TIME FOR RWANDA is the country’s first major stab at the regional TV market. The first episode of the lifestyle magazine show aired last Thursday on the Tanzania-based regional TV channel, East Africa Television (EATV). The show’s host, Bac-T (real name is Gerald Nkubiri) is a local hip pop and dancehall singer in Kigali, as well a veteran radio personality. Bac-T hosted the Mapigo On Air show on Contact FM until September this year, when he suspended the show to concentrate on his new TV slot. For him, working for East Africa Television is like coming home, because it is in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania where the station is located, that he was born 28 years ago. The show “Time for Rwanda is about everything Rwandan, especially in area of entertainment. The show is divided into four segments; Beat of the Week, On the Block, My Town, and Learn Kinyarwanda,” he explains. In Beat of the Week, he plays a song that is hitting in Rwanda at the moment, and for the first show it was, needless to say, Kanda Amazi by Kina Music Group. On the Block features an interview with a popular celebrity, and the first episode featured local folk singer Mani Martin talking about his experience touring at various local, regional and international music festivals. My Town is the silent segment of the show, where cameras take the viewer on a sight-seeing tour of a local town. This time viewers went on a guided tour of Kigali city, through the camera lens. Bac-T works at Ibyamamare, a local TV and film production house that produces the show on behalf of EATV. Before that he operated an online TV channel, Big Town TV Online, that has since closed shop. Bac-T is into hip pop music, and has a couple of songs to this end. They include songs like More Fire, featuring TMK from Tanzania; Ice cream, featuring De Ben and Love page—a solo effort. He is putting together a 14-track hip hop album, to be dropped sometime in December. The album is called Reality Check, which is also the title track. It is done in English, Swahili and Kinyarwanda. However, some of the songs, like Ghetto Queen, Personal, and Hustle laid on sampled American hip hop beats. His initial plan was to actually launch the album in September, but he had something more urgent to attend to –his wedding. Back –T tied the knot with his long time fiancée, Gabrielle Rugina in a civil ceremony at Kimironko on September 14. Thereafter, on September 16, the couple headed to Gabrielle’s parent’s home in Kimironko for the Gusaba (traditional give-away ceremony). They wound it up with the wedding on September 24, at Kacyiru SOS. The couple has been blessed with a daughter, one year-old Kaellah.
