Wednesday 15, the sun rose and set like it was a normal day. Of course, it could have been a normal day but it was 10 years since October 15, 2015.
Stories have been told of how the plan was hatched, apparently, by an artiste, currently an MP in the Opposition, came up with a plan to sing a song praising the president to light up his 2016 campaigns.
However, the artiste lacked influence thus, only his idea was picked but he wasn’t chosen to headline the project, neither was he included on the project in the end. Artistes were mobilised, those who had influence, some refused to join even when the project seemed lucrative, but at the end, 12 were chosen.
King Saha, Rema Namakula, Radio and Weasel, Jose Chameleone, Iryn Namubiru, Julianna Kanyomozi, Haruna Mubiru, Judith Babirye, Mun*G and Bebe Cool were those selected.
The song
It is said the project was pitched at Shs400m. The 12 were the hottest voices in town in all genres Uganda music has curved out, from hip hop to Ugandan soukous, what we usually call band music.
Only a few names, including Winnie Nwagi, Sheebah, Irene Ntale, Eddy Kenzo and Bobi Wine were missing. When Tubonga Nawe was released, with the video shot at Namboole stadium, with the 12 artistes singing and dancing alongside Annet Nandujja’s troupe, the song was a masterpiece, an earworm, yet for many reasons, it did not sound right.
Ugandans started talking, some felt heavily betrayed by the artistes they loved dearly, while others chose to defend them to the depths. And right there, the artistes had weaponised a fan base, it was confusing. In 2015, where going viral wasn’t a statement used often, the Tubonga Nawe situation was viral.
Elites and those who don’t identify as such were all talking, those in support of their stars cited examples, including Will I Am and John Legend’s Yes We Can, a song directly influenced by a Barack Obama speech from one of his 2008 speeches.
The song was a strong tool for Obama’s campaign, which saw him become the first black president of the United States of America. But there was a slight difference, neither Will I Am nor John Legend were paid by Obama’s team to record the song. And neither was Young Jeezy for My President, which had also been released early on.
Thus, the comparison which tried to put Tubonga Nawe with Yes We Can in the same basket didn’t make a lot of sense, especially considering the fact that artistes like Jay-Z, Beyonce, Kanye West, John Legend had even contributed to Obama’s campaign through donations.
By the end of the campaigns, President Museveni was declared winner, it was all over. In his speech, he said it was time to work, but for the local music industry, it was just the beginning of a major shake up. For politics, it was the end of the old and a new era was forming, right before our eyes.
The artistes started rallying Ugandans to put politics behind them and move on with life. In fact, Bebe Cool and Chameleone, among others made a TV appearance to explain their reason for being part of the Tubonga Nawe project and the show was a major discussion online.
That show was proof that something had shifted, Chameleone, was in the NTV studios, in his grace; there to answer Douglas Lwanga’s questions about the song and his decision to take part in the project.
This was Chameleone’s first live TV interview in more than 10 years, the man had between the years become so big that if you needed him for an interview, you had to go to his home or his desired place but he wasn’t going to come to you, regardless of who you were. But here he was, defending his reasons for dancing and singing for a man in a song shot in an empty Namboole.
Meanwhile, talk of Ugandans boycotting the 12 artistes started taking shape. Dr Kizza Besigye, who had been president Museveni’s biggest rival for four elections, including the one in 2016, was under house arrest, only a few people could access him. One of those who accessed him was Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine.
He played his guitar for him and sang a song; he would later upload the video onto his social media pages to much appreciation and acclaim.
The song he sang in the video was Situka; the song had been around, as a soundtrack to a film of the same name, where Bobi Wine stars as a local young man who decides to take on the leadership of his community after seeing so much injustice.
Initially, the song didn’t hit, but in the wake of half the industry appearing on Tubonga Nawe, Bobi Wine curved himself as the people’s champion. He was not only admired but people were willing to put on anything Bobi Wine related.
He had the years prior positioned himself as a common man’s champion, a voice for the downtrodden with songs such as Ghetto, Tungambire Ku Jennifer, and Time Bomb among others, staying out of Tubonga Nawe even when it was a lucrative deal.
But Bobi Wine had buggages too; for more than a decade, he alongside Chameleone and Bebe Cool had ring-fenced the industry, keeping themselves on top of the chain either intentionally or otherwise. They became a cult and a yardstick of the industry. Leone Island, Fire Base and Gagamel Entertainment became taste makers and a blueprint of the industry.
When they fought, aspiring artistes found themselves choosing sides, it was almost impossible to stay neutral if you indeed wanted mainstream success.
That divide went straight into the fan base, thus, they became the artistes to popularise music concert battles. At first, it was people organising shows on the same day but then it was upped to shows in the same space and almost the same stage. The fan base was divided alongside artistes, it was either or, not both, something that at least Bobi Wine and Bebe Cool carefully commercialised for years by either doing songs attacking each other or staging shows on the same day.
Even when Bobi Wine didn’t appear on the Tubonga Nawe project and was sought after as a people’s artiste, there’s a fan base that didn’t appreciate his message.
By the beginning of 2017, the industry was majorly undergoing a rebirth, Tubonga Nawe had changed the tides, most of the artistes on the song had chosen to shelve music because they thought Ugandans would boycott them. Bebe Cool decided to churn out a song almost every month until he landed that Kabulengane.
Iryn Namubiru, Julianna Kanyomozi, Haruna Mubiru, Judith Babirye either withheld music or went into active politics and business.
Unfortunately, both Julianna and Iryn’s space would be claimed by Winnie Nwagi and Sheebah; the two would go on to dominate the industry for years. With Sheebah steadily managing to shift the industry from a vocal first approach, which had been a yardstick for artistes before her.
Sheebah’s rise led to the rise of artistes such as Vinka, Spice Diana, Nina Roz to the current crops such as Pinky, Ava Peace, and Jowy Landa who are prominent for hit singles.
On the other side of the spectrum, Bobi Wine rode the people’s love solely on the legacy and music he had recorded prior, then in April 2017, the MP for Kyadondo East Constituency, Apollo Kantinti was kicked out of Parliament and fresh election was organised.
Bobi Wine contested as an Independent candidate. That election in September 2017 was of national interest. Today, Bobi Wine leads probably the Opposition political party. In his opposition, words such as robbadob style or calling his main opponent, President Museveni, Oyo Chali.. is common.
Even the political commentary spectrum has changed, there’s commentary on TVs and radios but actual commentary takes place on social media spaces such as TikTok where presidential advisors don’t engage in conversation but insult everything and everyone.
What could the political spectrum have looked like if the song didn’t propel Bobi Wine in one way or another? Would Dr Hilderman, Geoffrey Lutaaya, or Mathias Walukagga be politicians or active singers today? So where did we start from? Yes, last week was Wednesday, 15 October.
Unfortunately on Friday night of the same date in 2015, it wasn’t only Tubonga Nawe that rewrote the music timeline, along the showers of River Nile, at Nile Discovery Resort in Njeru, a new festival was born, rewriting the meaning of a music festival in Africa, Nyege Nyege, but that’s a story for another day.
Key
Could Bobi Wine’s ascendency have been different had he been on Tubonga Nawe Maybe yes, maybe no.
But we could use King Saha as a specimen.
Because King Saha was on that song, only to switch sides, he has since released countless political songs he calls revolutionary, yet the other side always reacts by replying his verse on Tubonga Nawe whenever they can. Sometimes it’s all they play.