Wine and activists in Kampala in 2018 Photo: ISAAC KASAMANI/AFP via Getty Images
When Bobi Vine was arrested in Arua Ugandan police, he was sure he was going to die. It was August 2018, during an anti-government protest, he was put in a van, punched and kicked, his testicles were squeezed with pliers, and he was beaten unconscious with an iron bar. When he came to, he said: «I thought I died and came back to life.»
At 41, Vine is one of Africa's most successful pop stars, even though his music — reggae, afrobeat and hip-hop — is banned in Uganda. Outraged by the increasingly authoritarian rule of President Yoweri Museveni, he began to criticize the regime through his songs (earning the nickname «Ghetto President») and ran for parliament in 2017. But his real problems began when he set his sights on the de facto presidency.
His bodyguard was shot down. A grenade was thrown through the window of his teenage son's bedroom. Many of his supporters were kidnapped or imprisoned; at least 54 people were killed during protests in November 2020. His campaign offices were ransacked and the nomination funds and signatures were stolen. He has been subject to endless arrests on trumped-up charges, from violating Covid regulations to treason. His driver was killed by police with a bullet that Vine believes was meant for him.
Bobby Vine: The People's President, a thrilling new documentary by directors Christopher Sharp and Moses Bwayo, produced by John Batsek's Adventureland, about Vin's journey; from calling on the government in his music to the 2021 presidential election. Sharp, Bwayo, and Vine spoke to me from California; the film opened in the US last month.
“The film presents a raw image of Uganda – it’s like escaping a guarded secret. We want the world to know that they were tricked into sponsoring terror into thinking they were sponsoring a legitimate leader,” says Vine, a polite and thoughtful man in his signature red beret.
Uganda, a British protectorate until 1962, is a country of 48 million people. Incredibly, about 80 percent of its citizens are under 35 (the average age is 16) and have known only one president, Museveni, who came to power in 1986. Since independence, there has never been a peaceful transfer of power in Uganda — Museveni. came after the brutal rule of Milton Obote and Idi Amin. He started well, and by the 1990s Uganda was considered a model state. But things quickly deteriorated.
“He claimed to be fighting for democracy but is known for electoral fraud; it has one of the worst human rights violation records on the continent, and corruption is skyrocketing,” Vine says. «When he came to power, he said that the problem with Africa is that their leaders are stuck in power — he doesn't like it when people remind him of that today.»
Sharp lives in London but grew up in Uganda where his father was a doctor. He was a fan of Vin's music and first met him in 2017 when he had just entered Parliament. «Bobi got out of the ghetto, he's doing great, he has a beautiful, smart wife [Barbie] and four beautiful children — and he was about to go on an apparently very dangerous journey.
Bobi Vine and his wife Barbie campaigning in Kasanda district in November 2020. Photo: Lukman Kampala
“We have seen that a revolution can happen. I flew to Uganda to meet Bobby and Barbie and I said, «I have an idea to make a film and we'll just follow you for as long as it takes.» Five years and 4,000 hours of footage later, they were finished.
Co-director Sharpe Bwayo, a Ugandan now living in the United States, where he is seeking political asylum, led a small but very daring team of cameramen. From the dramatic footage of Vin standing on top of a car, punching in the air, surrounded by hundreds of supporters singing his song «Freedom», to the scene where he and his wife are under siege in their post-election home (his young daughter is still chanting «Our strength! People's strength!»), «People's President» — the triumph of documentary films.
Vino, born Robert Kyagulani Ssentamu in 1982, comes from a large family. «My father had 35 biological children and adopted others — he was a polygamist.» The family was relatively wealthy, but the effects of the civil war turned them «from the upper middle class into the ghetto». So he grew up in the slums of Kamwokya in Kampala. His mother died when he was 15. «When you grow up without parents in the ghetto,» Vine says, «you don't fear a lot.»
He went to Makerere University to study music and drama, where he met his wife, Barbie, and began recording in a makeshift studio in the early 2000s with a group of musicians known as the Firebase Crew. By 2010, he had become one of Africa's most successful musicians.
