Bobi Wine

Ugandan pop star Bobi Wine spent his career singing about social injustice. In 2017, he decided to take things a step further by running for, and winning, a seat in parliament. Now the 37-year-old singer, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, has set his sights higher, announcing in July that he will take on President Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled for the past 33 years through a combination of deft politics, questionable election practices and constitutional manipulation. “Eighty percent of our population is under the age of 35,” Wine says. “They deserve a leader who works for the future of Uganda, not for himself.” Wine’s growing popularity amounts to peril. He has been jailed, beaten and charged with treason—proof, he says, that the President is running scared well in advance of the 2021 election and that change is on the way. —Aryn Baker