Ugandan men don't propose

“He did it! It was so romantic. We were at this classy restaurant, when the room went silent and then soft music propelled him to one knee and he popped the question.”

This is a typical line from a film script that Hollywood has perpetuated for a long time, to give film lovers a feel-good feeling of falling in love and that love is achievable.  

So what is a proposal? It is when a man asks the woman in his life to marry him, usually on his knee.

In Uganda, where people – like they do world over – fall in love and get married, the notion of fanfare and a romantic proposal is still a rarity. An American philanthropist, Bethany Gray, who observed our society, thinks a marriage proposal in Uganda is impossible because we don't believe in any public display of affection in the first place.

“In Uganda, marriage is so different, it’s like people don’t even date. It is even hard to see lovers holding hand in a Kampala street yet they do exist, so I can’t expect any of those people to even accept a public marriage proposal,” said Gray.

She even seemed surprised that even after Ugandans claim to be engaged, they don't see more of each other as many continue living with their parents.

It is necessary?

Take 26-year-old Mildred Kansiime, for example, who is getting married in September; her fiancé suggested marriage but did not pop the question. “We were in one of those good moments and I think he hinted at getting married. I am actually the one who stressed his point, and the next thing was to plan for a meeting and draw up a budget. For me, whatever he murmured was a proposal: I wasn’t expecting a formal one.”

Indeed the lack of a proposal did not upset Kansiime whose bridal entourage said she is elated about her upcoming nuptials.

Kansiime later tells me she doesn't believe in Hollywood styled wedding proposals, according to her, the entire arrangement is not African.

Just like Kansiime, Boniface Kizito, a car parts dealer, also believes proposals are simply a spur of the moment.

“I didn't really get a chance to propose, but when my girlfriend told me she was expecting, we had to do the necessary to legalize our union. It wasn't a proposal but a suggestion,” he stated.

“How do you live with someone's daughter for four years and propose in the fifth? That would clearly tell her you've just been testing the waters in the past four but not really sure,” added Kizito, explaining why he didn’t propose.

The two also concurred with the fact that the whole idea of a proposal is a Hollywood or western import.

“This is diamond we are talking of, which African man will give you a temporary ring mbu engagement? Do you even expect a man to ask you to marry him when you've been sleeping in his house for over a year? The day you decide to move in together, by default you are looking towards marriage even without a proposal,” said Kansiime, a mother of two.

How it is done

Although a few brave have stammered or sweated on one knee in Uganda to propose, Kansiime maintained that men abstractly propose with statements like: ‘I didn't like so and so's cake. We should get a better caterer for our wedding’ or ‘Which colour would you choose for a dress?’

“With that statement a Ugandan [man] has proposed,” she said.

Ugandan men don't propose, like bosses, they suggest marriage

 Agnes Nalutaaya’s man is one of the few that proposed. During her kwanjula, he went down on both knees to give Nalutaaya her engagement ring – much to the guests and MC’s chagrin.

 “Omusajja mu Buganda tafukamira,” they burst out, meaning “Men in Buganda don't kneel.” Clearly our African culture is not at peace with this western import – even if it is a sign of love and respect – that is deemed to lower a man before his woman.

But there are some proposals that a chosen few enjoy, with all the fanfare that comes along with them. Brenda Enzy’s was one such proposal and it took her by surprise (just like most young women).

“I think he was meant to do it on the 31st of December but while he continued collecting the guts to, we sneaked into the New Year,” she recalled. “He went down on one knee amidst the church celebrations and asked me for marriage.”

Now the young couple has been married for two years.

Nevertheless, Enzy feels that it is wrong for society to place the onus of proposing solely on men. “I find no sin in a woman proposing marriage.”

Immaculate Luwedde, a children and marriage counsellor, agrees with Enzy. She said that the future of proposals lies in women’s hands. “It would be for example okay if the two parties involved in a marriage can initiate it.” She also noted that there men may find it hard to accept women’s proposals because they hardly ever propose.

For now, only time will tell when proposals will take root in Uganda and become the norm. In Enzy’s fiancé proposed but she said that imperfect marriage proposals (and no proposals) are still a part of us.

“The ring he came with was actually a wedding ring; I bought another one though,” she said sheepishly.

In fact, young women, like Enzy, have taken to buying themselves engagement rings to make a statement that they are indeed booked. “By the way, most of the girls with engagement rings never got proposals,” said Enzy.

“I think perfect marriage proposals will be done by our children not us,” she added.

Sometimes, young men make a mockery of proposals by using a marriage proposal as bait to get women. And some women, especially foreigners, get confused.

In 2008, Kathryne, a mzungu woman, came to Uganda for the first time and she was hit by a barrage of proposals from men in the clubs. One guy, she won’t forget, hit on her, proposed and told her that they would even relocate as a couple to America.

