bach's case has again highlighted the issue of medical "voluntourism" while raising questions of whether some charities in the developing world have a "white savior problem." In response, Uganda-based social workers Olivia Also and Kelsey Nielsen began the No White Saviors campaign to educate and advocate for better mission and development work practices. What do you think?

Interahamwe, translated from Kinyarwanda to English as “those who work/ fight together,” is an African paramilitary and terrorist group currently based in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda. Composed mainly of young Hutu men, Interahamwe was one of the major belligerents against the Tutsi in Rwanda, leading the mass genocide of Tutsi civilians and Hutu political enemies during the Rwandan Genocide in 1994. Since fleeing Rwanda after the end of the genocide, most western and African nations have classified the group as a radical terrorist organization.

Interahamwe officially began as the small youth wing of the larger Hutu ruling party of Rwanda, the National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development (MRND), led by the then president of Rwanda, Juvénal Habyarimana. Very few of these original members had any paramilitary training.

Since its start as the MRND youth section, what many define as the “Interahamwe” has changed dramatically. As violence in the country escalated during the civil war, the definition of “Interahamwe” slowly turned from an innocuous youth group into a broad grouping of almost anyone who was engaged in the active killing of Rwandan Tutsis, regardless of their membership with the MRND. Still, the MRND backed, and actively encouraged, the slaughter of Tutsi civilians by the hands of the Interahamwe and a similar, albeit much smaller group, the Impuzamugambi.

On October 1, 1990, the Tutsi-backed Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) invaded Rwanda with the goal of taking back the land that was taken from them after an anti-Tutsi coup d’état drove them out of the country in 1959. This invasion started the Rwandan Civil War, which lasted until August of 1992, when president Habyarimana signed the Arusha Accords, bringing a cease-fire to the country as well as an agreement to give the Tutsi rebels some government power.

Many of the Hutu extremists of the country were adamantly opposed to this policy, and when, on April 6th, 1994, an unknown assailant shot down president Habyarimana’s private jet, violence began. Fueled by anti-Tutsi rhetoric broadcast by government radio and the fear of a Tutsi uprising, the Interahamwe began slaughtering their Tutsi and moderate Hutu neighbors, killing between 500,000 to 1,000,000 political enemies and Tutsi civilians during a span of 100 days, creating one of the worst mass killings of the 20th century.

The genocide ended on July 15th, 1994, when the RPF took control of most of Rwanda, preventing any further killings by the Interahamwe. The RPF drove the Interahamwe—as well as many other Hutu and Tutsi enemies—out of Rwanda after their securing of the country, generating up to 2,000,000 refugees. Many of these refugees, along with a majority of the remnants of the Interahamwe, fled to eastern Zaire (modern Democratic Republic of the Congo), where they still operate to this day, albeit with significantly fewer numbers and much less power.

Few members of the Interahamwe faced prosecution for their involvement in the genocide. Only 41 people were convicted through the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) although most were leaders who often faced life sentences in prison. Almost everyone else who participated in the slaughtering of Tutsis faced no consequences.

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.

Vanessa Nakate is a Ugandan climate activist who led Uganda’s First Fridays for Future climate strikes and founded Youth for Future Africa and Rise Up Climate Movement to address climate concerns in the African continent and world at large.

Nakate was born on November 15, 1996 and grew up in the Kitintale neighborhood of the Ugandan capital city, Kampala. She graduated from Makerere University Business School with a degree in Business Administration in 2018. After finishing her schooling, she began researching the different issues impacting her country and found climate change to be the most gripping problem. Given that Africa produces 2-3% of global carbon emissions but is the continent most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, Nakate believes this is more reason to act. From long drought spells in Northern Uganda to a high prevalence of landslides and floods in Eastern Uganda, Nakate realized how localized and devastating the issue of climate change is and decided to become a voice in the movement towards climate justice.

