Dembe is a video that had been anticipated, considering the hype already created around the song. With rumour of the song having been banned, the curiosity was stirred as everyone kept visualising the possible content in the video. Now that the video has premiered, your guess is as good as mine – it has flipped expectations. The video was overly rushed. As a socially-conscious video, it needed more thought at the plot conceptualisation phase. May be we ought to blame the man behind the cameras – Kim XP. Most of his videos have always lacked that rare ingredient of crafting a memorable story line.
Instead, the viewer is left with the ordinary. We have acted out scenes of post-election violence, bloodshed and voters queuing up to cast their vote. As usual, the video is shot in the ghetto areas. This paints the gloomy picture that if violence is to happen in the 2016 elections, then it will spring out in these areas. Another visual stereotype, of course, that limits the video’s ability to think out of the box. Despite all these flaws, the Dembe video is able to get some things right. We have the aerial views enhanced by drone cameras complemented by the crystal clear shots. Not forgetting, the hidden message sent out by the militia in the video scavenging through the area. It is as though Bobi Wine hammers down on some of the main issues in this 2016 election with this video. Everyone has already expressed fears about various militias under different political auspices.
The dances in the video send out a positive message of what is expected of people in the poll season. It is with the dances that Bobi Wine seasons and crown his socially-conscious music video.
