Uganda’s ‘singing fools’ use satire to attack government

Support performers dress up backstage at Theatre Labonita ahead of their performances in Kampala, Uganda on September 7, 2024. Agence France-Presse

KAMPALA, Uganda — A packed Kampala audience holds its breath as four self-styled “singing fools” in choir uniforms bound onto the stage for their latest daring satire of Ugandan politics.

The Bizonto comedy troupe recount the misadventures in a fictional village, ruled by an ageing leader and suffering from a dire lack of basic services and sky-high taxes.

The parallels with real-life Uganda — ruled for almost four decades by 80-year-old Yoweri Museveni — are not hard to spot.

The troupe’s name means “mentally unstable”, which they chose when they formed in 2020 in the hope it would provide some protection from the authorities.

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But it has not diluted the sharpness of their satire.

“Our message means people know we are actually not fools,” said troupe member Maliseeri Mbambaali, 40.

The show “supports issues raised by the majority of the population,” he told AFP.

Their buffoonish front has not always protected them.

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In 2020, they released a video sarcastically calling on Ugandans to pray for their leaders, including Museveni, the police chief and the head of prisons, that quickly went viral.

All four members — Mbambaali, Julius Sserwanja, 41, Tony Kyambadde, 21, and Joshua Ssekabembe, 19 — ended up in jail, charged with “promoting sectarianism” and facing up to five years’ imprisonment.

The government was on edge at the time ahead of 2021 elections, with singer-turned-politician Bobi Wine galvanising youthful opposition to Museveni’s regime.

With a comedian’s exaggeration, Sserwanja describes how “50 men armed with 70 guns, helicopters and sub-machine guns” swarmed to arrest the quartet at a radio station.

But their time in jail was not so funny.

“I thought a lot about whether we’re ever going to leave the cells — what’s going to happen to us?” Mbambaali said.

They didn’t know that outside, #FreeBizonto was trending on social media.

“We gained energy and followers… our fan base grew,” Mbambaali said.

The pressure helped ensure the charges were eventually dropped, but the episode still carried a dark warning.

“It gave a signal that whatever we do, the government will be monitoring us,” said Mbambaali, who vowed to take a more “coded” approach to future satires.

‘We never gave up’

Bizonto’s audience stretches across the generations. In the crowd at a recent show were 72-year-old widow Miria Kawuma and her granddaughter Christine Nabaata Kamwesi, 29.

“The performers capture what Ugandans are going through like corruption, bad roads, drugs lacking in hospitals,” Kawuma said.

“We pay higher taxes but they are stolen by officials,” she added.

Uganda ranks a lowly 141 out of 180 countries on Transparency International’s Corruption index.

Young people, infuriated by a string of scandals, took to the streets earlier this year, only to be met with a heavy-handed police response.

At the Bizonto show, cheers, shouts, and ululations make it clear that the comedians’ message is striking home.

Their time in prison may have shaken them, but the troupe remains undeterred.

“We never gave up. We never stepped back,” Mbambaali said. “We knew we were on the right path.”