Ster City; South Africa's joyful pain

A scene from the production

The most amazing thing in the life of an arts journo is when a pretty famous international star looks at you and gushes; “oh you, I know you from somewhere.”
It was the same thing that happened at the opening ceremony of the very first Kampala International Festival. Only that Lindiwe Matshikiza wasn’t referring to me, but a friend that was seated in the front row.
Well some of you may not know who Matshikiza is but this is the girl that portrayed Zindzi, Nelson Mandela’s daughter in 2013 film, Long Walk to Freedom and State of Violence as Bobedi (Fana Mokoena)’s wife Joy.
She allegedly reminded the daunting actress of her granny from St. Helena, this was when a small camera tied at the end of a pole was being swayed around during the multi lingual production Ster City.
The production done in French, English, Afrikaan, Sotho, Zulu, Dutch, Xhosa and more tells the entire story of South Africa with the use of their bodies, art and a blackboard as a collage.
Ster City is definitely not your usual Ugandan theatre production; for starters, it has a slim cast of two actors – Matshikiza and Nicholas Welch, joined by Dominique Lentin and his music.
From the stripped set up, lighting and mostly provisional costumes, it is clear that our theatre makers straight from the producers to the writers have a lot of bones to pick from Jean-Paul Delore’s play. His transactions were swift and the way they moved from a topic to another was effortless.
But that wasn’t all, the actors’ versatility and use of technology was fascinating. The demonstration of a man using the navel of a character or that re-enactment of the 2010 world cup; Matshikiza even took a jibe at the French team.
I pretty much enjoyed the depiction of Mandela and De-Clerk then the use of random drawings to talk about the country’s turbulent political past.
But as you may know, South Africa’s history is not all smooth, much as Matshikiza and welch were playful most of the times, the anger and pain was too slotted in the plot though carefully and gently placed.
Jean-Paul’s production challenges our theatre in matters of doing stories relevant not only to a couple but a nation as far as thinking about the way forward is concerned.

Taga interprets the totems of Uganda

The tradition of totems is practiced in many parts of the world but each region has its peculiar norms and customs tagged to this tradition.
In Uganda, totems are practiced in many of the cultures and this is where artist Francis Taga Nuwagaba’s Me and My Totem painting project four years back comes in.
He was unveiling to over 1500 revelers an unbeatable totem trail of the 52 Clans of Buganda. This was at the time he was working on his longest project; Totems of Uganda: Buganda Edition.
After almost fifteen years of research, interpretations and consultation, the art book was launched at the Uganda Museum on Friday.
The project according to Taga was inspired as he travelling in taxi from Kampala to Masaka. Along the way, a squirrel ran into the road and the driver unable to break crushed it within his tyres.
However, the driver whose name is Sengendo, was crest fallen at the end of the journey when he was informed that the squirrel like animal he had hit was effumbe – the actual totem of his clan.
Being so devastated, Sengendo couldn’t drive on that his conductor had to take his place. That’s when Taga realized the tragedy had been a result of Sengendo not knowing what effumbe looked like.
This is when he set out on a mission to research about the totems and how people relate to them. shockingly he realized that much as many Baganda like Sengendo indeed cherished their clans and totems, very few knew what they looked like.
Totems of Uganda, is Taga’s answer to such woes and further more preserve culture through interpreting it to widely spoken languages. In his experience of doing the book, he reveals that he visited the wild in search of information and images.
He also realized that English names to many of these animals were alien to many people that even belonged to some totems.
Nathan Kiwere, who is credited for contributing especially on the totem history, writing much of the book introduction and partly editing it, noted that the process of putting it together was a great lesson for him; “there’s a great importance to conserve nature,” he says.
But that’s not all, he also appreciated the fact that his writing skill has been improved and as a result, the process will give birth to a book; Art of Uganda, his debut project set for release early next year.
The book editor Margaret Bell alias Nakimera said that Ugandans should get themselves a copy since its rich with not only information but knowledge, in her view, people can’t protect what they don’t know.
Formerly a CEO at Aga Khan, Bell has been in Uganda since 1988 and over the years she has not only admired the culture but embraced it. She believes every citizen of the world should adopt a totem if they don’t have one, hers is the grasshopper, thus her Nakimera name.
Totems of Uganda; Buganda Edition is just the first of the project as Tanga promises to work even with other artistes to profile totems in other cultures too.