To date, Kathryne can't stop talking about Ugandan men and their bold approach to proposing; and sadly, she never got to see a real proposal in Uganda.

Review: Bebe Cool's Nyonyi Nkezze is a plus

Nyonyi Nkezze means one who came earlier than the rest, in a simple man’s English, it translates to the early bird.

Bebe Cool’s new song with the above title took over the airwaves at the beginning of the year and in part of the lyrics, he talks about coming before all the other artistes and thus being a better singer than all of them.

Two weeks back, we told you of his tedious efforts to get his two new singles videos; he embarked on shooting two fancy videos for both Nyonyi Nkezze and his other single Nkola byafayo.

The video for Nyonyi Nkezze was released late on Thursday on the artistes’ YouTube channel and its, well, as flashy as they come.

The air plane swag, dollars, girls, cars plus his plausible dance strokes.

The video is set in an air craft garage, where Bebe is featured in two attires, a white suit and a black in the other scene.

The editing comes off as a clean one which is an improvement on the side of Henrix since I first appreciated him on Rema’s Oliwange.

For a luganda song, I think Bebe definitely went out of his way to pull this off.

Basic video and two stars.

With 3D and 5D, whats left for pirates

My real first time into the Cinema was when my older brother took me with him for a Holiday Makers’ Transday bash. Since I was underage, he paid the patrons at Cineplex that I could watch the two movies showing; Armageddon and Rush Hour (yes, you don’t just forget your first movie in a cinema).

I was in there unknowingly watching worldwide block busters yet the room wasn’t even half full, it was virtually empty with a couple of girls on the front row.

Though in the end, the experience was remarkable; at that time, what made a cinema movie special was the ability of watching characters and the action in full color and on a wider screen.

Many years down the road, a lot has changed; Cineplex has since moved from a cluttered William Street to a posh Garden City, even opened shop at the neighboring Oasis mall, they even have competitors in form of Cinema Magic in Nalya and Cinemax in Makerere.

In the early 2000s, Digital took over cinema with 2D (2 dimensional) and 3D later.

3D wasn’t adopted immediately by many film makers immediately, in fact, it was loathed and dumped before the general public could get a glimpse.

It was in 2010 that the glasses made a comeback with James Cameron’s Avatar, even movies already done in 2D were retouched to cash in on the 3D fad, when the Grammy Awards aired a Michael Jackson tribute by Celine Dion, Usher, Carrie Underwood, Smokey Robinson and Jennifer Hudson was in 3D, the first time in the history of the award show.

In 2013 Cinema Magic, Cineplex Oasis and Cinemax launched 3D theatres and a 5D.

Cineplex has been in the game for so long and created a reputation as the number one movie brokers thus their movies don’t really come cheap, on normal days, a movie goes for at least shs22,000/= .

Like all the other cinemas, special 3D glasses are handed out, they help magnify enhance the optical illusion of depth perception.

Cineplex is strategically located in the city center though in an area without easy transportation, just in case a movie ended way after midnight, however, the place has an active Boda Boda stage plus, the distance between Oasis mall and Kampala road is a movable one.

The 3D experience at Cinema Magic Nalya is almost the same, huge screen proportion enough to suit the theatre length, a ticket goes for shs16000/= with a free soda. However for many ideal movie goers, usually youths enjoying their salary, this place is not all that.

Its located at the northern bypass that, if one doesn’t own a car, leaving the place at night (when many of the good movies are screened) is hard, there even no direct taxis to this place.

The new Cinemax wins as far as accessibility is concerned, located in a place where commuter taxis to and from Kampala are always active. The cinema offers both 5D and 3D services.

A 5D clip goes for shs30,000/= with a free pass to watch any 3D film on their menu, as well as a free soda, though for those only interested in 3D only, the ticket is at shs15000/=.

The price is quite expensive for a 30 minute clip but the experience was amazing and mind blowing. 5D cinema is merely a market gag, there are no real five dimensions as in regards the picture, in fact what you watch on the screen is actually 3D.

We watched animated clips that were mostly set at old gothic like amusement scary parks’ roller-coaster.

The simulator made you feel part of the movie. It gets seriously freaky especially when the seats start moving up and down side to side, kind of like a static roller-coaster. There were those spectacular scenes where a roller-coaster stumbles on an anaconda like snake and stops immediately. As this snake charges to devour the guy infront of me, our sits started shaking and falling towards the snake, it was scary and really amazing.

The biggest difference about 3D and 5D is that 5D combines 3D and 4D to offer your mind more to ogle about for example, when the roller coaster meets a fountain, your face is indeed hit with water spray, then the mist, smoke and bubbles. Oh did I mention the room becomes too cold in snow?

On the other hand, 3D cinema, with the help of glasses enhances imagination making scenes of birds flying out of the screen, mist and bullets from the screen quite believable. But that’s almost all, and with the bad selection of movies, there are times no big deal or fuss about 3D, some movies genres are not meant for the technology.

