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Ludacris is a polite kind of fellow. Yes, he’s a rapper who’s aggressive vocal delivery dominates a good party track, but he’s got incredible home training.

The rapper and actor—he’s currently in London filming Fast 6—took a quick break from shooting to talk about his latest production: he teamed up with his 10 year-old daughter, Karma to create www.karmasworld.com, an interactive, educational site filled with games, lesson plans and music.

The site was originally launched in December, but the two are re-launching it this month and putting 11 new songs and artwork on it just in time for the new school year.

The Atlanta-based rapper also is preparing to release a new studio album—likely on his 35th birthday next month—but this day, he asked if the focus of the EBONY.com interview could be on his daughter’s project. (But he promised he’d talk new Luda music with us soon.)

Since he was so polite—and used please and thank-you—we obliged.

EBONY: What was the genesis for the website?

Ludacris: The whole thing came about because my daughter followed me into the studio, like even when she was way younger, and as time progressed she continued wanting to seem to pursue something in music.

Basically what happened was she kept saying she wanted to do it and I said, ‘Well, if you want to record music you have to talk about what’s going on in your life and that was basically education and school, where it came from.’

And she actually did all 20 songs that are on the website right now. I’m an extremely proud father, especially that she’s an entrepreneur at the age of 10 right now.

EBONY: Guessing it’s in her DNA, this whole music business?

Ludacris: You know, you can’t deny the DNA. I guess that’s what it is, because I definitely didn’t force her into doing this!

EBONY: It’s educational based, but does that mean that she kind of has this hunger to follow dad in his footsteps? And does she have your blessing to do that if so?

Ludacris: We’re just experimenting and making sure that she gets an early start on certain things that she loves and what she’s passionate about. So that’s my goal.

But I think we’re helping out kids worldwide and everybody that clicks on the site, because it’s just a new way of learning and I feel… like it’s always revolutionizing education.

Honestly, it’s really just about giving back and this is just something that we started on my own and I’m just, again, trying to give kids a new way to learn.

EBONY: Did you have consultants that helped you guys put it together?

Ludacris: I had a creative team, and we just came up with all the subject matter, especially since the anti-bully campaign going on and we just … we wanted to make sure that we were being a voice for kids worldwide and address a lot of issues, and at the same time we have songs on there about hygiene and eating healthy, about the importance of working hard and the importance of telling the truth and not lies.

So I think it’ll surprise people, the subject matters that are on here. And that’s basically what we were going for.

EBONY: Does that mean your daughter’s a really sharp student?

Ludacris: Man, she’s a good student, but her listening to her own songs is helping her to improve and I think that’s the greatest example of how this can help every kid in the world.

EBONY: Kind of a different project for a rapper to get into, yes?

Ludacris: Yeah, but there aren’t but so many options of what kids and parents can listen to these days, and I think I have created something that is educational and fun at the same time.

I think it’s about really riding to school, driving your kids home from school, whether they have their own iPad, iPhone, you know, iPod, they have an album to listen to and I think parents will feel great about it because they’re listening to catchy songs, but they’re getting educated at the same time.

So that’s why I always say it’s revolutionizing education.

EBONY: How does this inspire you as a musician?

Ludacris: My daughter inspires me, first and foremost. So I think that just goes into the fact of her being a young entrepreneur at the age of 10, me seeing her on her game and promote her own site.

EBONY Magazine

For the first time, a theatre play on homosexuality is being staged in Uganda, a country which has proposed an Anti-Homosexuality Bill. With The River & the Mountain, the actors hope to make their audience reflect.

“In Ugandan society, we hide so many things. Why not talk about it?”, says one of the actors.

28-year-old award-winning actor Okuyo Joel Atiku Prynce is the first-ever actor to play a homosexual on stage in Uganda. He has already received numerous criticisms about his latest move in his career, among others being accused of “being funded by gay lobby groups.”

But that does not deter him. “I am not into gay advocacy. Although with this play, we do want to make people understand that we are all human,” he says. “We should not judge, segregate, harm or kill others.”

Condemnation

Uganda is a country where gays and same-sex relationships are far from being accepted and are regularly condemned by conservative pastors and politicians.

The River & the Mountain premiered on 18 August in a little-known cultural centre in Kampala called Tilapia and runs until Sunday 26. It is a collaboration between a group of local actors, Oxford-educated poet, Beau Hopkins, who wrote the script, and Tilapia manager, David Cecil.

The play will “hopefully get people to talk about homosexuality, which already helps to reduce the stigma,” says Phiona Katushabe (24), one of the originators.

Avoiding ideology

However, it has not created the sort of public stir that may have been expected given its controversial subject. Those involved in the play believe it is partially because it has deliberately been kept low-key.

Not out of fear for repercussions but “to avoid being dragged into the ideological debate with, on one side, Uganda’s vocal pastors and, on the other, the international liberal human rights organizations,” says Katushabe.

“All we want is our audience to make up its own mind.”
But, apparently, it did cause a sense of uneasiness at the National Theatre, Kampala’s main venue. At the last minute, the Theatre backed away from hosting the play, after having agreed earlier to do so. The actors were told a “clearance” from Uganda’s Media Council was not issued.

“The refusal of National Theatre only motivated me further,”says Rehema Nanfuka (26), a well-known actress and radio-presenter who is in the cast.

Challenging beliefs

The River & the Mountain revolves around Samson (played by Prynce), a young man who is focused on his career in a cooking oil factory, much to the despair of his mother. All she wants for him is a suitable wife.

Samson is forced to ‘cure’ himself of his homosexuality by undergoing treatment with a pastor, a witch-doctor and a Ssenga – a ‘sex-aunt’ who, in traditional Buganda-culture, initiates young girls. All attempts fail because Samson says that being homosexual is “how I was born.”

In the end, after having had his coming-out, Samson is killed by his own factory workers with machetes. But it is his girlfriend Aidah (played by Aidah Nalubowa) who brings hope to the story because she accepts Samson’s the way he is.

Aidah represents the ‘river’ which stands for openness, for being connected to the open seas that historically brought new influences. The ‘mountain’ symbolizes secluded, withdrawn people, scared of the unknown.

Understanding

Katushabe: “Some of my anti-gay friends who have seen the play now show more understanding.” Nanfuka says the same goes for her. “I never had any problem with gay people but I used to ask myself why they should feel the need to come out. Now, I feel they should. In Ugandan society, we hide so many things. Why not talk about it?”

The River & the Mountain is attracting several dozens of spectators every evening, including many Western expatriates. The good thing is that so far, only two members of the public have walked out of the performance.

The first one, an anti-gay and the second a pro-gay. The latter was apparently too affected by Samson’s fate.

The last two performances, this weekend, will be at MishMash, an uptown cultural venue mainly visited by expatriates. Are the organizers not afraid they will give conservative Ugandans one more reason to believe that gay people are ‘stooges’ of ultra-liberal Westerners with a secret ‘gay-agenda’?” Prynce’s response: “That argument is being used against us anyway. I am not afraid. This play will help change Ugandan society.”

Picture: RNW
RNW Africa