UGANDA: FDC's Plan to Boycott Artists That Supported President Yoweri Museveni Will Not Be Successful

Some Ugandans largely supporters of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) political party did not take kindly to some of Uganda’s top artists supporting the re-election of President elect Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.

And therefore the FDC had urged Ugandans not to listen to the musical content of some of these artists among them, Jose Chameleone, Bebe Cool, Radio and Weasel, Juliana Kanyamozi, Rema among others.

However popular radio expert Joel Isabirye has come out to say that the said boycott will not in any way affect the artists.

“My take on the current censorship of Tubonga Nawe artistes by FDC is this. One of my preoccupations over the years has been about music circulation. Circulation is used by different people as a term to moderate the economic implications of the word distribution. Economics and music is detested by some cultural analysts who perceive the economic transactions around music as largely “dishonest” or “lacking in integrity. While distribution is treated as an economic structural network driven process of availing musical goods or services, circulation is seen sometimes as non-economic.it also proposes the unconventional and conventional ways music reaches publics,”  He said

“One of the areas I have paid some attention to is how censored music gets circulated. In South Africa no amount of censorship blocked Lucky Dube’s songs from reaching where they reached. The attempt to censor Tubonga Nawe artistes therefore is going to be resisted by their songs (not by president Museveni or the artistes themselves). Nothing keeps artistes on top except their work in the studio.no one will equally pull them down but their work in the studio. At this point in time Juliana Kanyomozi’s ‘Twalina Omukwano’ has disarmed many who vilified her for exercising her right as a citizen to choose her presidential candidate for which she is being unfairly censored. So music will not be stopped. It will circulate (force its way through) As long as the artistes do what they do best: “studio recordings. “The Tubonga Nawe artistes just need to return to studio and record.” He added