However, from a perspective of a film lover that sources most of his entertainment from city pirates, 3D adds the flavor to the picture by going beyond a clear copy but trying to involve the audience especially in aggressively action packed thrillers.

The Ugandan - worth the hype

This was one of the most talked about movies last year, premiered at a sold out event at National theatre yet for some reason, many Ugandans have not watched it.

According to one of the actresses, the producers are still protecting the original product from pirates and thus, it may take even more than six months to get our own DVD copies of The Ugandan.

Since the Euro-Africa Film festival opened at Theatre Labonita last week, I’ve been frequenting the place in the name of catching a free African Movie like obi Emelonye’s Mirror Boy, Jann Turner’s White Wedding or that 2005 South African hit Tsotsi, it’s always a chance to escape the cliché and lack of creativity that Hollywood has become.

These African movies provide a clear alternative to the lame stories, bad scripts, those continuous gay scenes and uncalled for cliff hungers only immersed in production trickery.

Thus, when Patrick Sekyaya’s The Ugandan was listed as one of the African movies to be screened at the festival – for free, many of us had to indeed make a date with the organisers.

The movie was meant to start at 6pm though by 5, the theatre louge was full of movie lovers excited to catch one of the best productions done in Uganda by a Ugandan.

The movie looks at the life after the 1973 expulsion of Asians by Idi Amin; some of the Indians whose property was given out to the locals comes back to reclaim what indeed belongs to them.

We are then introduced to Raman an Indian survivor of the Amin regime who is blackmailed by his Ugandan girlfriend (Becky) when he claims her father’s property. Coincidentally, Raman’s daughter (Sonia) falls in love with Becky’s brother (Simon). Meanwhile, Becky’s other brother (Ralph) is hustling on the streets, chasing after a thug that has links to Raman and Becky, amid raging protests against Indians.

The Ugandan is indeed one of the best locally produced movies, its picture, lighting and sound quality can aptly compete with bigger industries like the south African and Nigerian.

The film however has issues especially with the performances by most of the characters. Former Miss Uganda Dora Mwima was partly impressive, though, in a scene where she’s told that the father of her unborn child was actually simply hired to feign a relationship with her, her expression was simply flat – not any different from a person surprised by relatives on a birthday.

Then the script too had problems, much of the dialogue lacked direction, it was just redundant which dragged the picture.

Though even with all that, The Ugandan is still one of the best movies to come out of our dusty industry and thus deserved all the hype.

Meanwhile, the Euro-Africa festival will wrap up today with Joel Karekezi’s The Pardon, a film about the post Rwanda genocide devide as people were trying to come to terms with the fact that they had to forgive and work with their tormentors for a better country.

Festival to celebrate Womanhood

The womanhood festival that celebrates achievements and women emancipation is back.

The festival, which kicks off on Tuesday, will run for five days at the National Theatre in Kampala. For the third year running, the festival will run during the Women's Day week and this year's festival comes as the world celebrates the 103rd International Women's Day on March 8.

The festival is dedicated to celebrating the achievements realized in the struggle to realize women empowerment.

Last year, the festival was held at the time when parliament was debating the long overdue domestic relations bill and as a result, they featured keynote speakers like parliamentarians to inform the masses why the bill was important – unfortunately it wasn’t passed.

Besides public debates and discussions, the free of charge festival also featured music, dance, storytelling, poetry, bonfire, exhibitions and film screening.

This year is not different, as it comes back with glitz, humor and even a better line up of activities.

The organisers promise five days of networking, learning and lots of fun with music, dance and storytelling.

The theme this year is about, Celebrating women’s accountable leadership and will be a topic of discussion and debate on 4^th, 5^th and 6^th, unlike last year, this time round, pimary, secondary and university students will be invited to be part of the talk.

There will be a special screening of a documentary about Hon. Rebecca Kadaga on top of awards that will be handed out to different achievers.

There will be musical performances by Afrigo band, Diplock Ssegawa, Kenzo, Nandujja, Jamal and Pablo among others.

The do will climax on 8^th with the screening of Winnie Mandela film.  

The festival looks at promoting Women’s rights through advocating for Gender Equality particularly in rural areas during the Native Travel Festival Tours and the Celebrating Womanhood Festival at the National Theatre in the country’s capital. 

The womanhood festival is a brain child of Sarah Nsigaye’s Native Travel Festival. 

Bebe turns to the disabled as gay bill is signed

Bebe Cool has been making news; he's one of uganda's representatives at the debut season of Tusker Twende Kazi, and as am writting this, the hommie may be running up and down in the quest of delivering a bottle of Tusker.
But that doesn't actually mean that Bebe is totally out.
A few weeks back, the Nyonyi Nkeze star made news when he trashed the anti-homosexuality bill as useless since there are better ways the government can deal with gays.
But this didn't go down well with some Ugandans, they immediately attacked him for being a gay sympathizer, this gave Bobi Wine a chance to taunt him whenever he went.......wonder whether people interpret a thing!!!!!!
But that didn't shut Bebe up
When the Anti gay bill was passed, Bebe was silent, we almost thought he could not be knowing whats going on since he's busy with that Kenyan girl on the show. How wrong we were, at about midnight, Bebe Jotted one hell of a dozier where he let Ugandans know whats on his mind.
We reproduce it for you.............

