Artistes in Bunyoro sub-region have been urged to promote environmental conservation and cultural heritage in their songs and during their performances.
Speaking at the launch of the Masindi Musicians Association (MAMA) at Lado Hotel in Masindi town over the weekend, the former Bunyoro Kitara Kingdom Deputy Minister for Works and Infrastructure, Mr Allan Bamuha, said artistes are also key players in conveying messages to a range of people.
He notably wondered that most contemporary musicians are focusing on love songs yet there are other themes that they can sing about and cause a multiplicity of developmental change in society.
Mr Bamuha observed that with the oil activities taking place in the Albertine Graben, musicians should also compose, produce and sing about the resource and all it requires to have it properly produced with relatively less adverse effects on human life and bio-diversity.
Citing the current high level of forest destruction in Bunyoro sub region, the former minister said there is need for artistes to join the struggle against environmental ruin through their music and other performances for a healthy society.
He advised the artistes to also promote better cultural practices that involve forest conservation urging them to prop up the ancestry measures that were used to conserve forests.
Addressing the same artistes, the mayor of Masindi municipality, Mr Joab Busiinge, discouraged them from singing songs that attack each other saying it disintegrates them.
The politician advised them to concentrate on music that adds value to society instead of destroying it.
The MAMA President, Mr Patrick Abitegeka known by his stage name as Easy P Omusomesa, pledged to take the artistes to a next financial level by encouraging them to initiate income generating projects rather than relying on music alone as their source of income.
He said many musicians are hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic after the government restricted them from performing to condense the spread of the virus in the country.
Farmers embark on tree planting
To minimise the effects of the bad gas that will be produced during the oil refining process in Hoima, tree farmers in Hoima and Masindi districts have planted trees that absorb carbon emissions plummeting from the atmosphere.
The farmers say they plant indigenous trees to conserve the environment and by selling carbon credit to local and international markets.
This carbon sequestration – which is a process in which trees, shrubs and organic matter like soil remove and store carbon from the atmosphere; is more achieved when the more the trees mature, the more they increase the absorption of carbon from the atmosphere.
