By Ian Ortega
I am annoyed, shocked and equally ready to spit some fire today. If one has been observant, one should have noticed that literally every music artiste in Uganda is running a charity of sorts. Everyone is involving in helping some needy people somewhere, some orphans and some elderly. I find this utmost disgusting. Not that it’s bad to help the poor and needy, but it’s bad to use them as the basis as to why we should support your music and attend your shows and concerts.
You see, charity should not be used as a marketing ploy in disguise. We don’t come to shows to listen to your pleas about the many children you are helping and all those bogus statements, we come to shows to relieve some of our stress and appreciate good music, and disapprove of fake music.
Ugandan music artistes are over-playing the charity card. I am one of those who was the happiest when Bobi Wine’s charity concert flopped, I will never attend any concert where the artiste promises to send some of the proceeds to a certain fund helping a few jigger infested homesteads of helping to procure canoes for the families in Bwaise.
I am not saying don’t help the needy, I am just saying, I am less interested in knowing about that when I am coming for a music concert. Does anyone remember the Battle of Champions between Bebe Cool and Bobi Wine and how Bebe Cool took trouble to flaunt these disabled kids that he claimed to be helping? That’s when it all begun.
Before long, we had Desire Luzinda with her own fundraising concert, then Bobi Wine picked up the same tricks, first at the free show at Cricket Oval and later on at Hotel Africana, then as the dust was settling, we have Jose Chameleone promising us that the One Million concert proceeds will all go to some charity fund.
Congratulations Ugandan Music Artistes, you are very impressive at your games. You are those diamond glints of the re-incarnations of the modern-day angels but are we not sure your own music careers need the charity more than the people you are claiming to help?
For example, if Buchaman was to organize a music concert aimed at helping the needy, don’t you think that would be hypocrisy at its best? What if he was clear he wanted some money to foot his bills, domestic bills and music studio bills?
For most Ugandan artistes, their music needs charity more than the poor do. They have the fakest music videos, they have the fakest audio tracks and they struggle to maintain their own glorious lifestyles, some even struggle to look after their families yet they claim to be the pillars of charity.
How then should a blind man lead another blind man?
Desire Luzinda was sent out of her house in Naalya over failure to pay rent, yet a few months ago she had organized a concert where all the earnings were going to charity. Should we say, she didn’t know that she were in more need than the people she wanted to help?
When travelling on an airplane, they always warn everyone to make use of the oxygen mask first before they proceed to help any other person. I will attend any concert no matter how expensive if the artiste comes open and says; “look people, I want to complete my house” or “look people I want to shoot better music videos.”
The charity tags should not be the reason we attend concerts to listen to your fake music. The charity tags should not be the reason we part with our hard-earned cash to support you. Your music should be the reason we attend your concerts, yes when I say music, I mean good music.
And just in case you want to help, there are a million better ways to help without tagging that help to your music concerts.
1. Build Schools, Build A Hospital
Let me wake up one day and read that Dr.Jose Chameleone has opened up a dermatology clinic; that Straka Mwezi has opened up a fitness school; that Bobi Wine has opened up a rehabilitation centre. In that way, I wouldn’t mind going to a Chameleone concert well aware that he’s supporting a hospital somewhere. This is a hand-up not a hand-out. I am more concerned about our hand-out charities in Uganda. Our charities simply give fish to the needy, they don’t teach the needy how to fish instead. Hospitals, Schools can be the ways in which we teach these needy how to fish. Yet all we do is collect our dead beat clothes, some of them with bed-bugs and we give to these needy people. How miserable!!!
2. Declare Your HIV Statuses Publicly
This could be another way of giving back to society. We need another Philly Lutaaya. I wouldn’t mind waking up one day and reading that; “Sheebah has come out open about her genital herpes” and that she’s doing this to help spread awareness about the disease. Wouldn’t that be impressive?
3. Begin Charitable Organizations
Let’s have well-registered organizations formed by these music stars and let’s have full accountability of all their work after every quarter of the year. In Such a way, our rich men like Don Brian can simply wire millions to support causes of these organizations.
4. Release Themed-Music
In the late 1960s to the early 1970s, Bob Dylan was at the front during the counter-cultural revolution that spread through America. Dylan’s politically-charged themes came at a time when society’s disenfranchised needed their messages encapsulated in a widely dispersed medium. (It didn’t hurt that the messages came from a genius who could absorb a whole ranges of emotion in a single melody and a 10,000-word story in a single line of poetry like he did with “Blowin’ in the Wind”).
Perhaps, we could have Bobi Wine stand out with themes that express all the voices of the youths in Uganda. We could have him organize rallies to sing about their concerns and he could inspire a cultural-revolution, not that ‘filthy-rich’ themed songs with his fellow failure, Mr.G.
And above all, it’s not all about the poor, sick and needy. Our artistes can do much better. There are environmental concerns to address. I wouldn’t mind Weasal and Mowzey Radio inspiring a green movement in Uganda (by green I don’t mean Ganja).
How about one of our music artistes getting very serious about minimizing the impact of carbon dioxide, come up with eco-friendly sustainable and reusable materials and rally against the littering habits of Ugandans?
Till then, please save us from those charity tagged concerts. Should every music concert have a charity tag to it? Unless it’s the musician who’s asking for that charity, perhaps Weasal promising that all proceeds from his concert go to his Weasal babies’ home.