Theater mourns Wycliffe Kiyingi

In March 2013, when Dr. Mercy Mirembe Ntangare put together a Theater festival, Wycliffe Kiyingi’s Muduuma Kwe Kwafe was set to showcase on day two.
However, early in the morning, news went around that the 84 year old then had passed on, that rumor was later declared false as they went on to stage the play.
I never got a chance to meet Kiyingi even though I tried as much at the time..
It was until early this year when I was requested by Francis Peter Ojede, Executive Director, Uganda National Cultural Centre (UNCC) that we made it to his home in Mutundwe.
Unfortunately, nine months after he did an interview with The Observer, on Saturday morning, Kiyingi, 85 was declared deceased by a family member.
He was glad to see us though because of age, he was confined to a wheel chair and had forgotten a lot of events besides the year 1954.
It’s the year he formed the African Artist Association. He believed that even in such hard political situations the continent was going through, especially the fact that many of the countries were not independent, artists needed to work together to prosper.
But he never got to realize this dream, as the years that followed, Africans fought for their independence, some got it but then resorted to fighting the men in power.
It saw many sensitive authors and play wrights go to exile like Ngugi wa Thiogo, Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe among others.
At the time of his death, Kiyingi had been in and out of hospital battling different complications, he had a strong difficulty in listening and talking though was still optimistic that may be one day, he would pen more books.
During his active days, Kiyingi penned plays such as Muka Sempala, W'okulira, Gw'osusa emwanyi, Olugendo lw'e Gologoosa and Muduuma kwe kwaffe, among others.  He also did many plays for both radio and TV, which makes him one of the few multimedia playwrights the country has had.
During a memorial at the National Theater on Monday, president of the Association of Performing Artists, Andrew Benon Kibuuka, noted that Kiyingi has left a lot of challenges for the industry since he achieved much and yet lived an exemplary life.
“He has left a lot of artistic which we have to emulate,” Kibuuka said.
Kaya Kagimu Mukasa noted that the late has left the industry with integrity; “he was an accomplished writer that made descent money without getting involved in scandals.”
However, Eng. Serukenya bashed at the public for not appreciating artistic wworks which has led to many talented people dying poor.
It should also be noted, that much as Kiyingi’s books are examinable at both O and A level in Luganda by UNEB, the playwright died without reaping from that effort.

Theater festival comes to Kampala

Visual Art, dance, music and food festivals have all been held in Kampala, yet for some reason, Theater has been marginalized.
Finally, a festival dedicated to theater is set to run at the Uganda National Cultural Center (UNCC) between 26-30 this month.
Dubbed the Kampala International Theater Festival, the five day do is a partnership between Bayimba Cultural Foundation and the Sundance Institute East Africa (SIEA).
The festival will bring together playwrights, actors, directors, costume and stage designers at the National Theater to present an artistically diverse programme of showcases.
The festival’s objective is to showcase plays from emerging and established African playwrights that are topical and focus on gaining a diverse audience.
Curated by SIEA’s Deborah Asiimwe and Bayimba’s Faisal Kiwewa, the programme includes the latest scripts from the East African theatre.
They are playwrights and directors that have been part of SIEA’s lab residencies from Rwanda, Kenya, Burundi, Tanzania and Uganda.
“We are going to be having the festival every year and we hope it becomes a platform for different theater creative to collaborate along regions,” said Kiwewa during a press conference.
The festival comes after as a result of accumulated work from playwrights and directors that SIEA felt it needed to be shared with audiences; “We don’t produce or present work. Therefore, in order to share this new work with audiences, it was important for us to identify a local organization whose mandate is to present and produce performances,” says Asiimwe, and that is the partnership with Bayimba.
The festival will feature eight East African productions that will be screened across the five days it will run. Being an international do, they will feature only one play from Uganda and all the eight from other participating countries.
The Ugandan play, Strings, was written by Angella Emurwon and is directed by Dorcy Rugamba from Rwanda/Belgium. It’s a play about a woman dealing with the return of her distant husband that has been away on kyeyo.
There’s also only one Ugandan director Dr. Aida Mbowa involved and she is working on Desparate to fight, a production by Ethiopian playwright Meaza Worku.
It is a continental story about gender struggles, falling and out of love. After divorcing thrice, Marta is weighing on whether to or not give marriage a fourth try. Tormented by the sounds of a newly and seemingly happily wedded couple next door, she wrestles with her past and memories of former husbands.
The festival comes at a time when theater is almost just emerging from its dark days however; Asiimwe notes that it’s not only in Uganda that the art form has suffered but rather a global trend.
“This theatre festival will offer a platform for theatre-makers not only in Uganda but also from elsewhere.”
The diverse festival will also feature a musical, Dj Lwanda which will be performed by Kenyan ace once TPF academy teacher Eric Wainana with the amazing Suzan Kerunen.
The organisers have put together a great acting company to feature in many of the productions, it’s as diverse as the show with a mix of veterans like Phillip Luswata and Kaya Kagimu Mukasa and younger breeds like Diana Kahunde and William Otako.
Other members of the acting company include Gladys Oyenbot, Alice Lwanga, Brian Emurwon, Herve Kimenyi, Patriq Nkakalukanyi and Nicholas Welch.
Most of the directors will be doing productions that are not from their countries, this had created fear that they may fail to do justice to the emotions and monologues interpretations because of the differences in culture.
Asiimwe however reveals that many of the directors were trained to work together regardless of background and besides; “Seeing work from one’s community and communities from elsewhere will inspire all these stakeholders to take theatre industry to another level.”
Asiimwe calls upon directors and theater makers that are not directly involved with SIEA to come forward and attend since this is a great opportunity to network with their counterparts who have been involved with SIEA during this festival.

