Review: ‘Bobi Wine: The People’s President,’ starring Bobi Wine

March 9, 2024

by Carla Hay

“Bobi Wine: The People’s President”

Directed by Moses Bwayo and Christopher Sharp

Some language in Luganda with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Uganda, from 2017 to 2022, the documentary film “Bobi Wine: The People’s President” features a predominantly African group of people (with a few white people) discussing the political turmoil in Uganda and the efforts of pop-star-turned-activist Bobi Wine efforts to be elected president of Uganda.

Culture Clash: Before, during and after his campaign, Wine and his associates experience violence, harassment and detainment from government and military officials.

Culture Audience: “Bobi Wine: The People’s President” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in documentaries about activists seeking democratic freedoms in a politically restrictive environment.

“Bobi Wine: The People’s President” should be required viewing for anyone who wants to see what can happen when a nation’s democracy is corrupted and a military regime suppresses freedom. This illuminating documentary is more than just an intimate look at singer Bobi Wine’s political activism, including his campaign to be elected president of Uganda in 2021. It’s also about a fight for democracy and resistance to political oppression.

Ugandan-born filmmakers Moses Bwayo and Christopher Sharp make their feature-film directorial debut with “Bobi Wine: The People’s President,” which was filmed from 2017 to 2022. The documentary—which is a mixture of archival footage and footage that was filmed exclusively for the documentary—had its world premiere at the 2022 Venice International Film Festival, when the movie had the title “Bobi Wine: Ghetto President.” “Bobi Wine: The People’s President” has garnered numerous accolades, including a nomination for Best Documentary Feature Film for the 2024 Academy Awards, and winning the prize for Best Feature at the 2023 International Documentary Association Awards.

Born in 1982, Wine (whose birth name is Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu) became famous in the mid-2000s for being a pop star who has political and social issues in his songs. Wine became known as an outspoken advocate for equal rights, as well as showing compassion and advoacy for underprivileged people. In 2017, he was elected to become a member of the Ugandan Parliament.

Being an elected government official seemed to be an unlikely path for this entertainer. As mentioned in the beginning of the documentary, Wine (who describes his childhood as being a “ragamuffin”) was born into poverty in Kampala, Uganda, and he had a chaotic upbringing where his parents weren’t always around to raise him. As a student at Makerere University in Kampala, he studied music, drama and dance. It was while he was a student at Makerere University that he met hs future wife Barbara “Barbie” Itungo Kyagulanyi, who was a student at Bweranyangi Girls’ Senior Secondary School.

Kyagulanyi says in the documentary about meeting Wine: “The time I met him, he was at university. I was still a village girl. He was in his second year of university. … And we met at the [Kampala] National Theatre.” Wine says at the time, he was starring in a play titled, “Lady, Will You Marry Me?” It’s quite the prophetic title.

Wine says of meeting Kyagulanyi for the first time: “We didn’t know each other. We didn’t even like each other, because I had a crazy life.” He also mentions how Kyagulanyi’s stable, middle-class background of being raised by her two parents was a very different upbringing from his. “She had a mom and dad and as very beautiful. She was very moralistic—too moralistic.”

Despite these differences, the couple fell in love and got married in 2011, after living together for 10 years. Wine and Kyagulanyi have four children together: daughter Shalom Namagembe Kyagulanyi, son Solomon Kampala Kyagulanyi, son Shadraq Shilling Mbogo Kyagulanyi and daughter Suubi Shine Nakaayi Kyagulanyi. Throughout the documentary, Kyagulanyi is shown as a loyal and supportive wife and mother. She is often with Wine at his public appearances.

“Bobi Wine: The People’s President” is told in chronological order, which makes the story in the documentary much easier to follow. There is some footage of Wine (who has not stopped making music) in the recording studio. Several of his songs are featured in the documentary, with some of the social-justice lyrics shown on screen. His songs in the documentary are “Tuliyambala Engule,” “Time Bomb,” “Freedom,” “By Far,” “Corona Virus Alert,” “Uganda Zukakai,’ “Afende,” “Situka” and “It’s Gonna Be Fine.”

The year 2016 was the re-election of Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni, a military general who has been in this presidential position since 1986. At the time, the Ugandan constitution had a law that Ugandan presidential candidates had to be younger than 75 years old. Under this law, Museveni (who was born in 1944) would not have been eligible to run for president of Uganda for the 2021 election. Wine quickly built a reputation for being one of the growing numbers of Ugandans who are eager for change in what they see as Museveni’s corrupt regime.

The documentary shows how Wine’s initial enthusiasm about being a member of Parliament turned to discontent—especially after a contentious parliament vote that changed the Ugandan constitution to remove the maximum age limit for people running for president of Uganda. Wine was among those opposed to lifting the age limit, as a way to not only prevent presidents from staying in office for too long but also to give the Ugandan presidential position a chance for a new direction in whomever would replace Museveni. In the end (as shown in the documentary’s archival footage), 315 members of the Ugandan Parliament voted to remove the age limit, while 62 members (including Wine) voted to keep the age limit.

After this parliament vote, a defeated-looking Wine is shown sitting alone in a back office room and saying, “I think it’s high time that Uganda starts thinking about different options. There’s no democracy in Uganda.” It isn’t long before Wine (the leader of the political party called the National Unity Platform) and many of his close associates become the targets of government attacks and harassment, much of which is shown in the documentary.

