In a bid to get African youth interested in politics and current affairs, Newz Beat, a Ugandan original news program, features ‘rap-orters’ who rap news stories to hip hop beats.
The show is presented by Sharon Bwogi, Uganda’s “queen of hip hop” known as Lady Slyke, Daniel Kisekka who is known as the “Survivor,” and teenage rapper Zoe Kabuye aka MC Loy.
“NewzBeat” consists of five-minute episodes aired every Saturday on NTV, just before the station’s traditional news bulletin. Each episode covers about four regional and international stories and is recorded in both English and the local language, Luganda. The show is broadcast on air, but since over 90% of Ugandan households don’t have electricity, Newz Beat is also distributed through video halls, where people can get together and watch it.
Pretty fascinating. Watch two episodes below.
From Oddity Central:
Yahoo news reports that the show is quite relevant in Uganda, where the press faces lots of problems with censorship, and the youth aren’t too interested in what’s happening around them. A program that features ‘rap-orters’ instead of traditional anchors is actually quite refreshing. Nothing is off limits. The programme has “rap-orted” stories on Uganda’s anti-pornography laws ,the political situation in Ukraine and Ebola updates from west Africa.
They particularly love challenging political leaders. In fact, one of their strategies is to include corruption incidents from other countries to address political issues in Uganda. That way, they get to talk about what’s happening while avoiding possible government regulation.
“We are not showing stories about Uganda or the president of Uganda, but we are showing stories of completely different spaces and people,” said Lee Shaker, a professor at Portland State University who is researching the efficacy of projects like Newz Beat. Shaker discovered that by discussing corruption in other nations, the show is able to help its audience form opinions about its own government.
For the future, “NewzBeat” staff are looking at recruiting specialist “rap-orters” to cover fields such as science and technology. They are also keen to expand across Africa.
In Tanzania, a mini-season of four episodes recently aired and another four are set to run in the lead-up to the country’s elections, scheduled for October.
“Media belongs to the power of the day,” Bwogi rapped in one episode. “The Chinese have CCTV/the British have BBC/And we too are making our voices heard on NTV.”
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