To stop the consumption of obscenity, you must stop the demand for it first i.e Fix society. But if a twerking video receives more views than a video about the parish development model, no musician will sing about PDM. They will continue twerking, undressing and singing profanities.
This is the same concept that rules art and any business during the Christmas season, every musician knows to sing at least one Christmas song such that when December’s demand for such music comes, they have something to present. For decades now, Philly Bongole Lutaaya’s name is silent until December because that is when the demand for his famous Christmas album is highest. And even current trending musicians know that nobody can not beat Philly Bongole Lutaaya’s ratings the week before Christmas. He is only rivalled by Bonny M’s Christmas album released in 1981 since the cool kids of Najjeera don’t want to listen to Philly’s Luganda songs.
Even in History, If society wants something, they always get it, somehow.
Stevie wonder’s song “It’s Wrong (Apartheid)” was outlawed after Wonder dedicated his Oscar to Nelson Mandela, a political prisoner who fought against apartheid. Gimme Hope Jo’Anna by Eddy Grant, this song was banned when it was released in 1988, but was still widely played in South Africa.
The current South African Anthem Nkosi Sikelela was a song of struggle composed by black South African musician Enoch Sontonga. It was banned by the government of the time. It was illegal to sing this song or to air it on radio. But how did an outlawed song become so popular it became an anthem of the whole country? Demand and supply.
Musicians and record labels, such as Shifty Records, resorted to smuggling albums into the country. They would press records abroad and distribute them covertly through unmarked packages or unconventional outlets like bicycle shops. This underground network allowed access to politically charged music that was otherwise unavailable.
The African National Congress (ANC) operated clandestine radio stations like Radio Freedom, broadcasting anti-apartheid music and political messages from neighbouring countries. Listening to these broadcasts was illegal and risky; however, they provided a vital means for South Africans to hear banned artists like Miriam Makeba and Abdullah Ibrahim.
The government tried every rule in and out of the book to stop these songs. They outlawed them, imprisoned those caught simply humming to them but still, they found their way into the ears of most black South Africans, they would hum them silently in the night, they would sing them underground in the mines, in the markets, they found a way.
Have you watched Ugandan Tiktok?
Follow the hashtag #Ugandantiktok or #TiktokUganda and see for your self. You can hardly swipe 3 videos without finding one about Senga, Twerking, Maanyi ga kisajja or sex tutorials. These are the most viewed videos because unfortunately for us, that is what our society wants. Tiktok can not moderate the language because their algorithm doesn’t understand Luganda. There are tiktokers who can spent an hour hurling all sorts of choice words at each other but because the algorithm can only flag English, that passes.
And what happens all the time the tiktokers try to speak about the other things that Ugandan society wants to hear about (politics, human rights, corruption) they are arrested and sent to jail.
Why Aren’t Ugandan Musicians singing serious songs about People’s real problems?
Ugandan musicians too would be singing about democracy, corruption and human rights but that has been shadow-banned. The fear of drones picking them up for singing about human rights leaves them with no option but to sing about the other thing that the society seems to like a lot, and that is Nyash(Big Bummed women), sex, family wrangles, divorce, Lugambo and now Enkudi.
So Dear UCC, even if all radios and TVs are ordered not to broadcast Lil Pazo and Gravity Omutujju’s obscene songs, if the people demand them, they will find them. Learning from history and following the rules of economics, Nobody can stop reggae or in this case enkudi.
