Rwandan musicians must wake up!

Social change is hard work. It can also be scary as hell – a leap of faith into the unknown, a risky challenge to the status quo. This means that social change can only be effected by men who are well endowed with not only psychic, but also prophetic powers. Men like me. And men like me are not easy to find in today’s world so you should thank instead of fighting me if you have any sense left in your oblong, which is simply a short form for oblongata. Read this article carefully so that in future when tough times and tribulation and perdition threaten your resolve in life, you can always content yourself in the fact that a great change maker like me once touched your life. First, always know that there is no joy in possession without sharing. Or as His Holiness the Dalai Lama famously put it; “Share your knowledge. It is a way to achieve immortality.” There are millions of quotes about sharing freely available on the internet and yet just a single quote from this vast sea of knowledge could change your life forever. So go and google. Don’t be lazy. But people like me, who are well endowed with knowledge and whose eyes frequently well with this knowledge do not share such knowledge just like that. It comes at a small cost. That cost is the arrogance with which I divulge such knowledge and which I’m incorrigible and unrepentant about because what’s the shame in being loud, arrogant and abrasive when you know that you know? One of my favorite T-shirts actually carries an inscription that answers that question well: “It’s hard to be humble when you’re the best.” Still on sharing, my gate at home in Kacyiru is one of the busiest and not necessarily with corporate colleagues or any of those useless people in your social circle that you only meet at those equally useless and pretentious soirees where Africans adopt fake American accents and where local fashion models walk like they’re at a terminal stage of constipation. So I do get in a sizeable and diverse crowd whenever I have a gig. I move with a host of baturage from my umudugudu who incidentally know me as Ichumi, not Moses Opobo or even more important, Lyric DVD, which is my cool stage name. So my gig can’t flop because of these people. They come to support and assist me as a brother, which those thousands of Facebook friends will not do for you in a million years. Talking of which, let me school you a bit on human nature as experienced by me ever since I transitioned from Moses Opobo the super journalist to Lyric DVD the musician and entertainer. While I was still just Moses Opobo, my news sources in the art and entertainment sectors always rushed to tag me in their posts and share on my wall ahead of their gigs, which I always gladly did. How come then, that a few weeks ago, when I posted a few video clips and photos from one of my own gigs, a few of these very people quietly deleted, yes, deleted them from their Facebook walls? I thought “scratch-my-back” was supposed to be a two-way street? How come some of these same people have since mysteriously vanished from my wall? Of course I know why. The need to keep our relationship at that safe ‘reporter-news source’ level as opposed to holding hands as fellow African street hustlers chasing a dream and searching for food for the pot. In short, they want loyalty, but they won’t reciprocate. After all, a master does not really need to reciprocate the loyalty of their subordinate, do they? Gil Low, a popular DJ in Kigali summarized the sentiment well in a recent Facebook post in which he ranted, and I quote verbatim: “Dear friends, This is a simple one. If you cannot bring yourself to support an event that I do in any way either by buying a ticket or volunteering (or even sharing), do NOT expect me to support any of your events/kids birthdays/parties etc with ‘friend prices’ or free stuff EVER. *starting a database* Salute!” When I saw that post, I immediately rushed to my own wall to share it, complete with the caption: “I agree 200% with my brotha DJ Gil Low. The revolution begins!!”

Lifestyle

Rwandan musicians must wake up!