Ivan Musoke

An interesting relationship this. I started contributing to the paper in Form 3 ( or year 10…0r some such) and things were going well enough until I messed up by picking articles from JET magazine and sharing them. In hindsight, it was messed up, but the whole concept of plagiarism hadn’t been explained and, noob, that I was, figured that since everyone else seemed to be doing it, there was no harm in it. I realised the error of my ways and we got back together for a bit… then I went to the New Vision… then I came back after the Sunday Vision went through some changes. Then I was seduced by the freedom that the Sunday Vision offered… that and after a Senior Editor at the Monitor said something about me thinking I was too clever. The tone with which it was delivered suggested that he didn’t quite mean it as a compliment.

I contributed articles to the Sunday paper- some creative pieces, some interviews. I couldn’t stand the interviews though. I kept thinking I would never be as good as the other writers I looked up to. It didn’t help that I never did get starry-eyed around our ”celebs”, so more often than not, when an artiste was full of himself I would look around for any blade of grass that was trying to find its place in the world.

I also contributed to the newspaper’s entertainment magazine as a columnist. In this capacity (sheesh, this sounds like some interview fluff) I did a radio review thing that basically saw me endure accents and misinformation from a couple of presenters and sort of numbed me to the entertainment aspect of radio… I also did a TV review column that fortunately or unfortunately didn’t last too long as the editor in chief found someone that was more capable of handling it.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one. Five writers start an online magazine… It was quite possibly the most fun I had online. . . if you look past trolling people in chatrooms… and maintaining my own blog. There’s a kick you get out of knowing that you’ve brought a smile to someone’s face, and knowing that you are in the company of some of the wittiest writers around has a slightly humbling effect. I say slightly because everytime you tried to be down to earth, someone would shove you back on the pedestal and strip you of the modesty you fought so hard to keep.

Clients

• Airtel Uganda
• dfcu Bank
• Nile Gold
• Monitor
• KFM
• MoneyGram
• Umeme
• Tullow Oil
• Rwenzori Mineral Water