The formation of WALK - West Nile, Acholi, Lango and Karamoja Art Foundation was a great idea in trying to bring all creatives together.
While it's seen as a unifying force for bringing all these different talent pools together, its mode of formation, management and operations raises a lot of questions thus the uncalled for ugly fights like what ensued yesterday.
In the racket of confusion was Badman Solo, Odong Romeo and Paul Mutanga being lambasted for scandalously stealing from the regional artist coffers....... I am not sure which one though?
While the notion of artists turning into habitual beggars has been spreading on and on, the visibly poor, needy, jobless artists and talent managers have maintained a status quo - Lim Tye Bot Saleh. A meal card act that has helped many fend for their families, with everyone eating including the likes of Buchaman, Omulangira Ssuna, Ragga Dee and the likes who got chased from Gulu city at one point during an event like chicken thieves leaves a lot to be desired.
While it is not sustainable, our artist seems to be under hostage in the armpits of Ugandan fashion designer Sylvia Owori, allegedly wooing several artists to continue scavenging for Saleh for cash. Through the pseudo coffee growing project, the OWC boss has had to cough out some good amount of cash thus triggering the hunt for free cash.
To me Owori is simply spinning a wrong knob to mint cash from OWC in the name of the artist as we wait on for accountability in the names of Northern artists and/or WALK per say. Those who continue to swarm around her like stingless bees have no remorse in their search for easy cash; all they want is a way out to survive.
Don in their free billboard shirts coded with the word WALK, this has indeed become the access key to reaching the moneybag. While our creatives have just realized this and decided to come up with WALK with a talent pool from across greater Northern Uganda, there have been many more mafias on the chase than our very own artist so let us not castigate them.
I don't blame the likes of Paul Mutanga, Abadman Solo or even Odong Romeo who are now being screwed by artists who agree with their modalities of operation. WALK in real sense is well intentioned but the inclusion of mafias with personalities like Sylvia Owori promoting smear campaigns and promising our artist timeless riches is and has been the problem thus a scamper for free cash.
In the same vent, Zoe Bakoko, formerly on a wanted list over alleged theft of NSSF money stealthily found her way back into the country and settled in Gulu to milk the same cow our artists too are trying to lay their hands on. #CamNonoBerKiWinyo
Lastly, Salim Saleh’s double standard role without a fallback position on his work and relation with artists leaves a lot to be queried.
Will this hunt for free cash spur any substantive development? Make Saleh a kingspin? Will it get us out of poverty? Dependence, curb unemployment…….?
What is it?
