A Ugandan music festival was reinstated Wednesday following a public outcry after the country's ethics minister banned it as an orgy of homosexuality, nudity and drugs akin to "devil worship".
Ethics and integrity minister Simon Lokodo, a fervent Christian and prominent homophobe, on Tuesday declared the cancellation of the popular Nyege Nyege music festival.
The annual four-day party on the edge of the Nile in the southern town of Jinja brings together artists from across Africa to entertain around 10,000 revellers and has been held for the last three years.
However, Lokodo slammed the event as being used for, "the celebration and recruitment of young people into homosexuality".
"There will be nudity and sexuality done at any time of the hour. There will be open sex," Lokodo said via a government Twitter account.
"The very name of the festival is provocative. It means 'sex, sex' or urge for sex," he added. In the local Luganda language "nyege nyege" in fact means an irresistible urge to dance, however in other languages in the region it can have a sexual connotation.
"Let foreigners not come to Uganda for sex. We shall save the image of this country," said Lokodo, who said the festival was "close to devil worshipping".
Social media outcry
The decision shocked organisers just days before the event which is to start Thursday and last until Sunday, with Ugandans decrying the move on social media. "Beatings, killing, kidnaps, unnecessary endless taxing, etc. Somehow that is all acceptable and (the festival) isn't?" wrote one Twitter user. Read more via AFP
Here is our statement on being scapegoated as part of the #NyegeNyege whatever & other events ??? pic.twitter.com/rKh3uxxPCi
— Dr. Frank Mugisha (@frankmugisha) September 4, 2018