THE BATTLE FOR HARMONY IN UGANDA’S MUSIC INDUSTRY

The Ugandan Music Industry has been on a long bumpy ride to unity. Leaders have risen and fallen till this day, no proper system or strategy has been established yet despite the leaders that have sat in that seat.

2021 the artistes decided to take the industry seriously and they picked up an association that had been created but was not active. They established a committee which was led by Halima Namakula who after a few months resigned and left the office for her vice president Ykee Benda.

A few months later Ykee Benda too resigned and left the office to his assistant Cinderella Sanyu. During Cindy’s service, which was between 2021 – 2022, the period in which most artistes in Uganda were harshly hit by COVID 19, Cindy got some people of influence to pick interest in the music industry.

August 2021 – January 2022 had artistes hitting the roads to Northern Uganda to discuss a way forward for the music industry and to create a way for artistes to have a sustainable source of income with the support of Government.

Now this meant a lot of work for the Association because issues like inclusiveness of regional artistes arose during those meetings and so Cindy and her team decided to traverse the country and register all the artistes from every region of Uganda, provide Identification cards as members of the association then eventually forge a way forward. These activities happened while the meetings in Gulu with General Salim Saleh were on going.

All this was swept under the carpet by critics of the industry saying that Cindy had done nothing except cause separation amidst the artistes. The committee was accused of misusing funds received from General Salim Saleh.

Later the promoters and producers too expressed their dissatisfaction with the Association saying that they are never considered and they are never recognized and yet they are the ones that make and build the stars people see and adore.

While all these issues were boiling up, the elections of the Association were getting closer. These elections had King Saha rally against Cindy Sanyu. This was the season that catalyzed the beef between Bebe Cool and King Saha and the famous hit “Zakayo” was released addressing Bebecool and calling him a man of troubles.

One might wonder why Bebe Cool is in this mess, well, it is because he strongly supported Cindy and asked the artistes to give her a chance since she is the only President who never resigned and is still willing to serve.

Because of the unending issues of UMA, the election was postponed from 6^th June 2022 to 28^th of June 2022. It should be noted that even on 28^th when the elections were finally held, they were still not a success as artistes still remained discontented by the results.

First of all, the artistes were not happy with the Electoral board’s decision to hold a digital election. Which was valid because they needed a transparent election to accept the results. The Electoral Board however could not afford to traverse the entire country to hold physical elections for all the artistes in Uganda.

After failing to disagree on the method of voting, the election was nullified and the association was left without a new committee. It should be noted however that according to the constitution of UMA the sitting president remains in authority of the Association until the Board decides and appoints a suitable President.

All these events slapped Cindy with a new wave of challenges. She had the constitution but it was running without a proper board. Cindy tried to establish a board which made things worse. Artistes came back strong condemning her for establishing a board claiming that the people on the board were not to be trusted.

Since then, no further decisions were made.

Now recently, a new Body was established called “The Uganda National Musicians Federation” where Kenzo was elected as the President. This caught people by surprise and kept people wondering when and how the Association was established. The electoral process is also unclear and neither has the President given that accountability.

This now leaves Uganda’s Music industry in a split with about 3 or even more bodies running. So far, we have Uganda Musicians Association (UMA), Uganda National Musicians Federation (UNMF) and Uganda Superstars Association (USA).

Critics are questioning what would it take for Ugandan musicians to unite and work together. Secondly, is it possible for the artistes to actually work together with all this ego battles and fights they keep picking up?

Singer Big Eye recently criticized Eddy Kenzo saying that he has no qualifications to be President of the Federation. He further expressed that Eddy Kenzo is a selfish person, he has not uplifted anyone in the industry except do music for himself and his own benefit.

Those that founded the Federation say, the purpose is to unify all existing bodies in the Industry. However, when you look at the sole purpose of UMA it’s quite the same thing.

Ever since the Federation was created, artistes have been on a loud rampage, assuring & schooling each other about how things should be done and who is worth being a leader on the federation.

The one thing that all artiste can’t disagree with is the need for the copyright bill to be passed. This is because they all know that they will all benefit. The war will not end as long as there is someone or a body benefiting more than they do.

In my personal perspective as an observer of this trail, The biggest challenge is every single artiste sees themselves as a superstar and the best in Uganda. Organizing the Uganda’s Music Industry is like trying to get all Presidents of the world into one order. Unless you own the World Bank this is almost impossible.

Each of these bodies has strengths and the only way to unify the industry is looking at the strengths of each body. The Uganda Musicians Association has done the ground work and has established a constitution sufficient enough or eligible for improvement to help the industry work better.

UMA has also established a system which is not fully completed but can be improved with new ideas and suggestions, to achieve the goal of unifying all artistes in Uganda.

The Federation has eligible leaders who are able to create bigger platform for the industry and attract funding from the Government and also work on bringing producers and promoters on board.

The Superstars Association can then focus on building the talents and creating opportunities for artistes to grow their careers by establishing a criteria or a filter that identifies an artiste who deserves to be recognized or awarded in Uganda.

Now that the three bodies, have leadership, it is possible for all the leaders to agree, establish a board and a working system for Uganda’s Music Industry.