Last week, a rather curious article appeared on the hallowed pages of self-declared industry leaders Resident Advisor. For once, it didn’t focus on the city of Berlin – anyone relying solely on their site for news would think it was the clubbing capital of the world – but instead on an event in Uganda.
This seemed odd. Ears To The House has commented more than once on the still ongoing hiring spree that Resident Advisor have gone on – but to the best of our knowledge, they have not yet recruited a City Manager from Kampala. So what was the article about?
Simple – it covered the Ugandan government allowing the Nyege Nyege festival to go ahead from today until 18th September subject to a number of conditions. This was after a high-ranking cabinet minister in the country called Sarah Achieng Opendi condemned the festival, saying it “promoted” homosexuality – same-sex marriage in the country was banned in 2005, and sexual activity with a person of the same gender can result in seven years imprisonment.
But why were Resident Advisor so keen to cover this story? Could it possibly be anything at all to do with the fact editor Whitney Wei was going to the event herself? She just happened to post this on Instagram yesterday…
Now, we admit there’s always the possibility soneone on the editorial team simply thought the story sounded interesting and ordered one of her staffers to write something about it – but the timing of this does raise an eyebrow.
After all, do the editors at other dance music press publications go to as many festivals as the extremely well-travelled Whitney Wei? If they do, they certainly keep very quiet about it. Perhaps one of those journalists who pretend they don’t read this site could provide an insight here…