Bebe Cool
My personal request to his excellence the president of Uganda YOWERI KAGUTA MUSEVENI and the parliament of Uganda is that can u now deal with an issue that Uganda has ignored for long,THE DISABLED.I personally think they have rights such as an idea to have every office or company atleast to employ one disabled person as a must,secondly every building in the city to avail special car parking for them and all storied buildings to avail a convenient plan i.e toilets and staircase way for the disabled.I THINK THIS WOULD MAKE MORE SENSE THAN THE MINI SKIRT ISSUE since after all with or without clothes ALL MPS and all Ugandans r only human and we all SIN clothes on or off.

Ugandans take on the world as Anti gay law is passed

President Museveni today signed the controversial, anti-gay bill and even before the news could spread the topic was breaking records on all social medias like Twitter, FaceBook and different websites.
on the record only ten minutes after the president declared gay behavior criminal, one feminine activist; Kasha Jacqueline posted a picture of her self where she came out as gay.
but that wasn't all, ugandans started taking on the world on websites of CNN, BBC, ABC, The Guardian to justify what they support.
We sample some of them here;

On Reuters

ethanstraffin wrote:

The irony could not be greater: the anti-gay hysteria in Uganda could never have reached a level capable of producing a bill this draconian and inhuman if that country were truly independent “in the face of Western pressure and provocation.” It’s merely a question of which specific Western influences Museveni has chosen to adopt. In a couple hours he will place himself on the wrong side of history (along with the Ugandan parliament and certain American “Christian” megachurches), and he will bear much responsibility in the eyes of the world for the human cost of the ensuing witch hunt.

Dron wrote:

Anti-gay laws are needed in every country of Europe to limit the promotion of degeneracy. LGBT’s have been running wild for too long.

peterhoran

It is common practice for those who don't know how to govern to use social "wedge issues" like homosexuality and abortion to distract the public from the fact that they are being screwt (getting around the awesome CNN filters there) ... see the American Republican party for another example. Uganda is just Ted Cruz on steroids.

nouvelleorleans

Recommend

54

Block all uk international aid to Uganda - simple

Ad 

useless post. US news talk about Bieber, Gaga, Katy perry, 1direction and other pop star hacks with no talent on prime time news when they the real problems such as increasing poverty, unemployment, inflation, debt, privacy and host of real issues never get much airtime

Ed167  

Your argument *sounds* good... until you put it in a different context.

Suppose the country was also anti-Christian and passed a law making Christianity illegal, punishable by life imprisonment. Do you still think the majority is always right?

Or suppose the country believed children with blue eyes were possessed by demons which had to be physically cut out of their abdomens (killing the child). Should the president sign a law requiring doctors to perform the procedure on all blue-eyed children, if the majority in the country believe it?

The majority is NOT always right.

First ever Euro – African film festival is on

The first ever Euro – African was launched at Theatre Labonita last Wednesday.

Organized by European countries under the flagship of the European Union, stake holders kicked off with a promise of strengthening culture between Uganda and the EU states.

By 5pm, different film lovers had already thronged the theatre to kick off the festivities – talk about Ugandans and new things.

The organisers hosted their guests to a lavish celebration and dining that included lots of free drinks. Another cock tail of the type was organized by British Council the following day in celebration of the screening of the first United Kingdom film, Searching for Sugar man.

However, before the festival opened, there was a brief press conference in which over 12 ambassadors discussed their respective country’s plan for Ugandan cinema.

“We (EU) hope to use this platform to facilitate intercultural exchanges between Africa and Europe by screening the best films from either continent. We are particularly looking at future collaborations between Ugandan and European artistes,” the EU ambassador to Kampala, Kristian Schmidt, told journalists.

Schmidt explained that there is an urgent need to tap into European filmmakers’ growing interest in African stories and generally African cinema. If well harnessed, he said, it could lead to the two continents emerging as the new frontier in word cinema.

The festival comes at a time when local cinema is taking major strides to keep up with the big boys of African Cinema like Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa. One of the local movies screened, The Ugandan was voted as one of the top ten African films of 2013 by Entertainment.howizit.msn.com plus Sharpe Ssewali’s short film Is this love?, that has won him critical acclaim across the continent.

“This festival is a starting point to a long partnership that will involve exchange of knowledge, capacity building and increased funding for Ugandan filmmakers,” said Maisha’s programmes director, Fibby Kioria.

