Viva Daily Monitor, another interesting 25 years await
Daily Monitor is all of 25 years. I toast to that. I worked as a journalist at Monitor for 12 years, leaving at the end of 2008 to “pursue other [media-related] interests”. For all those years I had a job, I paid my bills, and actually grew my career (taking two stints off for further studies, for example).
I am still “tied” to Monitor, actually. I have been writing this column — although without the award-winning discipline of my former boss Charles Onyango-Obbo who never misses — for close to nine years.
It is a good feeling that the Monitor is a going business and journalistic concern. The founders founded, and generations of journalists have come, made their contribution and left. Even better, potentially lifelong friendships have been forged along the way.
To varying degrees of excellence, Monitor has chronicled Uganda’s history in real time since its founding in July 1992. The politico-economic and technological milieu it has operated in has been chronicled over the past week. Not so much the cultural.
In 1992, it was almost entirely Congolese music blaring out of speakers at party events all over the country. The rest was South African, pretty much. Apart from Afrigo band and Elly Wamala, you would think Ugandans stopped producing music in the 1960s.
About the same time, FM radio happened with the liberalisation of the communications sector. Mr Peter Sematimba, one of the early FM voices, set up a music studio and tried his hand at recording music. Jam Session at the National Theatre was the place to be on Monday nights. The funky dancehalls like Ange Noir were coming up. The Perfect Generation boys group was thrilling young people around Kampala. Ragga Dee showed up with his rhymes.
Then the ’90s ended. We dodged the millennium bug. The noughties struck. It was like all previous efforts were preparatory work for the emergence of Chameleone, Bebe Cool, Bobi Wine. Whenever they were not physically punching each other, they were releasing catchy beats really quickly thereby launching what would arguably be called modern dancehall Ugandan music. And who can forget Juliana Kanyomozi? We have not looked back.
Film, creative dance, stand-up comedy have all gained prominence since. Creative life in Uganda has since been on an impressive mend.
Monitor has been on the story all through. One quibble, though, is that the paper has not covered the arts and culture with the same doggedness it has politics and business. There is not much informed analysis of the meaning of the music Ugandans are producing. I have not seen many thoughtful critiques of the themes that occupy our stand-up comedians. I would like someone to help me make sense of Uganda’s general creative economy.
Another interesting 25 years await the Monitor. What will those years look like? What are the big subjects that will preoccupy media houses? How will the paper distinguish itself from the rest in dealing with common subjects?
The immediate big issue is the transition from President Yoweri Museveni to another leader. This offers a chance for the Monitor to lead from the front, to help frame the public debate despite the cacophony on social media. Is the paper for deleting from the Constitution the presidential age limit clause or not? Why? The Monitor surely cannot say this is just another big political story. It is more than that. It is a story about a moment in Uganda’s political history and the Monitor will need to take a front-page stand on top of continuing to aspire to provide accurate, fair and balanced reporting. There may be consequences, but short of the Museveni government shutting it down permanently, no one will accuse the paper of irrelevance.
There may well be dividends in the end. If the age-limit effort fails, readers who are for change may reward the paper handsomely in form of increased number of clicks and buys. And history would remember Monitor for having been a key player in changing the course of Uganda’s political history.
The Monitor, and its publisher Monitor Publications Limited, is already an established part of the news, information and governance order in Uganda. Technology may force it to change the way it does business and journalism, but it appears set to be here at least another 25 years. That would be yet another milestone to toast to.
Viva Daily Monitor.
Mr Tabaire is the co-founder and director of programmes at African Centre for Media Excellence in Kampala. [email protected]
Twitter:@btabaire
