New Vision (Kampala)
COLUMN
February 10, 2007
Posted to the web February 12, 2007
By Titus Kakembo
Kampala
HAPPINESS hung in the air. Reggae music exploded out of huge speakers. The youth and old people were rocking and rolling at Kati Kati in Lugogo. It looked and sounded like reggae king, Bob Marley was back to life.
Rastafarians could be seen shaking thick dreadlocks. Asians, Europeans and Africans sang along.
In the carnival mood, reggae fans greeted each other by knocking fists and saying: "Jah men."
The presence at Kati Kati of fans born after Marley's death, mainly students of KIU and Makerere University sporting dreads, was evidence that the Rastafarian revolution is cutting through different sectors of society.
The perception that rastas are dirty criminals and marijuana addicts is steadily waning. These days journalists, lawyers, doctors and accountants in Uganda also wear dreads.
When Get Up Stand Up was played live, the ground shook with a deafening chorus as fans sang along. Mixed race couples were seen clinging to each other. Some locked lips as they swore undying love to their partners.
At the entrance Rastafarian regalia comprising T-shirts, flags, jewellery, armbands and caps sold like hot cakes. You could not miss the green, red and yellow colours of the rasta flag.
Live reggae bands treated the jubilating crowd to Luganda tunes. A six-year-old, Adam Kangaywe, trotted about the stage.
And many more fans got jiggy on the pitch after puffing a joint of spliff (marijuana). Nile Special and Club beers at sh2,000 made the feet fluid and flexible. Audible arguments about marijuana being an illegal drug did not stop people consuming it without fear.
"Marijuana ought to be legalised. Why discriminate a medicine?" wondered a jubilant fan. "It triggers creativity and energises the consumer."
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