EU will this year fund Maisha’s four screen writing labs and hopes to continue working with other local cultural institutions and film authorities to boost the emerging industry.

Screening kicked off with thirteen minute collaboration between Ugandans and the Danish, Walk with me. A movie about 5 year old Melanie, who’s forced out of day dreaming and discovers death.

Then it was time for the 2010 Academy award winning Danish hit, In a Better World. The film is about Anton a doctor who commutes between his home in an idyllic town in Denmark, and his work at an African refugee camp. In these two very different worlds, he and his family are faced with conflicts that lead them to difficult choices between revenge and forgiveness.

Every day, more than six movies are showing and these include at least three short films locally produced by the Maisha initiative.

A total of 45 outstanding movies from Europe and Africa are lined up to screen during the seven-day course.

Today, they will be showing Fred Kigozi’s Rough boys, a story a bout a mentally disturbed boy, The Children’s Republic from Guinea Bissau and Fatih Akin’s Soul Kitchen.

The festival goes on till Wednesday, when they will screen Joel Karekezi’s Imbabazi: The Pardon, a movie about two best friends that find themselves on opposite sides in the wake of the 1994 Rwanda genocide.

The Euro-Africa Film festival is collaboration between the European Union to Uganda, the Embassies and the Cultural Institutes of the European Union Member States, Maisha Films, Garage Films and the Embassy of Norway.

Nile Project electrifies Kampala

The Nile Project

The Nile project made an interesting debut on the Ugandan World Music live scene. The collective of artistes from different countries of the River Nile basin were performing on the second show of their premiere African musical tour that had kicked off two days earlier in Jinja.

Fans (majorly white) who paid Ushs15,000 and 5000 could not resist to dance and tag  along on catchy words of some of the group’s songs.

In January last year, the Nile Project held its first Nile Gathering in Aswan, Egypt. The gathering didn’t only sell out but also inspired the group’s first project album, Aswan.

A master piece that was named one of the five must hear international albums of the fall by NPR Music, that however was not all, it was also selected for song lines’ Top of the World annual collection.

With such achievements, their second gathering and concert at the National Theatre last week was a must attend.

The concert kicked off at 8pm as scheduled with a welcome song performed by Sophie Nzayisenga, a prolific vocalist and currently credited as the first and only female Inanga player in Rwanda. At the age of six, the songstress was honored and awarded by the French Cultural center for her work, thus, her opener had the feel and energy needed to set the pace for the do.

That performance was followed by a befitting one by Steven Sogo from Burundi; he serenaded crowds with a soulful yet very catchy Kwan Yogo Kuru, armed with an Ikembe, he made his voice and instrument do staff you don’t expect them to do. He sings in Kirundi, Swahilli and French, the languages very few people understood but still danced to whatever he fed us.

Other performers included charismatic Vocalist Alsarah from Sudan, her soulful Manara had many of us think about the worst situations we’ve been through, it’s a song where she talks about building a light house to keep all her secrets and fears - just emotional and touching, then Egyptian Dina El Widedi’s Fi Belad El Agayib, Nader El Shaer’s Kawala performance of the Wonder Trip was simply sensational; a Kawala is a flute like Egyptian instrument that’s played and handled the same way the flute or ndere is.

They are instruments like this that prompt Sogo to say that the Nile Basin countries have a lot in common and thus need to unite than divide, but unlucky for the group, unity among the eleven countries may still be a long shot. 

As they continue the tour to other ten Nile basin countries, some members have been denied Visas to some countries because of their nationality.

There were no Ugandan languages performed since the two locally based members of the Nile project are both instrumentalists, but that doesn’t mean the banana republic wasn’t represented, the duo of Lawrence Okello and Micheal Bazibu; both percussionists, Adungu and Endongo players ceased the moment when they took us on an intensive Kiganda rhapsody that lasted close to fifteen minutes, what missed on this collabo was a dancer to graduate it to a thrilling action packed. The performance was met by ululations from both the crowd and fellow performers.

Lawrence Okello

Michael Bazibu

On songs like Ambassel, Ethiopia’s Endris Hassan was joined by other instrumentalists to unleash the magic of African art; only traditional instruments but sounding like a fully equipped classical quartet meeting Rock and Roll, meeting Afro-fusion and somewhere colliding with DJ Shiru.

When the collective played, at least all the artistes on stage could play an instrument, something that challenges our local artistes that can’t play any, dance and yet their singing too is still questionable.

The Nile project was founded in 2011 in Egypt at the peak of the revolution that ousted Mubarak, the founder, Mina Girgis had returned to join the revolutionists, but later developed a desire to create something bigger than the revolution to bring all the Nile basin countries. The objective was to address the Nile cultural and environmental challenges. Using education and innovation programmes, the project inspires, informs and empowers university students to work together to foster sustainability of the region’s eco system.