In 2018, she protested outside the parliament of Uganda for several months alone. She used social media to spread word on the urgency of climate problems facing her region, and other youth eventually joined her to raise awareness about Congo’s rainforest, which is facing vast deforestation. In rural schools, Nakate spearheaded a project that provides solar installation and eco-friendly stoves because those communities would otherwise be unable to afford those energy sustainability tools.

In 2019, she was chosen to speak at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP25) in Spain. Later in 2020, she joined forces with other climate activists from around the world to camp outside in the freezing cold of Switzerland at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos. The group also published a letter calling on participants of the World Economic Forum to stop subsidizing fossil fuels. The Associated Press snapped a photo of the activists and wrote an article about the matter, but Nakate was cropped out of the image and not included in the article. She took to her frustration to her Twitter platform where she lambasted racism in the media, saying that the AP’s actions did not just erase her but that they erased an entire continent. The incident went viral on the internet and she received international outpouring support and solidarity from other activists. This put new eyes on the African climate movement and its activists so Nakate looks back on it favorably.

Nakate has continued to use her platform online for advocacy and has amassed over 200 thousand followers on Twitter and more than 100 thousand followers on Instagram. Nakate was chosen to be on the lists for BBC’s 100 Women in 2020 and Time100 Next published by Time Magazine in 2021.

Yoweri Kaguta Museveni is the President of Uganda, a post he has held since 1986. Museveni was born on September 15, 1944 to Mzee Amos Kaguta and Esteri Kokundeka Nganzi in Rukungirl, British Protectorate of Uganda (now Uganda). At an early age, Museveni moved to Ntungamo, Uganda Protectorate. He attended Kyamate Elementary School, Mbarara High School, and Ntare School. After graduating from high school, Museveni attended the University of Dar es Salaam beginning in 1967. While attending the University, Museveni studied economics and political science. He also became a Marxist and became involved in radical Pan-African politics. He formed the University Students African Revolutionary Front, an activist group, and led a student delegation to FRELIMO-held territory in Portuguese-controlled Mozambique where he received guerrilla training.

In 1973, 29-year-old Museveni formed the Front for National Salvation, a Ugandan rebel group. Five years later in October 1978, the Ugandan-Tanzania War began after Ugandan troops invaded the Kagera Salient in northern Tanzania. The nations at war were led by Ugandan President Idi Amin and Tanzania President Julius Nyerere, with Museveni supporting Nyerere because he opposed Amin’s dictatorship. Tanzania won the conflict and deposed Idi Amin from power.

In 1981, a civil war called the Ugandan Bush War pitted former Ugandan President Milton Obote and the National Resistance Army (NRA) led by Museveni. This five-year conflict lasted from 1981 to 1986 and resulted in an NRA victory and Museveni becoming the new President of Uganda. Despite his Presidency, guerrilla wars continued until 1994 as various factions attempted to overthrow the new government.

In 1996, the first presidential elections under Museveni’s government were held. He defeated candidates Paul Ssemogerere and Kibirige Mayanja. During that same year, Museveni led Uganda to intervene in the Second Congo War where he assisted Rwanda and Laurent-Desire-Kabila of the Alliance of Democratic Forces of the Liberation the Congo (ADFLC) in an attempt to overthrow longtime dictator President Mobutu Sese Soko. Museveni led Uganda’s involvement in the Third Congo War in 1998 when he allied with Rwanda against Laurent-Desire-Kabila Kabila’s new government that only two years earlier he helped install in power.

In 2001, Museveni won reelection by defeating Presidential candidate Kizza Besigy. He would defeat Besigy in three reelection campaigns, 2006, 2011, and 2016. In 2021, Museveni won reelection for a sixth term against Robert Kyagulanyi “Bobi Wine” Ssentamu. This election was hard fought and Wine and his followers charged the government with intimidating his supporters and rigging the election. Nonetheless Museveni remains in power in Uganda after 35 years as President.

Yoweri Kaguta Museveni married Janet Kataaha Museveni in 1973. The couple have four children, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, Natasha Karugire, Patience Rwabwogo, and Diana Kamuntu.

