Senderi, the international showman

If the Primus Guma Guma Superstar (PGGSS) talent search was about who wanted the prize so bad, then we would have known the winner by now. Now that it is about who sings best, we wait with bated breath for the finale in July. With the countrywide road shows in their third week, the focus for all eleven contestants now is how to leave a lasting impression on the fans. And for the shrewd ones like Eric Senderi, publicity gimmicks are as much a strategy to winning. Basically, he has embraced a showbiz approach to his campaign, reaching out to as many potential fans as he can while off stage. Street credibility If there is one thing Senderi knows, it is how to exist in the imagination of his fans. Earlier in the year, he announced, rather controversially that he was now Senderi International Hit. The move appears to have been well-received by fans, who immediately picked it up. Not so with the media and some of his fellow artistes, who wondered how an up and coming artiste could dare christen himself a name like “International Hit”. They were bothered that somebody that is yet to seal his credentials with a decisive hit in the local music industry could go ahead to call himself international. But all this didn’t seem to matter to Senderi. The name change made it possible for him to be talked about by fans and media alike, and that is just as he had intended it anyway. Unknown to many people, the idea first hit the singer in 2011. That year, he had recorded a song called Sukura Umujyi, a sort of tribute to Kigali City’s and the country’s cleanliness campaign at the time. Later that year, a group of journalists from CNN came to document and film Rwanda’s post-genocide progress and its vision for the future. Somehow, they landed on Sukura umujyi, which was being used as the theme song for the campaign. “They looked for me, and when they found me, they were surprised to find that I had also done many Genocide memorial songs,” he recalls. The song was later used as a music bed on the subsequent programme that aired on CNN’s Inside Africa. To Senderi, that was one of the early turning points in his career. “How many Rwandan artistes have had their songs played internationally?” he asks sarcastically. “They (CNN) gave me 480 USD, and I used part of it to record another song, Icyomoro. In all, it encouraged me to work harder to produce better songs.” But little did he know at the time that he had also unknowingly created a stage name for himself. Hence early this year, upon reflection on these events, he became Senderi International Hit. Compared to Eric Senderi, the new stage name is better suited for showbiz as it is a little sensational. But still people call him the way they want: Eric Senderi, Senderi, Senderi International, etc. On the rear windscreen of his car, a battered Toyota Corola that will need an immediate replacement should he win Guma Guma, is inscribed “Senderi International Hit”. So, you are either watching Senderi on stage, listening to him on the radio, or seeing his car drive by. On a good day, you will find him hustling the taxi moto boys, dishing out posters, updates on Guma Guma, and of course asking them for their vote. Where need be, he reaches into his pockets and tosses a few coins in the air for them to scramble after. Rarely does he go past a crowd without milking it to his advantage. Choking on promises Like a seasoned politician, Senderi’s Guma Guma campaign strategy overflows with pledges to his fans should he emerge victor. But some of these promises border on the ridiculous, it would seem. For instance, the singer claims to have inked a deal with Rayon Sports Football Club that will see him buy two professional foreign players should the club’s fans vote him winner. What’s more, he claims that the players will be purchased specifically from Zambia. But the most ridiculous is the claim that he will send hundreds of school dropout youths to driving school free of charge, courtesy of the winner’s prize money. He actually claims that already, fifteen driving schools have agreed to teach 100 students each. In essence that would mean 1,500 fully sponsored students, and what kind of person wants to believe that Senderi can pull that off?