This was through a two weeks, Nile workshops at both Kyambogo and International University of East Africa, according to Mina, they are aimed at helping students Nile related development challenges in a more systematic way.

“We want to allow students to reflect on their understanding of their river’s environmental and cultural challenges,” he says.

The project curates collaborations among musicians from the eleven Nile countries to expose audiences to the cultures of their river neighbors.

Part of the fans that turned up for the concert

Like their first gathering, the group is also using this tour to culminate the Nile Project’s already titles but still in production second album – Jinja.

Give HiPipo awards a break!!!!

So, HiPipo held their second award ceremony last week!

It was a success, though left many disgruntled; how could one Bebe Cool win six awards, is he part of the organizing committee or? How did he even win the artiste of the year accolade over Radio and Weasel, Was Rema’s Fire Tonight really a better Ragga song than Cindy’s Selector and how come that two years in a row, Bebe Cool, Rema and Navio are the top winners in that exact order.

But the answer to  this lies in the awards’ tag line this year; Fans decide and much as I would have loved to add my voice to the other music lovers’, it hit me hard that I had not taken even a minute to vote for all the people I looted for to win, thus I didn’t have a case.

Awards are held every year both locally and internationally, at the end of each, we always get the complaints, they don’t only come from the fans but even the artistes; remember the 2008 saga, after being snubbed by the PAM awards for a long time, Bebe said he would never attend, but when he won Artiste of the year in 2010, he embarked on attending the shows that followed.

And it’s not just a local thing, Kanye West has absconded from attending the Grammy Awards for six years now, he accuses them of always overlooking his albums for the most converted award of the night, Album of the year and the story goes on and on.

Most of the times, this is what you get when you give the public the power of decision, even a fan that has no clue of what Reggae music sounds like will vote considering there’s a name he knows.

We have a public that can’t tell the difference between a good song and a bad song thus you can’t expect them to do a good job. When the PAM awards were launched back in 2003, fans voted and gave Chameleon each and every accolade he was nominated for, I remember him winning even a Gospel accolade for his Bwosabba, but it wasn’t the best gospel song, it was simply a mediocre song done by the most famous artiste at the time but since the fans decided, he won.

This has been a problem in the much developed award shows like MTV’s VMAs where in 2009 Taylor Swift won over Beyonce’s masterpiece which saw Kanye protest.  The Grammies have an academy to nominate and choose winners but they too have messed up especially this year when they declared Macklemore and Ryan Lewis as the top rap artistes yet they are clearly pop. The Grammies are 56 and the VMAs 31 years old, HiPipo is just two years, please, give them a break.

However, this doesn’t mean that Hipipo’s hands were clean either, it was criminal for the show to call on Bebe Cool to announce Rema as the winner – people have you ever seen Besigye announce Museveni’s results? Then nominating Irene Ntale’s love letter as a Bebe Cool song in the Best Male Reggae song category, this made Irene ineligible to win for a song she clearly owns because she’s female and thus the later winning for what doesn’t belong to him.

The sex based categories like Best Female breakthrough artiste, Female Reggae song, Female Hip Hop song, Male band song, Female Gospel song… think about it, how many hip hop or reggae female artistes can we gracefully talk about? It’s like some of these categories were engineered towards making it easy for some people to win.

Why did some categories have less nominees than the others; Best Male artiste had six, song writer four and Female Hip Hop three. In my opinion, if a category can’t raise even five possible nominees merge it with another one; if there less than five female reggae artistes, merge the sexes or genres, Ragga can clearly merge with Reggae to create a single but very competitive category. This has been done and tested else where, for a long time the Grammy Awards had Hip Hop and RnB combined and the VMAs still do it that way but when it comes to music from Jamaica, all Music shows from the Grammies to BET’s Soul Train awards, Ragga and Reggae are combined – it’s the reason the likes of Shaggy have Reggae Grammy awards.

Then the confusing categories like Best Artiste on Social media, what on earth does this mean, one with the biggest number of likes and followers or one that loses his life to tweeting? How does the public vote for the Best live on stage performer? Some of these people have never even attended concerts.

And what on earth is Best performance in a video, is it about the best dance in a video, acting, singing…what’s the meaning of the category?

Kadaga beeps Iranian Film Festival

The film season of 2014 is officially on. With Pearl Film Festival calling for entries, we’re indeed in for a screen rollercoaster this year.

On Friday, two of film festivals kicked off, the Japanese Film festival at Cineplex Cinema and the much publicized second Iranian Film Festival at National Theatre.

Earlier in the day, there was a lot of romp about the Iranian Film Festival; the numerous posts on social media which even included the release of their programme and schedule made the event a must attend.

It was earlier communicated that the festival would start with a colourful opening ceremony at 3pm, though for some reason, it was extended till further notice, instead, there were colorfully dressed band boys playing mostly popular songs.

