Uganda: Nyege Nyege festival puts back the sound after two years of absence

Audio 01:21

The official poster of the 2022 edition of the Nyege Nyege festival.

© nyegenyege.com

Text by: RFI Follow

2 mins

Parliament had wanted to cancel it last week, but the Nyege Nyege festival will be held well from this Thursday, September 15 and until Sunday in Uganda.

Great return of one of the most important musical events in East Africa, after two editions canceled due to Covid-19.

Advertising

Read more

With our correspondent in Kampala,

Lucie Mouillaud

This year, it is in Itanda, on the edge of the Nile rapids, that

Nyege Nyege

, which means " 

the uncontrollable desire to dance

 " in Luganda, comes back to life for a program that highlights the different alternative musical currents of all the African continent.

More than 12,000 people are expected and nearly 300 artists for the great return of Nyege Nyege.

Festival-goers will find some names from previous editions, such as Kenyan rapper MC Yallah, Somali DJ Hibotep and Ugandan artist Otim Alpha.

"Nyege Nyege allows everyone to express themselves as they want

"

An eclectic program, with the desire to bring together different musical trends in the region.

Derek Debru, co-founder of the event: “ 

There are a lot of commonalities between music across the continent, and when you create these connections, it's interesting.

And then there's this electronic music, a lot of micro-scenes, whether it's DJ Diaki's balani, the singeli in Tanzania, the gengetone in Kenya, or the kadodi here in Uganda.

We like not to be classified”.

Menzi for gqom from South Africa, Adomaa for Ghanaian pop-folk, or Ecko Bazz for Ugandan experimental rap, at Nyege Nyege, the focus is on the continent's alternative scenes

: "Many artists we program or people who come to the festival are not in the big commercial channels.

It can be the metal band from Nairobi or the traditional musician from northern Uganda.

And Nyege Nyege brings it all together and allows everyone to express themselves as they want

 ”.

A special guest is honored this year: the Cameroonian musician Eko Roosevelt, figure of the makossa, who will host, from December 15 to 18, a very first edition of the Nyege Nyege in his native region of the Lobé falls.

Derek Debru looks back on the genesis of Nyege Nyege

In barely seven editions, the Nyege Nyege has established itself as one of the most popular electronic music festivals in East Africa.

Its co-founder Derek Debru looks back on the genesis of this event which has attracted some 10,000 people since its creation in 2015 in Kampala, the Ugandan capital.

“When we saw a bit of how Africa was represented musically, we realized that there were a lot of musical currents.

For example, we have seen singeli in Tanzania, we have kadodi and “Acholitronics” in Uganda.

In South Africa obviously, there is the amapiano, but which was not represented at all.

So the motivation for the project was to create a showcase for all those people who are completely unique, who also deserved to have their place.

We see that young people who didn't have this kind of platform at the start are influenced by their traditions to find their roots a little bit and incorporate them into something more electronic.

This is really a very important moment for a little bit of everything that we consider to be the underground from Kigali to Dar es Salaam, to Nairobi,

obviously in Kampala.

Through the festival, there are a lot of new voices rising, young producers, musicians, African artists.

All these ethnic groups, it creates an income for these communities and suddenly, it settles in an economy that gives it more meaning”.


Newsletter

Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

  • Uganda

  • Culture

  • Musics

  • Company