Among the many ordeals: Wine and several of his associates were arrested numerous times over this five-year period shown in the documentary. The charges against Wine included illegal possession of firearms and treason. He and his associates were detained at military barracks in Gulu, Uganda. There’s harrowing footage of Wien having to get medical care in a hospital because of torture injuries that he got while in custody at the barracks.

Every time that Wine was arrested on what he says were false charges, there were massive public protests, including people chanting “Free Bobi Wine.” Ugandan singer Alex Namugera also recorded a hit song called “Free Bobi Wine,” as shown in the documentary. A movement was born, with Wine perceived as the hero of this movement. The more popular that Wine became, the more his life seemed to be in danger.

In the town of Arua, Uganda, a 2018 rowdy political rally for parliament candidate Kassiano Wadri (who was endorsed by Wine) turned deadly when police shot and killed Wine’s driver in a car. The official reason for this killing was that police said the it was in self-defense for protester who were throwing rocks at Museveni’s motorcade. Wine publicly said that the shooting was an assassination attempt on Wine because the shooter probably thought Wine was in the car.

The documentary also has multiple scenes of how all of this persecution is affecting Wine’s family too. One of the more poignant scenes is when his four children see him for the first time in a hospital after he had to get treated for his injuries. There’s another scene where Wine’s eldest daughter Shalom writing to him while he is in the military barracks. She says, “I pray that they clear his name and is set free, but I’m also scared.”

Wine’s wife Barbie tries to stay as strong as possible. But, like everyone else, she has her human vulnerabilities. She breaks down and cries during a moment when she heard about the shooting at the rally and didn’t know if her husband is dead or alive. Wine also has moments where his emotions overtake him, especially when it comes to his family.

Shortly after he was released from the military barracks, Wine went to the United States to fo more medical treatment and to bring more attention to his cause. At a National Press Club press conference, Wine is seated next to human rights attorney Robert Amsterdam when Wine makes this statement: “I am nobody’s victim. I’m a survivor … I represent resilience.”

Wine is also resolute in not becoming a refugee. He says was born in Uganda, and he will die in Uganda. Despite all of the government oppression in Uganda, Wine frequently speaks of love of Ugandans, especially those who are often ignored or downtrodden by government systems.

At the National Press Club press conference, Wine says of average Ugandans: “We still stand for justice, equality and freedom for everybody. We represent the power of the people.” It’s also mentioned in the documentary that the movement for change in Uganda’s government is mostly a youth-driven movement, since about 75% of Uganda’s population is under the age of 35.

Later in the documentary, Wine says that there used to be a time when Museveni was Wine’s favorite revolutionary. Wine adds, with some melancholy: “It’s very, very disturbing I’m at war with my once-favorite. I really, really would like to have a frank and honest conversation with him.” Wine says that one of the things he would ask Museveni is what happened to Museveni’s belief that politicians should not overstay in positions of power.

Dr. Kizza Besigye, a Ugandan presidential candidate from 2001 to 2016, offers this observation in an audio interview quote in the documentary: “No leader has ever peacefully handed over power to another in the history of our country, It’s a consequence of Ugandan rule. It’s a military regime.”

As for Museveni, he appears briefly in the documentary in an interview where the unidentified interviewer can be heard but is not seen asking him questions. When asked to respond to a tragedy where military police shot and killed several people at a political rally, Museveni places almost all the blame on anyone but the police. And, not surprisingly, he attempts to describe Wine as unpatriotic.

“Who started the violence?” Museveni asks when making claims that protestors were throwing things at the rally, and the police were reacting in self-defense. His response to the fact that innocent bystanders, including children, were killed by police gunshots is to say that it was unfortunate that the dead victims were caught in the crossfire. He also blames “Western elements” and “the ones who put the bankrupt ideas in the heads of the actors. They get quite a lot of encouragement from foreigners and homosexuals.”

When the interviewer challenges him and asks what homosexuals have to do with political violence in Uganda, Museveni continues to put the blame anywhere but himself and his supporters. He adds, “Bobi Wine in particular is an agent of foreign interests.”

In 2019, Wine formally declared he was running for president of Uganda. The pressure on him and his supporters intensified, but he remained defiant and resolute in his cause. As the documentary shows (but won’t be all detailed in this review, so as not to spoil this information for people who don’t know what happened), extreme things took place in the days leading up to and after the Ugandan presidential election of 2021, including the Ugandan government shutting down Internet access for the entire nation.

“Bobi Wine: The People’s President” shows some of the violent force used by military and police during political rallies that express opposition to Yoweri Museveni. However, directors Bwayo and Sharp have said in interviews that they left the most disturbing violence out of the documentary. According the movie’s production notes, Bwayo was “arrested, imprisoned, and shot in the face at close range while filming” this documentary. An epilogue caption in the documentary acknowledges that there are untold numbers of people (estimated to be in the thousands) who have died because of the political turmoil during the period of time that this documentary was filmed.

“Bobi Wine: The People’s President” did not need to show any deaths to make the documentary’s powerful points about the sacrifices and suffering that can result from standing up to an oppressive government. The movie doesn’t try to make Wine look like a political genius or superhero. Far from it: It’s a very real and meaningful portrait of a man who came from humble beginnings and rose to greatness for a cause that is much bigger than himself or his fame.

National Geographic Documentary Films released “Bobi Wine: The People’s President” in select U.S. cinemas on July 28, 2023. The movie premiered on National Geographic, Disney+ and Hulu on October 4, 2023. “Bobi Wine: The People’s President” was re-released in select U.S. cinemas on January 12 and February 16, 2024.