Talkative Polity. Florence Brisset-Foucault
time, however, the social perimeter of the discussions was enlarged to other ethnic and social groups, particularly, but not exclusively, through the creation of new shows in Luganda. A new generation of orators emerged, although this did not emancipate the ebimeeza from the bourgeois context that led to their initial development.
An Upper-Class Cradle
The history of the ebimeeza is linked to a particular place in Kampala—Club Obbligato—which was located in Industrial Area, a mile away from the city center. The club comprised a vast courtyard, with a bar, a stage, and a large thatched roof covering a pool table. Three businessmen purchased the premises in 2000.2 The group then approached Afrigo Limited, headed by Moses Matovu and James Wasula, who managed Afrigo Band, one of Uganda’s oldest and most famous musical groups, to propose that the performers settle in at Obbligato and perform there regularly. The three purchasers and Afrigo Limited formed a partnership and managed the club together.3 Led by Moses Matovu, a percussionist and saxophone player born in 1950, Afrigo Band was created in 1975 and has produced around twenty albums of Afro-beat and rumba music.4 The group became famous after they were hired by Idi Amin to perform during his luxurious parties.5
FIGURE 1.2. Club Obbligato in Kampala, 2007. (Photo by author.)
FIGURE 1.3. Ekimeeza audience #1 at Club Obbligato, 2007. (Photo by author.)
When I was in Kampala, attending a concert cost USh7,000, which was prohibitive for the majority of the population. At the concerts I attended, the club was full and the majority of the people were men over forty, because of the entry price and also the musical style. It was often possible to spot famous political personalities at concerts, such as Nyombi Thembo (minister in charge of Luweero Triangle, and later on minister for information communications technology); Brig. Kasirye Ggwanga;6 and even Salim Saleh, President Museveni’s half brother, who “pop[ped] in and [did] the entole dance.”7 According to a journalist, “In this rich man’s entertainment spot, patrons are generous like their ancestors were during the harvest season. There is Jomayi, a popular purse happy man [Jomayi Consultants is a real estate agency]. When a business deal is successful or when his football team wins, expect free beers on him all night long.”8 During the day, clients might find a well-stocked buffet with typical Ganda food for USh7,000 (around £2, which is relatively expensive in Kampala). Thus, many members of the clientele were part of the wealthy upper class, with connections to the political establishment.
FIGURE 1.4. Ekimeeza audience #2 at Club Obbligato, 2007. (Photo by author.)
As one of the owners of the club, James Wasula, told me: “[In 2000] it was a new place; [we wanted] to attract our friends and meet us at that place, to build a clientele.” 9 One of the owners’ friends, Alan Shonubi, recalls: “[Wamala] wanted to launch his business [. . .] and in order to get more people, he started to give out some free lunch, and [. . .] as a result we started talking and then you know we choose a topic and talk about it.”10 These discussions eventually became the Ekimeeza weekly broadcast.
The first participants in the debates at Club Obbligato, those who were there before the radio began to broadcast the discussions, were called the “historicals” by the other members of the ekimeeza. By tracing the “constitutive networks” that led to the emergence of this small group of people,11 it is clearly possible to see how the first ekimeeza prolonged sociability practices typical of a certain section of the Ganda elite: the corporate businesspeople who managed to protect their assets and status relatively well during the years of dictatorship and were ready to invest (financially and politically) in the reconstruction of the new state under Museveni.12
Among them was for instance Paul Mbalali Wamala, the owner of the club. He was born in 1950 into an affluent Ganda family.13 His maternal grandfather was Simeoni Nsibambi, a wealthy landowner and member of the kabaka’s government who was considered one of the founders of the Balokole, the Ugandan Pentecostal Christians.14 Paul Wamala’s father, Dr. Paulo Wamala, owned a pharmacy and a large hotel by Lake Victoria. He was close to Kabaka Muteesa II, and Paul Wamala says that Paulo helped the king during the 1966 crisis, when the kingdom was attacked by Obote’s government.15 Paulo Wamala was killed under Amin’s regime. After his father’s death, Paul Wamala graduated with a business administration degree in Britain. In 1986, when Museveni came to power, Wamala got part of his father’s property back. When we met, he operated in construction, real estate, and entertainment businesses. Thanks to his family history, Wamala claimed that he “talk[ed] with the king every week,” but he was critical of the radicalization of royalism that occurred in the mid-2000s. He also had close contacts with members of the NRM government, especially for business reasons.16
Another important historical was James Wasula, who was born in Mengo, in the heart of Buganda, at the end of the 1950s.17 His father worked for the kingdom in the Lubiiri, the royal palace, while his mother worked at the Ministry of Finance in the central government. Wasula went to primary school in the palace. When it was attacked in 1966, he fled in one of the kabaka’s vehicles. His father then entered the Ministry of Education of the central government. After passing his A levels, Wasula worked at the high court, then studied in South Africa. Back in Kampala, he specialized in accounting and joined the Coffee Marketing Board, staying in that position until its privatization in 1991. Today, Wasula works in intellectual property and the protection of copyright. He is a musician and has managed the Afrigo Band since the 1980s. In 2000, he bought shares in Club Obbligato. He was the main chairman of the Ekimeeza until it was banned in 2009.
However, before Wasula assumed the chair, the first chairman of the Ekimeeza was Alan Shonubi, a lawyer born in 1958.18 He is also from a wealthy family connected to the kingdom’s establishment. His grandfather was a chief and attended King’s College Budo, the “jewel” of Uganda’s colonial education system, created in 1906 and following closely the model of British public schools.19 His mother, Catherine Senkatuka, was a well-educated Ganda woman. She also went to Budo, and in 1944, she became the first woman to be admitted to Makerere College.20 In the 1950s, she went to study in Great Britain. According to her son, she was also a member of the Legislative Council (LEGCO), the Ugandan parliament before independence. She then became a secondary school teacher. Alan’s father is a Nigerian businessman. Alan Shonubi followed the family path and also went to Budo. He then entered the prestigious Law Development Centre (LDC) in Makerere for the necessary schooling to become a lawyer. Nevertheless, it was difficult to find a position during the war. As a musician, he performed in bars in Kampala, and that was how he came to meet the Afrigo Band. After the war, in 1986, he worked in insurance companies and in a bank, before creating his own bank. Since 1990, he has headed a law firm, Shonubi, Musoke & Co. Advocates, which specializes in corporate law and employs ten lawyers. He was said to be one of the richest men in the country.21 He sent his three sons to Budo, and in 2005, he chaired the Old Budonians’ Club, after having been the vice-chair for seven years. As he told me, “I transformed the club. It was a paper organization earning a few hundred thousand shillings per month [around £30] to cover its activities. Today it has a [USh]36 million budget per year [around £13,000].” In 2005, he also joined the board of the school.22
Another historical was Edward Kayondo, a medical doctor born in 1955, near Kampala.23 When we met he was the president of the Old Budonians. He grew up in Bulange, close to the kingdom’s seat. He is from a more modest extraction compared to Wasula, Shonubi, and Wamala. His father was a medical officer. According to one of their friends, Kayondo was the only one among the group who had to “make himself on his own” through education.24 He went to the Mengo boys’ school and then to Budo, thanks to a grant he received because