Uganda’s Most Popular Musician Is Being Banned Because He Criticized the Government
Uganda’s most popular recording artist of the past decade, Bobi Wine, has endured censorship and the suppression of his music after running an opposition campaign against Uganda’s current president.
Ugandan musician-turned-politician Robert Kyagulanyi, commonly known as Bobi Wine, sings on a stage in Busabala, suburb of Kampala, Uganda, on November 10, 2018. (Isaac Kasamani / Getty Images)
In the year since Yoweri Museveni was sworn in for the sixth time as president of Uganda, much has changed.
In the yearslong run-up to Uganda’s 2021 elections, pop-star-cum-politician Bobi Wine was the standard-bearer of political dissent, especially among the youth, who constitute nearly 80 percent of the population. Wine’s political rise was preceded by his musical one. He remains Uganda’s most popular recording artist of the past decade. Famous not just for catchy tunes alone, Wine pioneered a politically minded genre known as “edutainment.”
Wine, who was raised in the Kampala ghetto of Kamwokya, not only made music that people enjoyed listening and dancing to. He also drew people’s attention to the plight of the poor. Using his fame as a platform, in 2017 he successfully ran for parliament; in 2019, he ran as a presidential candidate for the National Unity Platform (NUP), but he lost to Uganda’s incumbent president, Museveni.
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