By Wesley Spartan
Ugandan broadcasters calling themselves “rap-orters” are changing the way news is delivered, after a team of hip-hop artists teamed up to deliver a weekly TV bulletin.
“Uganda’s anti-gay law is making news/Some countries have found it befitting to accuse/Uganda of treating gays as German Jews/Nothing to gain from this and more to lose,” they rapped in a recent episode of NewzBeat, broadcast on NTV, one of the country’s most-watched channels.
The song addresses a controversial law signed by Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni banning homosexuality, which drew widespread international condemnation. In February last year US Secretary of State John Kerry likened it to antisemitic legislation enforced in Nazi Germany.
“President Museveni says he won’t bow down to the west/Uganda has a right to decide what’s best,” the broadcast continues.
NewzBeat is screened in both English and the local language Luganda on NTV every Saturday before the station’s traditional news bulletins, and first aired last year.
Hearing hip-hop news may sound strange, but in Uganda, where the press faces government censorship and the country’s growing youth population often takes little interest in current affairs, a programme where self-styled rap-orters broadcast with “rhyme and reason” has become hugely popular.
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