In 2014, Vin was banned from performing in the UK due to homophobic content in some of his early lyrics, which he has since regretted. “I learned from experience,” says Vine. “I did so much when I was young, but I had the opportunity to learn and grow and develop into an inclusive leader, a self-respecting leader.” But the ban remains in place. In late May, Museveni signed into law some of the harshest anti-LGBTQ laws in the world; Homosexuality was already illegal in Uganda, but is now punishable by death in some cases. This year the wine could not come to the London Film Festival. Museveni can come and go as he pleases (and receives millions of pounds in bailouts from British taxpayers).
As he grew as a musician, Vine found his songs to be a powerful tool in the fight against oppression in his country. “I was trying to draw attention to the plight of the people in Uganda, represent them and call for active participation,” he says. But it became clear that he himself would have to go into politics. “There was something special about Boby,” Sharpe says. «He could reach people's hearts through music and oratory.» In 2017, when he ran for parliament, he won by a wide margin.
Yoweri Museveni has been President of Uganda since 1986. Photo: Lukman Kampala
Since the Arua incident in 2018, he has been in the custody of the Special Forces Command, a violent group led by Museveni's son. He was released two weeks later after being injected with steroids to make his injuries look less severe. He says his supporters saved him: «It is the voice of the people calling for my freedom that kept me alive.» There was also international attention, with around 100 artists in the UK signing a statement condemning his imprisonment, including Chris Martin, Chrissie Hynde, Damon Albarn and Brian Eno.
The more he was threatened, the more determined he became. “Five days after my detention, my wife showed up at the barracks where I was being held, with about 10 EU ambassadors. I started to cry, but she said, “Don’t cry, the world is with us – there people are demanding your release, so don’t give up! If I have not been called to fight before, then I call now.” You have no idea how much it brought me back to life! I came to my senses, and since then the fire in me has been burning like crazy.”
Before the January 2021 elections, Vine sent his children abroad for their safety. He was not allowed to advertise his campaign on television or radio. Several of his friends, including close music collaborators Nubian Lee and Dan Magic, were arrested, jailed, and had their heads shaved. Foreign journalists were denied visas; some local journalists were arrested or kidnapped. The day before the country went to the polls, the internet in Uganda was completely shut down (and not restored until the next week).
Bobi Vine after being arrested in Uganda for spreading Covid-19 in November 2020. Photo: Lookman Kampala
“Let's talk about ballot stuffing,” Sharpe says. “We had footage of police officers with black bags full of votes for Museveni putting them in the ballot boxes. But even with falsification, Museveni still had problems.”
“Even at the lowest scores, we had 85% of the vote,” Vine says. “We have won in almost all polling stations. Until the military said «no more counting.» Museveni declared himself the winner with 58% of the vote.
Vine was under house arrest for 11 days. The police jumped over the fence and took over the area; his phone lines were cut. They ran out of food, and when his wife tried to gather vegetables in the garden, «the soldiers attacked her.»
If Vino stands again in 2026, what can we hope for? “Much is possible,” he says, “if the US and the European Union agree to support our demands for free and fair elections as a condition of aid. If sanctions are imposed against people who abuse their power, kidnap and kill people, Museveni will have to play by the rules.»
Vine told Sharpe that if elected, he would spend his first 100 days making sure the constitution reinstated the two-term limit. “Perhaps Boby is not the most qualified, but he could have ensured democracy,” Sharpe says. “He comes on the ticket of health care, education and the return of power to institutions. Right now, the judiciary, the police, the army are all subordinate to Museveni.”
This month, Vine is returning home. He continues to make music. “In my spare time, I write, record and post on social media. The music is in me, but politics now takes up so much of my time.”
Is he nervous about coming back? «I'm always nervous when I'm at home because I'm in danger.»
I can't help but compare his situation to that of Alexei Navalny, the leader of the Russian opposition, who opposed Putin, was poisoned and returned to Russia after treatment, to be immediately imprisoned. “I am very flattered,” says Vine. “But our dictator is financed by the West, so the West may change its mind. But man! Navalny is challenging Putin, and Putin is self-financing. I salute him.”
Has Museveni seen the film?
Vine chuckles slightly. “He must have seen it. I can only imagine the punishment he plans to give me for exposing him.» He looks sad and cheeky at the same time.
Boby Vine: People's President in UK cinemas from 1 September
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