Semujju started publishing while pursuing his master’s degree in Journalism and Communication at Makerere University.
After securing funding (about Shs 10 million) for his master’s research, he was stimulated to read various books about journalism and mass communication. Some of the first authors he read then include Denis McQuail, Pieter J. Fourie, Baran and Davis, among many others.
“And then I said: ‘wait, there is no Ugandan in all these textbooks ….is it quite possible that Ugandans have not been writing?’” he says. “So, I dug deeper and realized that the only Ugandan that had published papers about community media was Prof Goretti Nassanga.”
Nassanga is Uganda’s first professor in journalism, having been promoted in 2016. Upon realizing Nassanga’s input in the scholarship of journalism and media, Semujju was encouraged to read more of her works, and later established a rapporteur with her.
He did this as a way of rooting himself into the academia. In fact, he would ask her whether there were any publications coming out any soon.
PUBLISHING SCHOLARLY PAPERS
During his tenure as a master’s student, he would immerse himself in Nassanga’s published work, determined to stamp out the lack of academic writing on journalism and communication from Ugandans.
With self-motivation and undaunted urge to discover himself, Semujju decided to focus on making a tangible mark on Uganda’s journalism and communication studies.
To authenticate his fortitude, he published some articles before completing his master’s degree. His first paper appeared in the International Journal of Information Communication Technologies and Human Development in 2013; he had submitted it in 2012.
Having derived the idea from his master’s degree dissertation, his paper was titled: ICT as an engine for community participation: An assessment of Uganda’s community media (The paper would later be republished as a chapter in three book compilations).
“Then I got to know that in publishing, there is something called ‘the ‘impact factor’; that even when you are publishing in journals, some journals are bigger,” he says. “Then I said; ‘wait a second, I need [to publish in] a bigger journal’.”
His quest for adding more knowledge to the field grew sturdier. The more he read Western literature, the more he realised gaps that needed to be filled.
Thus, his pushy brashness led him to send another academic paper to the International Communication Gazette. After receiving a nod, the review required him to spend more time working on areas that needed further attention and clarification. This impelled him to spend nights working on his paper from a guesthouse in Bugolobi.
“I realized most people in my field were minding their own business; no one was ready to write for us to have local names,” says Semujju.
“I do not know any textbook in our field that has been written by a Ugandan apart from some anthologies. This forced me to publish a textbook with a publisher I probably would not have liked, but I was desperate to fill the gap.”
Following his two published papers, Semujju believed he could actually do better. Because of his interest in the academia, Professor Nassanga recruited him as her research assistant.
One of the projects under Nassanga’s supervision in 2012 was about climate change communication. Semujju was in charge of files and writing reports. But because he was always the first to look at all the gathered data, he would later think of how to benefit from this priceless opportunity.
Soon after securing a copy of the raw data on his computer, he devised ways of writing another paper. Later, he submitted Climate change in Ugandan Media: A “global warming” of journalism ethics to the Journal of African Media Studies.
Semujju says while gathering the data, he realized most journalists were reporting about man-made climate change without reporting the competing sides.
“Under objectivity, I assumed media were supposed to give us all the existing sides,” he says. “That is why I called it the global warming of journalism ethics because I realized the ethics were gone.”
He believes the media were only giving the UN version of the narrative. Having felt convinced that he could actually make a mark on journalism theory, Dr Semujju has continued to publish papers in various international journals.
He is now the editor of the African Journal of Communication – a journal published by the East African Communication Association. Semujju this year got a PhD. in Journalism and Media Studies from South Africa’s University of Kwazulu-Natal.
He lectures at Makerere University and Uganda Christian University (UCU). He has presented papers in conferences across three continents.
THE MELODIC DON
In his apartment, one is welcomed by a huge library, a reading table and home theatre system – a total representation of Semujju’s affection. Radiating gently from the sub-woofer under his reading table is Jamaican reggae – his favourite music genre.
Semujju picked interest in music while he was an entertainment prefect at Caltec Academy, Kikoni, in 2001. But it was not until he joined university that he got fully engrossed in the trade.
He wrote his first song Ekitaffeeri – a sensitisation on the HIV/Aids scourge – on his first university day as a student pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication at UCU in 2003.
“In the earlier days of class, one could afford to do just about anything. I found myself writing lyrics, and later recorded the song in a studio that was in someone’s bedroom. The audio turned out terrible,” he recalls.
But as the semester got heated up with academic pressure, he put music aside to pursue what had initially brought him to university.
Even then, classmates knew him as a musician. In fact, whenever he felt like, he scribbled a few lyrics on the blackboard, under the name Windman, which would later become his stage name.