It was anticipated that the show would eventually open at 5pm but it was impossible since the chief movie watcher, the speaker, hon. Rebecca Kadaga wasn’t on location yet, thus getting the programme stretched to accommodate speeches by film maker Ashraf Ssemwogere, who called on the Iranian community to collaborate with Ugandan directors and entertainment by a Ugandan Matari troupe and a cultural dance from an all Iranian group.

The Iranian singers and dancers stole the show in all ways; their simple but incredibly audible instruments produced a sound that went in between a Juma prayer, musical performance and a cultural celebration that it was, since their songs went on for about five minutes, they could only perform three and the most interesting one being the last one that involved an energetic dance of pounding the ground with their feet while swinging colored hankies.

At about 7:30pm, Kadaga arrived to open the show, many had anticipated she would stay to at least watch a twenty minute documentary about emancipation of women in Iran but it was impossible, she only delivered a less than two minute speech where she hinted on a Memorandum of Understanding the parliament is yet to sign with the Assembly of Iran.

Almost twenty minutes after arriving, she was living which prompted one of the people attending to complain; “we waited for her from 5pm and she has only made an appearance, Madam Speaker has indeed beeped us.”

However before the opening ceremony, at 3pm, in auditorium, the ball rolled with Mr. Yosef (Agha Yousef), a 2011 film about a man living with his only daughter and doing every job for her that she never leaves. But a misunderstanding complicates everything.

The second and final movie of the night was 1999 hit, The Color of Paradise, a story of a blind boy Mohammed (Moshen Ramezani) is a student at a special school for blind children in Tehran; when summer break rolls around, Mohammad is the last student to be picked up by his family. His mother is dead, and his father (Hossein Mahjub), who earns a meagre wage working in a charcoal producing plant, sometimes considers abandoning the boy. However, father does eventually arrive, and Mohammad spends the summer with his sisters and grandmother at a farm surrounding by dazzling fields of wild flowers. The summer in the country is a joyous experience for Mohammad, until he discovers his father is giving thoughts to re-marrying, and considers his handicapped son to be a stumbling block in his future matrimonial plans.

According to the Iranian Ambassador to Uganda, Amir Hossein Nikbin, Uganda and iran have a lot to share cultural wise and they are working on collaborating on many fronts.

“We’ve invited some actors and directors to acquire skills from our film universities,” he says.

The Persian/Iranian film industry has been ranked by critics as the world's most important national cinema, artistically, with a significance that invites comparison to Italian neorealism and similar movements in past decades. The cinema has achieved global success through nominations and recognitions at the Golden Globes, Academy Awards and the Cannes Film festival.

Dilman Dila’s Felista finally arrives

“If you have to tell a story, tell it from the heart,” these are the first words that hit your face whenever a Dilman Dila movie is starting and if I have to judge by the ones I’ve seen so far, he indeed tells his stories from a place deeper than the heart.

Dilman is a Ugandan film maker and a social activist who believes that stories are an important tool in creating a better world.

On Tuesday 21^st, Dilman with the support Goethe Zentrum organized a viewing event for his feature film Felista’s Fable at the head offices in Nakasero.

According to Dilman, the film was originally meant to be an action packed thriller though after the script was done, the other producers felt it would come out better as a romantic comedy.

The film rotates around Felista (Veronica Namanda), a woman that has been cursed. She stinks that no one can stand to stay near her. This causes her to separate from her family and live as a lonely outcast in an abandoned house. 

But one day, a witchdoctor, Kuku (Michael Wawuyo), finds a solution. A cry-baby man can inherit the smell from her. Felistas is hesitant to grab the opportunity, because she does not want another person to live through the pain that she has, but she longs to reunite with her husband and child. So she kidnaps such a man, Dan (Isaac Kadzu), who is a 35 year old virgin that still stays with his mother (Joanita Bewulira Wandera) and desperate to get married. 

However, Dan recently got a job that makes him very rich. This attracts the attention of Kate (Tibba Murungi), a gold-digging woman who he has wooed for a long time, and that of a corrupt cop, Jomba (Gerald Rutaro), who frames him for murder in an extortion scheme. As Felistas races against time to deliver Dan to the witch and win back her husband’s love, it turns into a high-energy chase with a voluptuous Kate and a trigger-happy Jomba hot on her tail.

Dilman makes strong points in his movie especially with his pro-traditionists stance, in a very long time, this is the first African movie you will see where African magic was used for something good – saving a marriage.

The picture quality passes many of the standards like framing, lighting, costume, makeup and location plus, Dilman does extremely well on all the close up shots.

It’s no surprise the film’s makeup artiste Michael Wawuyo has been nominated for this year’s  Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice awards (AMVCA).

The movie alongside other Dilman films like What happened in Room 13, How will I get a Drink, Untouchable Love, among others has been screened on Festivals like Portobello Film Festival in UK, Goteborg International Film Festival in Sweden.

The movie is one of those lined up to screen on Africa Magic this year.

