Nigerian singer Tems has shed more light on her experience in the Ugandan prison where she was detained for two whole days in 2020, alongside Omah Lay, after being charged in court.
Tems was completely disconnected from the world during the detention and found herself striving to adapt to being in prison rather quickly. Speaking during an interview with Angie Martinez, she detailed her experience in the small dingy prison starting from when she was picked up from her hotel. For the singer, she thought it was a joke at first but when she got to the prison and was handed her uniform, things became all too real and she cried.
She 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.”
