Nigerian singer Tems has given more details about her 2020 detention in Uganda, along with Omah Lay, after they were charged in court and held for two days in prison.
She spent two days in Uganda prison for flouting COVID-19 laws.
Tems felt completely disconnected from the outside world during her detention and had to adapt to her new reality of being in prison rather quickly. In an interview with Angie Martinez, she shared the details of her experience in the small, dingy prison, starting from the moment she was picked up from her hotel. At first, the singer thought it was a joke, but when she arrived at the prison and was handed her uniform, the gravity of the situation hit her and she couldn’t help but cry.
Tems said, “I thought I wasn’t gonna come out. I thought I was seeing it for a reason like maybe I was meant to help the people. I was settling in because I adapted real quick and as I was walking in I started to cry because they gave me my uniform and it stunk because they don’t wash it. It was a small room and there was nothing, there’s just the floor they give you blankets and tissues and you’re just on the floor, no bed and I did it for two days. I didn’t even know I was going to get out, I didn’t have any ears on the ground nobody told me anything. Outside everyone was like ‘free Tems, free Omah lay but inside I was just hopeful, waiting.”
Story by Obaapa Janee
