Jose Chameleone needs our sympathy and understanding, not just harshness. But he also needs to be helped to deal with himself. That’s only if he wishes to be helped. Ultimately, it is his life and his family.
Being a celebrity, unfortunately everyone has an opinion about how he should live, and he faces tougher scrutiny than others. Even other alcoholics that are not available for their families are out here castigating him – their own messy lives won’t be discussed of course.
It is also out of love, I understand. Many people love Chameleone (or his music) so much that it pains them seeing him on a self-destructive path. They don’t want to imagine a Uganda without him. They don’t want to add his name to the list of other musicians that we’ve lost to preventable things.
Sometimes we love a person too much that we become intrusive and overbearing. We become too nosy about their lives. We police them. We invade their privacy and abuse their freedom. My sympathy for Chameleone is here.
First, he is a victim of his early fame. Maybe he wasn’t that young, emerging in his 20s. But, even by his own confession, he never anticipated the fame that Mama Mia suddenly brought him. I have tasted a little bit of fame to know what it can do to a person who finds himself in it. Fans lift and place you up high on a pedestal, and literary adore you. Up there, they all watch you keenly.
Out of love and admiration, they assign you a god-like stature, and judge you by it. Your human mistakes are not judged the same way they judge other ‘ordinary people’. You are a star. Before you know it, you start struggling to fit into the god-like character society has assigned you. You live an illusional plastic life. You are alienated from the everyday joy of being a normal human being. You can’t walk around freely, you can’t shop freely, you can’t hang out freely, you can’t cry, you can’t show financial need, you can’t this … you can’t that …
Your innocent fans overwhelm you. A small statement you make in jest turns out as a serious headline! The news people (now everyone) and ‘competitors’ that gain visibility by talking about you (to your multitudes of fans) are always looking out for news about you – especially the sensational or bad. Propaganda is always rife around you.
Meanwhile, for a super musician like Chameleone, there is also pressure for new music – pressure to keep on top. He is constantly compared with every other person that emerges – in talent and wealth. It is the kind of pressure that one can’t humanly stand. One’s personality and upbringing will certainly contribute to how they handle the trials of fame. But many ultimately get caught up in unfortunate coping mechanisms.
The abuse of drugs and alcoholism among musicians is not just a culture. Many are trying to cope with the burden of fame. In public, they will show this facade of being happy, yet they are privately fighting ghosts and looking for distractions from their miseries. You may recall the story of Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Radio, Maddoxx… the list is very long. Certainly famous people are hard to help, especially when fame intoxicates their egos and clouds their judgement. But Chameleone needs empathy.
There might be many victims to his flaws, many feet he has stepped on, and many he has wounded. But he is a miserable victim too. A victim who may not even understand his victimhood, or have the capacity to free himself. His son is right, but there is need for more nuance.
Jimmy Spire Ssentongo is a university professor and cartoonist
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