Bebe Cool shots two fancy videos

 Seems Bebe Cool is out to outdo himself this year.

At the beginning, he released his first song of the year Nyonyi Nkeze, the song talks about a person that came early and thus managed to achieve more than the others, before people could possibly get their ears immersed with the song, the star before leaving for Nairobi for his Twende Kazi gig released another song Nkola Byafayo (am writing history) and again, before the song could fully pick momentum.

The artist is at it again, swang into action onto a video shooting spree…..

Last week he was shooting a rather fancy video for his Nyonyi Nkeze single, one of the locations is a garage of Air crafts, think he’s bringing all the swag on board.

But he wasn’t done, seems he's indeed learning a thing or two fron Radio and Weasel, on Sunday, he embarked on his Nkola Byafayo video, like Coccodiosis, this one too will feature a whole lot of Gagamel Phamily Reloaded members in their 100% Bebe Cool T.shirts.

The video is being done by Buggie Empire and Meddi Menz, but that’s not all, seems the crew got all their tricks out of the box for this video – the set even included a flying drone camera.

Its a remotely controled aircraft commonly used in military operations though also used by civilians especially during Aerial shoots and photography …..ummmm, we can’t wait to see these videos Bebe..........

The Hostel that was

In a very short time, The Hostel series had changed the way we looked at local TV, achieved what no other show had, a great cast, the right TV station, fan base and a quality production to top it up.

Not that this was the greatest story ever told or the finest acting.

In fact, some critics always had issues with the show’s writers and their depiction of a modern University hostel, but that aside, The Hostel enjoyed a cult following in a short time and thus making other reputable productions like NBS’ Destiny or NTV’s runaway hit Kakibe Ki a total joke.

Its season one that got many of us glued with a rich cast that included the breed of actors like Michael Waweyo, Mathew Nabwiso, Dickson Zizinga and Danielle Kahunde among others. The producers also pushed the envelope with a few surprises like the inclusion of former Obsession dancer Hellen Lukoma, comedians, Daniel Omara, Richard Twangye and  Isac Kadzu.

With such an expensive cast, the hostel easily rode into the hearts of many local TV lovers that embarked on leaving jobs early to catch up with their favorite residents at 7:30pm.

By season two, things had changed; the storyline was literally out of order that we could barely tell to whom it belonged to.

When the show screened the third episode of their second season, it was visible they had lost some of their star quality, and as you could expect, more new faces.

That’s when the beginning of the end started for the series, by the end of 2012, the show had allegedly taken a Christmas leave that in turn lasted more than three months.

It was later revealed that the Fast Track (the show producers) were operating in loses and since they could barely breakthrough, they had sold shop to NTV.

During the break, NTV looked for alternatives in Kenyan series Mali, Noose of Gold and Demi Gods. They also tried their hand at yet another drama production in form of Deceptions.

Deception took the 7:30pm slot that was originally enjoyed by The Hostel.

It came with a rather easy story we have known for a long time – the mother in law dealing with the daughter that has failed to give her son a baby for a long time.

Much as the acting of some actors was lacking, the polarizing performance of Sarah Kasawuzi’s Mama Nalweyiso and Pretty Katende’s Lillian were simply exceptional.

When Patra and company came back for the third season, the ground had changed, they had to fight and win back viewers they had lost to the new drama and unlike years back where they enjoyed the 7:30 timeslot, this time they had to battle for late TV viewers at 10pm with the incomparable Agataliiko Nfuufu on Bukedde.

But that wasn’t all; the entire cast had received a makeover that saw the inclusion of Kenyan actors and Neo-soul singer Maurice Kirya – which also affected the main story.

According to a viewer, Winnie Nakate, Season two and three were out of the Hostel most of the times even then the show continued moving with the same title. She even blames the producers for intentionally depicting hostels as brothels opposed to what they really are.

“Kids in hostels are wild but they don’t bring men to their rooms, in fact not even their men would allow meeting them in the rooms,” she says.

Nakate notes that the show was inconsistent on many scenarios including the joint parties, thrown by parents and students together on the famous show were more fictional than real.

Reknown film critic, Polly Kamukama though thinks a lot of factor affected the show. In his view, the trio of Omara, Twangye and Kadzu had pulled many people to the show and thus, their departure must have taken the fans with them.

“They had also established a keen fanbase, so once they fell off the cast, a lot of fans went along with them. Then there was that unexpected break at the start of last year; it was a disapointment to fans most of whom quickly found solace in Deception. But their storyline too needs serious redress, with more emphasis on the adult life of the original cast.”

Very few even realized the third season ended, its like it just vanished off the screens though word from the show producers is that it’s coming back for a fourth season soon.

Other viewers argue that unlike Deceptions whose storyline is almost a clear adaptation of one of the famous letter from Tittie and Omulongo Babirye’s shows, The Hostel had lost touch with the real Uganda.