Dragged to flop in public domains by individual manners
The music industry and artists are facing difficulties in painting a massive picture inside and outside of South Sudan, mostly caused by online bloggers, promoters, websites, media (FM radios), fair treatment of artists, and a lack of knowledge about the industry’s business. The South Sudan music or artists’ supporters, promoters, and funders have been more of favouritism, tribalism, hatred, and jealousy instead of a common agenda of promoting talents as South Sudanese. Little knowledge about the music business and poverty have exaggerated the flops in different ways. Here are some insights:
?Most FM radio stations are music and comic talent oppositions with a lot of conflicting interests. Individuals working on the most FM radios have failed to maintain the simple journalistic ethic of impartiality, fairness, and neutrality in treating South Sudanese artists. In 2022 and 2023, I asked a few and got reports of presenters deleting songs from radio studios just because they had personal misunderstandings with the singer or any affiliation. Some of these differences are also related to the corruption of not giving tips to presenters before uploading or playing the song. Most FM radios are not programmed to favor the South Sudan entertainment industry. They have little or no specific timeline dedicated to home entertainment gigs.
Online social media (Facebook) and website bloggers. It should be noted that Hot in Juba, Juba Eye, and Juba TV were once all administrators of Hot in Juba, but they separated because of ethnic misunderstandings. Hot in Juba, with its rupture rivals, etc. are further letting down the South Sudan music industry and artists by neglecting upcoming talents all over South Sudan, carrying on favouritism, tribalism, hatred, and jealousy. They charge abnormally to frustrate any post not of their interest but can post for free in favour of their interest. Artists have accused them several times. In most cases, they focus on individuals related to themselves. They also hate each other; for example, Juba Eye recently posted a depiction of Hot in Juba titled “Hot in Juba Has Disappeared Because of Juba Eye." ?Go to their pages and scroll as much as you can to clinch for yourself. It’s advisable that they act impartially in their contribution to the whole South Sudan music industry with respect to tribes, religion, and location.
The South Sudan Artists Union. The public is only aware of internal fighting and splits among the staff in the union over a leadership row. Two parallel offices were operating until it ended just like that. No reports for elections, etc. Here we don’t need to waste time and explain a lot because there are no activities in terms of strategic guidelines and procedures in place to support artists, apart from taking a lot of money from event organizers. Did you come across a policy launched by the union in order to regulate the music industry? ?We will expand from here next time.
Public knowledge about the entertainment industry and news outlets. The public's understanding, especially for those in the villages, is based on their culture and traditions. Since South Sudan does not have a national identity language, if you play a song sung in Dinka in a village in Equatoria and a song sung in Keliko, for example, in greater Bahr el Ghazal, these are different unlatching attempts. Audiences for each song are specific, except if you sing in English or Arabic. Songs in local languages are most loved in the traditional setting of the artists. When I was active reporting for several media houses, I, Tito Justin, did report entertainment stories at least once every three months. Most journalists today lack the ability to pitch and relate compelling entertainment stories to be accepted by their editors or media houses.
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You can guess the last one. This can be a global crisis, and in most African countries, including South Sudan, some artists get themselves singing without even affording studio bills. The world has advanced to quality contents (videos), but most artists cannot even afford to shoot a video that matches the rest. Most of these artists are either undereducated or not educated enough to get employment, so they earn money to support their singing. Companies have also seen little value in the business, making them hesitate to invest in artists. Poor living conditions also result in the inability of most South Sudanese to afford the internet to stream online contents.?
In conclusion, the South Sudanese music industry is still doing badly in East Africa or Africa, with most of the artists struggling to get paid, organise shows, and promote their songs. Most artists are trying their luck to record and shoot videos in neighbouring countries, especially in Uganda, instead of their country, South Sudan. We hope the best for all artists across the country.
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