Kwivuga back to poetry basics

When Kwivuga was launched at Gato Mato in 2012, it was indeed the best thing to ever happen to poetry.
A night where over twenty talented lyricists would grace the stage without gimmicks but words, before we knew it, Kwivuga had become an in thing flocked by all socialite wannabes around town.
This though came at a cost; the art of poetry was sacrificed.
To appease the always growing numbers and keep the sponsors at the same time, the show resorted to programming comedians and musicians. They were meant to bridge the gap between the poetry diehards and those that would simply come for the fun.
It was the only known face of poetry but the poems were diminishing, not that there were no sessions of the sort before, they did exist. The Lantern Meet of poets and Open Mics did exist but none had indeed come out to make this type of entertainment mainstream like Kwivuga had.
What had made the show a hit was its ability to surprise revelers with something they were not going to find in other bars and clubs – poetry. However, with organizers literally turning it into a mini hip hop cypher with majorly Babu’s Kinetic artistes or another comedy night, the numbers deserted the show, sponsorship gone and finally on June 26, Kwivuga closed shop.
On a very low key event in October, the show bounced back with a new vision, venue, energy but the same mission – promoting poetry. This was at Legends Bar in Lugogo which was later announced as their new residence.
“Poetry is therapy, it’s about opening up, it is an art that has to be appreciated,” said Linda Butare, the show founder.
This time round, she had stripped the show off its glitz to bring it closer to the art it is meant to be; there were no unsolicited rappers and comedians to steal poems from a session, even the only one around Ruyonga, was invited to recite not perform.
That first night according to Butare is exactly what she had in mind when she conceived Kwivuga years back, a celebration of poetry for what it is than the glamour surrounding it.
The second one, too held last week on 3 November, kept to the book of values – poetry, Keko made an appearance, but it was a poetic one.
Butare is doing it like this because, she hopes Ugandans get to love the art for what it really is.
“I love the audience we have here because they are sincere, we like a family,” Butare told The Observer.
The poets too were happy with the show’s new developments, Herman Kabubi, one of the few poets with a religious following notes that Kwivuga had reached a point where it nolonger belonged to lyricists; “At times we could close minus many poets performances,” he says.
He however cautions poets to become more aggressive than before to get some shine onto their work.
Like any other artist, he says, Poets need to overstand the fact that great works will take them places; “If people feel that the works of various poets in Uganda are relevant to them, they will be interested. Content, African signature and one's Unique Selling Point (USP) are key.”
Currently performing at the Sondeka festival in Kenya, Kabubi notes that Ugandans have always appreciated the art of poetry though it’s also a role for the poets to ensure that their works are significant to their audiences.
“The role that we have as Poets is to ensure that we remove the mentality of certain people in Uganda who still think that the art form is for only the A+.”
It only remains to be seen whether Ugandans will embrace the authentic type of poetry without gimmicks of comedians, famous DJs, presenters and celebrity appearences.
Kwivuga happens every first Monday of the month at legends bar in Lugogo.

Escape from Uganda, fails to impress

Early on in October, it was announced that the 2013 Bollywood film Escape from Uganda would premiere at the plush Serena Hotel in Kampala.

Arguably the first Bollywood film to be entirely shot in Africa, it got many Ugandans anxious since it had some of their own staring in.

Finally, on Friday, the red carpet was rolled, lights and cameras and cocktails were set for the Serena Hotel film premiere.

The film was screened at about 9pm after a number of speeches and arrival announcements.

Directed by Rajesh Niar, Escape from Uganda was originally done in Malayalam language with an English Dolby interpretation. 

It rotates around Shikha Samuel (Rima Kallingal), who along with her husband Jayakrishnan (Vijay Babu), have chosen of all places in the world, Uganda, to find refuge, after her family in Kerala objects to their marriage.

The couple is leading a happy life with their daughter; Jayakrishnan is employed as a manager in a coffee shop and Shikha runs a designer boutique.

The tranquility of their life is shattered when Shikha is arrested on the charges of committing two murders, one of the victims; Oldra (Anita Kyalimpa) is the daughter of the local Mayor (Sam Bagenda), who has pledged to keep her in jail for the rest of her life.

