Culture

Ugandan rapper/opposition figure, Bobi Wine, recounts ordeal in Dubai detention, blames government

Published

2 years ago

October 12, 2022

Leading Ugandan opposition leader and rapper, Robert Kyagulanyi, popularly known as Bobi Wine, has narrated his ordeal following a 12-hour detention at the Dubai Airport Detention Centre

Bobi Wine who revealed his ordeal on Tuesday on his social media network, claimed his travails were orchestrated by the Ugandan government, said his country had instructed the airport officials to block him from holding a charity concert in the Asian country.

Though the Uganda Foreign Affairs Minister, Okello Oryem, has described Bobi Wine’s allegations as “hogwash and rubbish,” insisting that Kampala had nothing to do with the entertainer’s detention, the musician believes his country was behind it.

Narrating what transpired when he traveled to Dubai on Saturday to hold what he called a charity concert seeking to raise funds to bring back hundreds of Ugandans who are stranded in different Middle East countries, the singer-turned politician he was singled out on arrival at the airport and invited for interrogation.

“When I arrived at the airport at about 8pm, I noticed that there was an unusual deployment, so I was taken into a room and they started to interrogate me,” he said.

“They asked me politically related questions whether I was going to hold a rally or a music concert.

“There were many people and during the time I was with them, they cried about how they are struggling for freedom and many of them knew me and they were calling me by name. These people are held on different cases but I had all the documents needed,” Bobi Wine said.

He said he was, however, set free after 12 hours and allowed into the country but the concert was blocked.

While responding to Bobi Wine’s allegations on Wednesday, Oryem said the Ugandan government of had more serious issues to deal with than worry about the rapper.

“The government has more serious things to do than follow Bobi Wine. He has tried to say things to the whites but they can’t listen to him because they are very bright.

“I suspect that Bobi Wine had a wrong visa and that is why he was arrested. He should not put it on us. Bobi Wine has been to Ukraine and shot a movie and told Europeans bad things about the Ugandan government but they have not listened to him.

“He is now out of content and he doesn’t have anything to say so he is forwarding his problems to the NRM government,” Oryem added.

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Culture

Egypt reclaims 3,400-year-old stolen statue of King Ramses II

Published

16 hours ago

April 23, 2024

Akanimoh Etim

Egypt has received a 3,400-year-old statue depicting the head of King Ramses II that was stolen and smuggled out of the country more than three millennia a ago, the country’s Antiquities Ministry said in a statement.

According to the Ministry, the statue was stolen from the Ramses II temple in the ancient city of Abydos in Southern Egypt more than three decades ago.

Head of Egypt’s Antiquities Repatriation Department, Shaaban Abdel Gawad, who received the artefact said though the exact date the artefact was stolen is not known, the piece is estimated to have been stolen in the late 1980s or early 1990s.

“The statue is now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo but not on display. The artefact will be restored,” he said.

He stated that Egyptian authorities spotted the artefact when it was offered for sale in an exhibition in London in 2013 before it was moved to several other countries before reaching Switzerland.

“This head is part of a group of statues depicting King Ramses II seated alongside a number of Egyptian deities,” Abdel Gawad said.

King Ramses II is one of ancient Egypt’s most powerful Pharaohs. Also known as Ramses the Great, he was the third pharaoh of the 19th Dynasty of Egypt and ruled from 1279 to 1213 BC.

“Egypt collaborated with Swiss authorities to establish its rightful ownership and Switzerland handed over the statue to the Egyptian embassy in Bern last year, but it was only recently that Egypt brought the artefact home, he added.

Culture

Ghana mourns as top gospel music icon Koda passes away

Published

2 days ago

April 22, 2024

Akanimoh Etim

The Ghanaian entertainment industry has, once again, been thrown into mourning following the death of renowned gospel musician, Kofi Owusu Dua Anto, known professionally as Koda, who passed away on Sunday at the age of 46.

According to reports, the gospel music icon and producer died from a kidney-related condition he had been suffering from for sometime.

Koda, renowned for hit songs like “Hossana”, “Nkwaa Abodo”, “Nsem Pii” and “Adooso”, was also a producer of repute who gained fame for his inspiring compositions and his captivating, soul-stirring vocals that struck a chord with audiences nationwide.

A local media reports that he worked with a lot of Gospel musicians in Ghana and Nigeria including popular Nigerian gospel singer, Nathaniel Bassey.