Guest Article by Senté
Community is such a beautiful thing. Human beings are social creatures who live collectively in societies and share resources because our collective strength can push us further than our individual abilities. In one of our community service clubs back in high school – Stand Up, Shout Out – we were introduced to the concept of Ubuntu. Ubuntu means “I am because we are.” Our communities shape us into the people that we grow into – people that can contribute and add value to the community that they are a part of. Community is the ecosystem in which we thrive, and the platform upon which we build ourselves. The community are the hands that help us lay the bricks. Community is a superpower.
My community came out to see me perform at Xpressions UG Rhythm & Bars on Sunday 24th September at Icon Lounge.
Among the crowd were people I have known and been friends with since nursery school, as well as some new(er) friends I’ve gathered in the years since. A lot of my peers in the industry – fellow artists, producers and creatives – were also in attendance. I was also really excited to see so many of my family members – one of my cousins actually brought a bunch of his friends from University to the show and their first stop from the airport was Icon Lounge to see Senté perform! I was so overwhelmed by the love and support I felt from everybody in the room and I had no choice but to put on an amazing show!
This was my first time getting to work with a band on a full-setlist of my songs and curate my stage performance as a true headline act. Double Black have been amazing every time I have heard them play and they do incredible things to songs when they have the time to rehearse properly and put ideas together. After working closely with the guys I am even more of a fan of their work and I am looking forward to the next time we can work together to put on another great performance.
It was a pleasure to hear people singing along to songs that started out as ideas I had randomly at 3am. To hear a band that good play my songs back and enjoy themselves while they did it. To feel the support of people I have looked up to and been inspired by and to hear them say that I deserve to be mentioned in conversations with global superstars like Rema, Burna Boy and the likes. I’m only 9 months deep into my journey in this industry – my debut song DND came out in December 2023 – but this is a journey that has been years in the making. To see the fruits of my labor coming ripe, and to see that people believe in my artistry to the point where they are challenging me to have global ambitions (I already did anyway. Remember – delusion!) Is very affirming and validating.
I love to immerse myself in the community.
As my (twinkle twinkle little) star has been rising and my career has been taking shape, I have met so many wonderful people – both in person and online – who love what I do and inspire me to keep going along the path because I can see that my work is meaningful to them.
I can see that my art is impacting people positively. Speaking of DND, people who resonate with that song are typically ambitious go-getters who have that underdog mentality and relate to the manifestations I was claiming on the track (put my momma on a jet plane; remember they didn’t believe in the hype etc…)
I like to call my fans the Gold-Diggers (shoutout Chxf Barry btw) because aside from it being a play on the double-entendre that is my name (Sente means money in my native language Luganda), it represents the kind of person that I want to reach out to with my music. I think of a “Gold-Digger” not in the derogatory, misogynistic sense of the word, but as being a person who is always digging for the figurative gold in their life – someone who has a dream and isn’t afraid to chase it, one goal at a time. Those are the people I like to surround myself with.
I like to give & draw energy from people who are looking to build the world (community) they want to live in. People who uplift each other, walk in line with their Ikigai (higher purpose) and are purpose driven. People who are striving for excellence in their endeavours. People who always go for gold.
Being from a country that has recently found literal Gold inside it’s borders, and being a part of a budding entertainment industry that has so many talented creatives that are just waiting to be discovered globally, I feel a sense of responsibility/duty to uplift the members of my community with my art. I want to show the world all the gold that we have at home, and maybe celebrate winning some golden record players that I can display in my studio one day.
I’d like anything I may ever achieve to be a reminder to all the other creatives that make up my community, and all the Gold-Diggers dreaming of their own success, that their dreams are valid, their ambitions aren’t too grand and that greatness can be achieved even when you come from making songs on a laptop that’s about to crack in half.
Keep your dreams – and your delusions – alive, my friends! Don’t let anybody tell you what you can and cannot do. The world is your oyster and anything is possible! Go out there and dig for some gold.
