His body of work speaks, rather, sings for itself. He’s a genius. A music maven. In his discography, if you’re keen enough, you’ll catch a whiff of his activism. He’s been an activist either for love, heartbreak, and now, in his new album, for climate change. And that’s what sets him apart.
Kenneth Mugabi has many questions.
Off his new album, People of The Land, in the same titled song, he’s asking questions. Questions about climate change. What will he tell his grandkids? That the river which was here is long gone. Where’s it? What happened? The grandkids will ask him, where are the swamps? Where are they? What happened? The grandkids will ask him, where are the trees? Where are they? What happened?
Kenneth Mugabi has many questions.
And the answers are in our midst. What happened to the river that passed in the backyard? Of course, we didn’t give a rat’s derriere about the river. We dumped plastics in it. We encroached its path. We shamelessly wiped out its habitat so we can build ours. We piled soil on its bed so we can erect a skyscraper. We’re now crying a river. What happed to the swamps? We didn’t care about swamps. Who cares about swamps? They habour noisy frogs and whatnot. So, we brought these large excavators and cleared the swamps so we can pave way for our rentals.
Kenneth Mugabi has many questions.
People of The Land is a masterpiece, a piece from a master of his craft. A befitting soundtrack for our dire climate change situation. You will be swayed away by Kenneth’s crooning vocals to a point where your ears are compromised and, eventually, you might miss the message. Listen. Therein lies a wakeup call to save mother nature. In the song, he says mother nature is angry. Who wouldn’t? If its offspring are being taken away by humanity, why shouldn’t mother nature be angry? Should we wait for mother nature to unleash more wrath on us? In fact, we can still feel its raging anger. Look around you.
Kenneth Mugabi has many questions.
I listened to People of The Land in the pouring storm last week. And I felt sorry for the people of our land, Uganda. Floods cut off roads due to poor drainage systems and clogged pipes (due to poor waste disposal). Since the swamps have been degraded, water burst their banks and spread across roads, washed away people’s property, filled up their areas of abode and caused total anarchy. And Kenneth Mugabi captures this situation in a melodic masterstroke. Tears sprawling from his heart and wetting his guitar strings. Veins biting his neck as he pours his feelings into this masterpiece. His smooth voice sears through, hitting every note, as he rages on and on and on asking many questions.
Do we have the answers?