Author: Musaazi Namiti. PHOTO/COURTESY
In 1997, when many Ugandans’ favourite music was either Western or Congolese, Bebe Cool -- I do not know if he still remembers -- came to the office of Secrets, a defunct magazine for which I was doing freelance work to be interviewed.
The office was on Johnstone Street near Pioneer Mall, the first shopping arcade in Kampala. Bebe Cool, aka Moses Ssali, now 46, was very young -- about 19. Secrets had written about musician Harry Lwanga, Radio One’s RS Elvis, Capital FM’s Allan the Cantankerous and others, so it was all too easy to see why he wanted publicity.
When he entered the cramped office, which had an improvised planks-of-wood extension that served as an upper floor, he introduced himself, in halting English, and said he wanted to be interviewed.
But I had never heard of Bebe Cool -- to say nothing of his music. Normally, journalists look for rising stars to interview them. It is seldom, if ever, the other way round.
Bebe Cool was not going to wait for that. I interviewed him and wrote an article, which was never published because Secrets had run into financial difficulties and folded.
Several years later, in the early 2000s, Bebe Cool’s dream of becoming the singer he wanted to be was starting to materialise.
In 2004, at a media event organised at the Sheraton by former radio presenter Desree Barlow and to which President Museveni was invited, I saw Bebe Cool and Sheila Nvannungi singing for the President. Bebe Cool’s song was all praises for Mr Museveni and encouraged him to seek re-election.
As you would expect, Bebe Cool now commands a large social media following and, like all big-name singers, has many fans. But he has also been viciously abused online. It is not uncommon to read social media posts savaging him.
In September 2018, attendees at a concert to mark Swangz Avenue’s 10th anniversary hurled bottles and other missiles at Bebe Cool, forcing him off the stage.
So, when I stumbled on a new video in which Juliana Kanyomozi, a pro-Museveni singer, is interviewing Bebe Cool, I was keen to watch it from start to finish, just so I could hear his story -- in his own words.
The Bebe Cool abused on social media and the one Juliana interviewed are different. The latter spoke really well about many things: eating a healthy diet, his love for his mother and his wife, looking for opportunities to make money, taking care of the family and helping children with heart problems.
The vitriol on social media against Bebe Cool suggests Ugandans have a deep loathing for pro-Museveni individuals -- and they have demonised them. It is one of my takeaways from the interview.
One commenter on the interview said: “Sometimes we hate what we don’t know. Social media has been talking trash about this guy for a while. But I got a chance to listen to him, [and] he is so wise.”
In the interview, Bebe Cool talks proudly of being rich and that he will start travelling with a chef on foreign trips. But if he is right about being rich, has the money come from music, from concerts?
When Juliana asked him whether he is encouraging his daughter to become a singer, Bebe Cool said: “My family would have loved to sing. But music in Uganda, as a business, is going to be okay for the young ones. When you become a family person, the budgets can’t add up, so you need to diversify.”
Juliana agreed: “Oh! Talk about it.”
Mr Musaazi Namiti is a journalist and former
Al Jazeera digital editor in charge of the Africa desk
[email protected] @kazbuk