Acclaimed musician and business mogul Akon has set his sights on constructing a second futuristic and cryptocurrency-based city on the motherland, with the East African nation of Uganda being his country of choice this time around.

In a statement Monday, the Ugandan government announced they had reached an agreement to allocate the Senegalese-American singer a piece of land worth a square mile for the “Akon City” project, Revolt reported. The state-of-the-art project is expected to be completed by 2036 and transactions in the city will be done through his “stellar-based” AKoin cryptocurrency. The cost of the project was not disclosed though the one in his native Senegal is reportedly valued at around $6 billion.

Asked if the country’s locals would be able to afford the services the city would be offering once complete, the Freedom singer answered with optimism. “I know if I put it there, they’re going to find a way to afford it because it’s going to motivate them,” he said.

“But ultimately when you create an opportunity, people grow with that opportunity, people learn with that opportunity, people are motivated with that opportunity.”

The news of the Uganda project comes on the back of a similar $6 billion one in his native Senegal. In an interview with the Associated Press last year, the 47-year-old revealed construction was set to commence this year.

Born Aliaume Damala Badara Akon Thiam, the musician had earlier shared his plans of building the city in 2018, describing it as “a real-life Wakanda” in reference to the Afro-futuristic city in Marvel’s movie, Black Panther. He also said the city will similarly use the AKoin cryptocurrency.

The site for the Senegal project is in the village of Mbodiene. And the time this story was reported last year, the Locked Up singer said he had been able to acquire one-third of the $6 billion needed for it.

Akon also said he hoped the project would create jobs for locals in the West African nation as well as serve as a “home back home” for Black Americans and other people in the diaspora who are being racially discriminated against.

“The system back home treats them unfairly in so many different ways that you can never imagine. And they only go through it because they feel that there is no other way,” he told the Associated Press. “So if you’re coming from America or Europe or elsewhere in the diaspora and you feel that you want to visit Africa, we want Senegal to be your first stop.”

Actor Idris Elba and model Naomi Campbell joined some 65 other British celebrities, designers and politicians, mostly of Ghanaian heritage, in signing an open letter in support of gay rights in Ghana. Last month, a community center for LGBTQ+ people in the West African country was shut down by security forces just three weeks after opening. Religious leaders, politicians and anti-gay organizations had called on the government to close the center, which was operated by local charity LGBT+ Rights Ghana.

The 67 signatories of the open letter published on social media on Monday said they were worried about the developments in Ghana and called on the country’s president, Nana Akufo-Addo, and other political leaders to provide protection to the LGBTQ+ community.

“We have watched with profound concern as you have had to question the safety of your vital work at the LGBT+ Rights Ghana Centre in Accra, and feared for your personal wellbeing and security. It is unacceptable to us that you feel unsafe,” wrote the signatories of the letter, many of whom are British-Ghanaian, including architect Sir David Adjaye and British Vogue Editor-in-Chief Edward Enninful. Elba’s mother was also born in Ghana.

“As prominent and powerful advocates for this great country, we are beseeching His Excellency, the President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and political/cultural leaders to create a pathway for allyship, protection and support.

“We petition for inclusivity which will make the nation even greater and even stronger,” the letter added.

At the opening of the center for LGBTQ+ people last month, the Danish ambassador, the Australian high commissioner and some foreign diplomats were among the attendees, causing anger among many Ghanaians who lambasted the international community for promoting gay rights in the country and Africa as a whole.

In Ghana, gay sex is a criminal offense and punishable by up to three years in jail. Though no one has been prosecuted for same-sex relations in years, human rights activists say LGBT+ people are discriminated against, and often face death threats and abuse. President Akufo-Addo on Saturday said same-sex marriage will not be legalized under his presidency. “I have said it before, and let me stress it again, that it will not be under the Presidency of Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo that same-sex marriage will be legal,” he said.

Although some African countries are slowly accepting same-sex marriages, many are still very categorical in their denunciation of the idea. Some have even made it a capital offense punishable by death – Mauritania, Sudan, southern Somalia and northern Nigeria.