Semujju was inspired by the lyrical maturity of kadongokamu (local word for country music) maestros Herman Basudde and to a less extent Paul Kafeero (both deceased). He has since wanted to educate, entertain, inform and inspire society through music.
“My music focuses mainly on socio-political issues, but packaged in Caribbean ragga in order to appeal to the young generation who constitute my primary audience,” he says.
Owing to the fact that music is a trade that requires constant work, Semujju decided to shelve his music to concentrate on ‘putting food on the table’. His decision coincided with the fact that he had secured a two-year contract as a news editor for The Standard – UCU’s community newspaper.
Since 2003, Semujju has recorded over 20 songs. These include Time To Be Wise, Tibikanya (with Mzee Helton X), Totema Miti, among others.
Totema Miti is a sensitisation song against deforestation, which he argues is among the major reasons behind the changing climate conditions. He was inspired to write the song by the research paper he had previously published about the topic.
“I had written and recorded the song earlier, but did not like the track. But in one of our frequent studio jam sessions, I sang the song on an old instrumental and the producer (Mande Magic at Sure Records in Luzira) suggested that we record it again. The result was a massive hit,” Semujju, now with the stage name Don Zamo, told The Observer.
Prim K. Tumuramye, was Semujju’s classmate while pursuing their bachelor’s degrees. She remembers him as a bright student who had visible passion for music. However, she was later surprised upon hearing that Semujju, who loved rapping, had enrolled for a PhD.
“You could never predict that someone called Windman at school would actually become a doctor,” she says. “As an outgoing young man, it was easy to imagine him ending up in the music industry because it is hardly believable for one to merge the two.”
Tumuramye adds that the seriousness of academics could not be attached to someone like Semujju by those who saw him during his first days at university.
TEACHING
While pursuing his master’s degree at Makerere University, Semujju was approached for a teaching stint at UCU. After careful consideration, he was recruited as a teaching assistant in the department of Mass Communication in 2011.
A few months later, he was contacted for another teaching opportunity at the Islamic University in Uganda.
“Teaching was amazing. A lot of people believed in me, and this gave me the opportunity to taste the deeper waters – to gain confidence and to master the art of imparting knowledge,” Semujju says.
ON PRACTICAL JOURNALISM
A few months before joining The Standard, Semujju had worked briefly at the New Vision and Bukedde newspapers.
However, he says the experience in newspaper reporting helped him realize the newsroom wasn’t where he had to belong.
The situation worsened when one Weraga, an editor with Bukedde, assigned him to report to Namugongo on June 3 for a story about the Uganda Martyrs’ day.
“All I knew about Namugongo is that on June 3, people collapse; so, I was here looking at him: ‘is he sending me to collapse’?” he reminisces. “I did not go. Instead, I just went back home to Bugolobi. In the evening, televisions were reporting about people who had collapsed; I could have been one of them.”
Nonetheless, Semujju reported to Namugongo a day later, and instead decided to write about the rubbish. When he submitted the story, he was fired for insubordination, and “that was my last time in the newsroom”.
“I did not feel bad because in life, you have to discover where you belong,” he says.
Commenting about journalism in Uganda, the singing don believes the country has taken positive strides especially on professionalism.
However, he observes that mass communication degrees were started in 1988 in Uganda at Makerere University and that we are yet to have a professor from that generation of professionalisation. This means our field still needs to grow.
“In terms of practice, we have multiple challenges…media is censored at will,” he says. “In addition, we have media illiteracy. We need media literacy for everyone to understand the media critically because without this, media are likely to tell you lies.”
This, he argues, is the responsibility of various stakeholders to ensure the audience is media literate. Semujju adds that although it is paramount to have media freedom, the media should also be responsible and accountable for the government to understand freedom of the press.
About the future of journalism in Uganda, Semujju borrows from Marshal McLuhan’s argument that technology is an extension of man, without which it becomes difficult to have social evolution.
“I believe, as McLuhan said, that the medium is the message. What is important is not the message that we deliver, but the existence of the medium. Then it is up to us to make sure we use this medium to move from one generation to another in prosperity,” he says.
PROSPECTS
With his hands full of academic endeavours, Semujju has no plans of ditching his music. As you read this, he is working on Gangster Pastor, a song that condemns purporting pastors who “con unsuspecting believers of their money for them (pastors) to live lavish lives”.
PRIVATE LIFE
Seemingly in his early 30s, Semujju is quite cagey about details of his personal life, besides the fact that he is not yet married.
Whenever he is not reading or writing, he will be outside in the night watching stars and galaxies. Semujju acknowledges that to be the scholar that he wants, he has the enviable task of contributing new knowledge to the world, and the integration of music and academia is certainly a good place to start.
matsiko@observer.ug
alex.taremwa@yahoo.co.uk