By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Few days to the commencement of Nyege Nyege electronic music festival, the Ugandan authorities have imposed a ban on the festival which previous editions played host to some 10,000 people, including foreign tourists for promoting “immorality” sex, drug and LGBTQ.
It was earlier scheduled to hold for four days from September 15 in the town of Jinja (southeast). The government says it affects the morals of the children in the East African country.
The Parliament on Tuesday announced on its Twitter account that it had “banned the Nyege Nyege festival” which had not been held for several years due to the Covid-19 restrictions.
The festival “promotes immorality and we do not want this immorality in our country,” Rose Lilly Akello, the Minister of Ethics and Integrity, told reporters.
Her colleague in charge of tourism, Martin Mugarura, however told reporters that the ban on the festival would have a negative impact on the economy, which is struggling to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.
“More than 8,000 foreign tourists have already bought their tickets and were due to stay in the country during the festival, and even afterwards,” he said, saying he hoped the authorities would reverse the decision.
The festival was previously banned in 2018 by former Ethics Minister Simon Lokodo, a devout Catholic and homophobe. “We will not accept the loss of our morals, homosexuality will not be accepted,” he said, arguing that the festival “is close to devil worship and therefore unacceptable”.
The expression “Nyege Nyege” means an irresistible urge to dance in the Luganda language but can also have sexual connotations in other dialects of the region.
Homophobia is widespread in Uganda, where so-called “unnatural” relationships are punishable by life imprisonment under a law dating from British colonisation.
In December 2013, Uganda adopted a new law that punishes the “promotion of homosexuality” and makes it compulsory to denounce homosexuals.