Many members of the LGBT community in these countries have been forced to hide their sexuality while others have fled their homes for fear of being attacked.

In Uganda, for instance, same-sex relationships have been illegal since British colonial rule, and in neighboring Tanzania, the situation is no different. As political landscapes continue to change across the continent, new ideologies are slowly taking shape and societies are becoming more accepting as far as embracing same-sex relationships is concerned.

In January 2019, Angola shed the divisive “vices against nature” provision in its law, widely interpreted to be a ban on homosexual conduct. The changes were made on January 23 when the oil-rich southern African country parliament adopted its first new penal code since it gained independence in 1975 and removed the “vices against nature” provision that it inherited from its Portuguese colonizers.

There had been no known prosecutions under the law, but the “vices against nature” provision tended to place the lives of LGBT people in Angola under scrutiny.

In 2015, a Kenyan court ruled in favor of the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission – a non-governmental organization supporting the LGBT community – which had moved to court to compel the Kenyan government to recognize it as a legal entity. In its ruling, the court argued that refusing to register the commission was an infringement of the right of association for gay people.

In Uganda, the controversial 2014 law criminalizing homosexuality has since been overturned, although the constitution still doesn’t recognize same-sex relationships.

In South Africa, LGBT people enjoy constitutional and statutory protection from discrimination at work, school, and places of worship, as well as, in the provision of goods and services.

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.

The Nigerian Nobel laureate, playwright, novelist, and democracy advocate, Wole Soyinka, has reiterated his support for the 38-year-old Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, or Bobi Wine, who is looking to end Uganda President Yoweri Museveni‘s 34-year reign come January 14.

In an interview with Quartz, the Nigerian writer said the musician-turned-politician “for me right now, represents the face of democracy for Uganda”. Soyinka added that in Wine, Uganda’s possess the best possible visionary to take over the reins of government.

“Even before [we met], I’d taken an interest in his movement, his candidature, and his passion. And I share it; I share every bit of it,” said Woyinka who spent a while with the Ugandan presidential candidate in 2019 in Lagos during #FelaDebate, a symposium in memory of legendary Afrobeats founder Fela Kuti.

In 2018, along with a group of celebrities, media personalities and authors including Angelique Kidjo, and Femi Kuti, Soyinka signed a statement condemning the arrest, imprisonment and attack on Bobi Wine.

Much like Wine, Soyinka has made his own history with fighting brutal and dictatorial governments in Nigeria. He was arrested for illegally visiting the secessionist territory Biafra in 1967.  He had met with the secessionist leader, military governor Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu in Enugu in 1966, and was forced to go into hiding as he was labelled a spy during the civil strife between the Nigerian government and Biafra.

Soyinka was also an outspoken critic of Sani Abacha, Nigeria’s military ruler between 1993 and 1998. It was in opposition to Abacha that Soyinka first met Museveni.

He said in the interview: “I met Museveni during the fight against Sani Abacha. At the time we met it was still possible to consider him a democratic leader. Today he’s joined the gang—the enemies of society”.

The African to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986 believes the times of Museveni, as well as many others like him, have come to an end. It is his fervent hope that Ugandans share his faith in Wine.

Ugandan opposition figure Robert Kyagulanyi, popularly known as Bobi Wine, said one of his bodyguards was on Sunday run over and killed by a military police truck. The victim, Francis Senteza, was allegedly killed while helping to transport a journalist injured during a confrontation between the police and followers of Bobi Wine.

“I regret to announce the murder of my security team member Francis Senteza Kalibala aka Frank. He was deliberately ran over by military-police truck,” Bobi Wine wrote on Twitter.

The pop musician turned politician was campaigning on Sunday in parts of central Uganda when violent confrontations between security forces and his followers occurred. In the process, the police fired tear gas into the crowd, injuring two journalists, Aljazeera reported. Bobi Wine said his team was taking one of the injured journalists to seek medical help when his bodyguard was run over and killed.

