In Uganda where the pop star-turned-politician Bobi Wine, the ghetto president, is trying to unseat the present dictator - President Yoweri Museveni -in Thursday's vote, the BBC has posted this beautiful video(click on the pic) that contains the songs and music of Bobi Wine which can be an inspiration for our present struggle.
Over the last two decades Bobi Wine's musical output has been filled with songs about the basic needs of the population like improving access to healthcare, education, clean water and justice which have inspired a fervent following . Through his music and songs, he showed that he understood the social issues that young people were facing especially young people from the ghetto.
It reminds me of the repressive days of the "Chacha & Gaetan" coalition government and its “ règne des tapeurs et le viol de la democracie”. These were trying times for the “militants” which produced so much debate and creativity and the coming together of a nation thirsty for change and the new ideals of the 1968 student protests worldwide .
We also saw the emergence of new groups- one more leftist than the others- new ideas on democracy, new pamphlets, discussions that grew more complex and intellectual as more militants from abroad joined in with their untested theories of Marcuse, Mao, Marx, Sartre, Freud, Reich, Memmi, Lumumba, Fanon, Paulo Frere ---u name it- exchanges , sometimes cool , sometimes fiery and full of emotion that extended to the early hours of dawn …indeed , it was a hundred flowers blooming and a hundred schools of thought contending …and we also had our lot of local artists-Seeven , Bam and others - that blended everything in an explosive and engaging music and songs , kindling our “Mauritianisme et Militantisme”.
History has to repeat itself. Uganda is showing us the way. We do not have to wait for the elections, everyday we have to shake this regime by our daily attacks on all fronts-through our songs, our videos, our exchanges, our demonstrations, our articles, our caricatures, our rebellions, our support for each other against a common enemy , putting aside our differences and pooling resources to organise demonstrations, protests and meetings , till they “ grainé kuma zambalaks” .
Our democracy can be proved to be resilient only if we are prepared to commit ourselves and mobilise people to peacefully defend it.
'When the struggle is over we shall wear the victor's crown'
