Musician and mental health advocate Buka Chimey. PHOTO/FILE/COURTESY
David Musolo, alias Buka Chimey, is a recording and performing artiste-cum-mental health advocate. His purpose of using his artistic abilities to unify cultures, celebrate life and express consciousness, was brought to an unexpected halt in 2020.
During the Covid-19 pandemic period, he grappled with several emotional disorders such as depression and anxiety.
“I felt so lonely, and constantly told myself that I am a failure, which turned me into an alcoholic just to feel better. I then started developing suicidal thoughts.
I almost took my life at some point because of this constant voice that kept resounding in my head,” he narrates.
Depression is a mental health condition that can cause severe symptoms that affect a person’s feelings, thoughts, and ability to function in daily life, while anxiety is a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease about something with an uncertain outcome.
For Chimey, the two were triggered in 2019 when he recorded a song titled Beer After Beer, a re-fix of Parte After Parte by Big Tril. Beer After Beer became Chimey’s first hit song.
“As my career was skyrocketing in 2020 during the lockdown, we had a catchphrase Biluma Abayaye started by Zex Bilangilangi and Chozen Blood, from which I then created a song from called Biluma Abayaye. As the song was gunning good visibility, my brother Crystal Panda created almost a similar song and called it Bino Byebiluma Abayaye, which I thought since I had infringed on Big Tril’s intellectual property with Beer after Beer I had paid for my sins, but little did I know that this would be the genesis of my depression,” he explains.
Downward spiral
A few days after both releases, Chimey says media personalities started calling him for interviews during which he made comments that could have rubbed some fellow musicians the wrong way. The next thing was his music not getting airplay by some media houses. Chimey alleges that the media houses in question might have been paid not to play his songs.
One thing led to another. After the lockdown, he released a song titled Tuli Wawelu. It was popular enough to earn Chimey a booking to perform in Mbale. He decided to use the payment from the show to do a musical tour in Jinja and Busia before finally performing in Mbale.
At the time, Chimey stayed with a friend, but on return, the friend told him the landlady introduced new rules and wanted him out.
“I became a popular loner, which affected my self-esteem and creativity. I became suicidal with psycho thoughts and characters and also became an alcoholic, developing so much hate that it still affects my love life. I became very sensitive and very emotional,” Chimey narrates.
He went for rehabilitation. Around the same time, he lost his favourite sibling, which caused his relapse.
“Loneliness and denial are the last thing anyone going through depression would ever want to face.
Most people saw me smiling and giving them these fire songs, yet I was dying and praying to God to put my life to rest in this world. An inner voice kept telling me that there is a better place called heaven, just next to God’s feet,” the artiste further narrates.
On the mend
Chimey stopped actively pursuing music, at least for the last three years.
He consequently became anti-social, choosing not to attend social events, concerts and dates.
“I became an alcoholic because it’s the only way I would feel relieved from this pain. I became uninspired,” he says.
A close friend, Brian Beats, a music producer, would notice Chimey’s deteriorating condition. The music producer then made the decision to welcome Chimey into his space. He helped Chimey grow spiritually, which became his key coping mechanism. Chimey enrolled at Burklee College of Music, where he studied a short course in music business and management.
Brian Beats also offered Chimey a room at his studio to set up an office,which deals in digital music distribution and publishing.
“This made me feel loved and also gave me some financial independence. He also offered me to sleep at his studio while he got me my first clients, which helped me get my first rent. I made peace with my heart and on July 29, 2024, I decided to come out, which prompted me to use my art and influence to nurture mental health in the creative arts,” the artiste discloses.
Learnt the lessons
“It’s okay to take a break from the speed of life. God, above all and good people, still exist,” he says, adding that people are contacting him with their experiences, and cheering him up for the boldness.
He adds: “First, I chose to turn to God. On October 13, 2021, I got baptised. My coping mechanism was deep worship (I don’t know how many times I fought with God, cried to him, and played the blame game until He healed me). I quit alcohol. I forgave and stopped playing the blame game which is helping me offload the painat heart and take full charge of my life knowing that we are destined for greatness.”
The artiste is championing the Mindful Creativity Initiative whose purpose is to nurture mental health in the creative arts. The initiative focuses on addressing mental health challenges by fostering dialogue among the creative art industry, mental health professionals, and industry leaders. On November 9,2024, Chimey held the first edition of the initiative. He doesn’t want fellow artistes to go through what he did.
There can be, he strongly believes, a silver lining to every dark cloud out there.
More investment
We hold career guidance sessions for upcoming artistes to understand the music sector.
Many are aggressive and expectant but get disappointed, so, they turn to the use of drugs, which leads them to depression. Then there is peer influence. Big artistes take drugs so those who look up to them think that to become a superstar, one has to use drugs. Some will get a hit song but are not prepared for it and the transformation thereafter.
It starts with you, as an artiste; who are you benchmarking? If you don’t change, change will change you. We know where to find the artistes but we don’t have the resources to adequately help them.
About depression
The global picture
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), depression is a common mental disorder. Globally, an estimated 3.8 percent of the population experience depression. This includes 5.0 percent of adults. Of that world population, 4.0 percent are male and 6.0 percent female. The WHO also shows that 5.7 percent of the adults are older than 60 years.
Approximately 280 million people in the world have depression. More than 700,000 people die due to suicide every year. Suicide is the fourth leading cause of death in 15 to 29-year-olds.
Although there are known effective treatments for mental disorders, more than 75 percent of people in low-and middle-income countries receive no treatment.
The Ugandan picture
A 2023 dataset of WHO indicates that at least 7.4 percent of Ugandans are affected by common mental disorders such as depression, anxiety and alcohol use disorders.
Comparable to high-income countries, depression and generalised anxiety disorders in Uganda are prevalent at 5.3 percent and 4.1 percent, respectively.
In 2009, Uganda invested $25m to improve mental health facilities and provide training for health workers. This was all thanks to support from the African Development Bank. A 2018 report of the Sectoral Committee on Health, however, showed that the country grapples with a telling mental health treatment gap of 85 percent.
Depression: What it looks like
During a depressive episode, a person feels sad, irritable and empty.
WHO says depression “involves a depressed mood or loss of pleasure or interest in activities.” It further notes that depression “is different from regular mood changes and feelings about everyday life.” It adds that depression “can affect all aspects of life, including relationships with family, friends and community. It can result from or lead to problems at school and at work.”
Besides feeling sad, irritable, empty, depression manifests in symptoms that include poor concentration; excessive guilt or low self-worth; hopelessness about the future; thoughts about dying or suicide; disrupted sleep;changes in appetite or weight; and feeling very tired or low in energy.
Expert solutions
.Try to keep doing activities you used to enjoy
.Stay connected to friends and family
.Exercise regularly, even if it’s just a short walk
.Stick to regular eating and sleeping habits as much as possible
.Avoid or cut down on alcohol and don’t use illicit drugs, which can make depression worse
.Talk to someone you trust about your feelings
.Seek help from a healthcare provider
