Six people from the creative industry have joined the rest of African continent in the #DontGoViral Campaign. The campaign was started by UNESCO with an aim to facilitate accurate information and to deal with the misinformation surrounding COVID-19 on the continent. The campaign proposes collaboration with artists and ‘influencers’ in order to develop a series of openly licensed public service adverts, music videos, songs or any other idea or content that can be adaptable to any African society. In Rwanda, one of the first entries was a modern and traditional music piece from Deo Munyakazi, who plays the traditional instrument; ‘Inanga’. Munyakazi named his piece ‘Tuyirwanye’. The 28 year old singer and songwriter from attended the National University in Rwanda where he attained a degree in Arts and Creative Industry. In 2015, he was named the youngest and best ‘Inanga’ player in Rwanda. His passion and ability to fuse the Rwandan blues with other genres quickly elevated him to play at big festivals across East Africa and Europe. He has performed with world musicians such as Tito Al Uribe, Belgian pianist Jeff Neve, French saxophonist Guillaume Perret, English multi-Grammy Award winner Joss Stone and Kenyan ‘Nyatiti’ player Makadem. The other entry is from artist Bruce Niyonkuru, commonly known as ‘Canda’ who entered his painting titled ‘Enterbiomadic’. Shedding light on the painting, Canda says that it mostly describes the resilience of Rwandans, especially commemorating the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsis during a global pandemic. “The Rwandan society has proved incredibly resilient. This painting represents our individual and societal efforts to remind ourselves and to each other that only darkness can teach us the value of light,” he explains. Canda is the founder of “Kuuru Art Space”, “Tuko Girls Art” as well as “Ntizimire Future Art”. The other entry was by popular ‘Spoken Word’ artiste; Eric Ngagare, commonly known on social media as Eric 1Key. His Spoken Word Video is titled; ‘Covidstance’ and was made through online collaboration and synergy between himself, a fellow artiste with the help of a producer. 37-year-old Ngagare is a multilingual hip-hop rapper, poet, spoken word artist, blogger, and advocate of Kigali’s blossoming live music scene. He is deeply influenced by hip-hop acts like the late Tupac. Others are artistes Tee Square who entered a music video for his song ‘Coronavirus’. Singer Peace Jolie also entered a song. According to UNESCO, the #DontGoViral campaign will reach community spaces in at least 45 African countries to virtually host, mobilize, and develop information campaigns to support national and global health agencies to reach the most at-risk communities. Participants of the campaign will be requested to ensure that all themes and guidelines expressed conform to recommendations from the World Health Organization (WHO). The process to receive entries closes on April 30.