A spokesperson for the Ugandan military however said the bodyguard fell off a speeding car amid the confrontation. “UPDF (Ugandan People’s Defence Force) would like to clarify that the late Senteza … was not knocked by a Military Police Vehicle as purported, but rather fell off a speeding car … he tried to jump to (sic) but fell off,” Brig. Gen. Flavia Byekwaso, the spokesperson, wrote on Twitter on Sunday.

Protests hit Uganda’s capital Kampala and some major towns last month after news broke that Bobi Wine had been arrested. Bobi Wine was picked up by the police at an election rally in Eastern Uganda after being accused of violating coronavirus prevention guidelines. Authorities said the anti-coronavirus measures are to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, however, critics say the move is only aimed at halting campaigns by the opposition ahead of the January 2021 election. After two days in police custody, Bobi Wine was arraigned in court and was later granted bail.

Bobi Wine was a musician but as he would later admit, he could not just get on with music while the country wasted under a president he has no belief in. Bobi Wine is an independent member of the Ugandan legislature. When he won his seat in 2017, it made national news but many would have written off the fervor for him.

Things changed in 2018 when he campaigned for a number of candidates in by-elections and they won. He also began making himself a nuisance to Museveni’s government. Today, his signature red beret that forms part of his fashion has become a favorite of young people.

It was back in 2017 when Tolu Olowofoyeku, Hamid Ibrahim, and Fikayo Adeola, friends from Nigeria and Uganda, established Kugali as pan-African creative company. The comic book collection they came up with was born out of a desire to tell modern African stories—now it’s set to reach a much wider global audience than they could have hoped with a comic book.

Now Disney has announced Kugali’s science fiction series Iwájú will debut globally in 2022 on Disney+ fast-growing streaming service.

Disney Animation studios described the move as the

Iwájú, a name that loosely translates to “the future” in Yoruba, a language spoken in West Africa, is set in Lagos and will explore a number of thematic concerns from class and innocence to challenging the status quo. The creators see it as an opportunity for Disney to tell a modern and authentic African story to the world using the entertainment behemoth’s animation and distribution prowess.

“Their talents blew us away. I’m proud to announce the first of its kind collaboration to bring original long for series to Disney+,” Disney Animation studios’ chief creative officer, Jennifer Lee, said of Kugali while speaking at Disney’s investor day this week.

Disney used the investor day to unveil several major announcements extensions to its storied franchises including Star Wars and for its Marvel characters. The world’s largest entertainment company has been under pressure to expand and boost its range of content as it doubles down with its Disney + platform to compete in the so-called streaming wars with Netflix and more recently HBO in the US and globally.

Disney+ has grown rapidly since debuting in November 2019 and now has 86 million subscribers globally, compared with Netflix’s  near 200 million subscribers as of the third quarter, built over 13 years.  Disney projects it will have 230 million to 260 million subscribers by the end of its fiscal year 2024 which is a huge jump from its initial projections in 2019 of 60 million to 90 million subscribers.

While Disney has had huge success with Africa-influenced tentpoles including Marvel’s Black Panther and Lion King it has no established track record of working with African creatives but it has started to move in that direction. In September, Disney Studios collaborated with Nigeria’s cinema chain FilmOne Entertainment to distribute Disney-owned films in English-speaking West Africa.

Netflix, which is much further along in working with African creatives in Nigeria’s Nollywood and South Africa’s TV and film industry, has become increasingly influential on the continent as it rolls out original shows produced by local talent, producers and executives including Queen Sono and Blood and Water and movies including Lionheart.

Africa’s animation film sector is growing rapidly with young talented animators and local collaborators create new, mostly short, features. This month saw the unveiling of Nigeria’s first animated full-lenght feature film titled Lady Buckit and the Motley Mopsters.

Last year, Netflix revealed it had partnered with Cape Town-based animation studios Triggerfish for a new series called Mama K’s Team 4, the story of an all girl-team of African spies, who also happen to be four normal Zambian teens by day.