The film boosts of very good shots and picture, it is also a good PR for Uganda in general as a possible location for future movie projects; they made you look at kampala, Entebbe, jinja and all those other places from a very different angle – which was appealing.

Unlike the Last King of Scotland where most of the Ugandan characters barely said a word, Rajesh indeed gifted them with commendable number of dialogues, Michael Wawuyo as the head of military intelligence was perfect, Sam Bagenda shone most as the mayor trying to deny Shikha justice, Wilberforce Mutete was again stereotype casted as a policeman, then probably the ever amazing but highly underated Sherrie Kiconco as the unruly prisoner.

The film though strongly fails on delivering an appealing story, for almost sixty minutes, we know Shikha was framed by someone but don’t know what’s really going on – all we have  are sub plots of diamonds we saw at the beginning, a murder and an escape plan - it was over the place.

The film also falls short of creativity especially with that strong resemblance of storylines with that of The Next Three days, a 2010 thriller film starring Russell Crowe and Elizabeth Banks. But that’s not all, the establishment shots in most of the scenes at the prison where done at CPS yet they suggested the girl was held in Luzira.

There was an annoying birds’ view shot at the beginning that showed Nambole, Bweyogerere and slums in Kireka, it was beautiful but useless to the story, it didn’t lead to anything or carry the plot to something new.

We can’t forget the debut of Jose Chameleon, he had a cameo role that was completely uncalled for, he was on the screen for over fifteen minutes saying staff that was irrelevant to the movie, and he wasn’t connected to any of the main characters in anyway yet wasted our precious fifteen.

Even the two singing and dance sequences identical of Bollywood movies were greatly misplaced this time round, having two Chameleone songs that don’t relate to the film in anyway was a mess – his and Iryn’s sound tracks were however spot on.

Either way, the film’s version for the Ugandan market is a strong technical pat on the shoulder and with Rajesh promising to make more of such movies; we hope Ugandan film makers can use the platform to learn more.

KLA ART: Riding art to the market

One of the biggest problem art has faced over the years was a fact that the consumers didn’t know how and where to find it.
The ones who could, have claimed art is majorly a tourist thing and rather too expensive and complicated for the locals.
This may have been the backbone of the month long Kampala Contemporary Art festival that ended on Friday last week.
Running on the theme Unmapped, the festival had invited the city not to only see but indulge in the different processes artistes go through while turning rubbish, piles of color and converse into art.
To get the message across even to the last social personality, curators and organizers used the Uganda Railway – one of the prominent modes of transport in the 1970s and the boda bodas.
It is at the Railway station’s historical building that the festival exhibition was happening. This brought together ten artists from six African countries that included Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, DRC, Ethiopia and of course Uganda.
 In their products, artists such as Paul Bukenya Katamiira, Vivian Mugume, Helen Nabukenya, Rwanda’s Tony Cyizanye and Tanzania’s Paul Ndunguru among others explored and proposed narratives around the festival’s theme.
They worked to unearth, challenge and represent the unmapped, unplanned and unheard artisan traders of their countries and major towns.
Katamiira’s efforts on unmapping the art of backcloth creation was simply impressive – with an experience spanning since 1968, the old man notes that he’s born in a family of backcloth makers whose history on the job lasts a whopping 300 years.
Probably one of the first people to document the process of creating a cloth out of the back of a fig tree, Katamiira is angered by a fact that some detractors think it doesn’t qualify as an art piece.
“Not everybody can make backcloth, it takes time, skill and science.”
Cyizanye was a voice for the voiceless with poor people that struggle to get their message to the politicians in vain with an ambitious painting aptly named My People – he used bright colors to present the free spirit, letting them talk.
The piece is mediation between the privileged and less privileged people though much of this is done in color than words.
Francis Nnagenda is a legend and having his work at the Kampala Contemporary art was a mega feat, he barely showcases in Kampala let alone Uganda, and as a result, the professor is more pronounced on the international market than in Uganda.
His Vendor on the Scaffold didn’t disappoint, he was talking and taking us on a journey of a woman that struggles to keep her baby safe as well as look for food to feed it.
And probably the most recognizable art piece of the entire festival – Helen Nabukenya’s Golden Heart, the threaded art piece hangs by the Railway Headquarters. It’s part of her heart breaking series Tuwaaye and it unites narratives of four women, she dwells on the social issues affecting them.
But that was just the exhibition held at the Railway offices within the festival. According to Robinah Nansubuga one of the festival curators, they used the Railway because it is and was the people’s means of transport.
The festival came at the time when plans to revive the almost defunct transport mode is in high gear; “it is a space that needs to be revived because it is a connecting point between neighboring relations and economies.”
Besides the exhibition, the festival’s highest point must have been influencing the locals to see, feel and care about art. This was through the interactive Boda boda project that saw twenty motorcycles create a mobile art exhibition touring the city.
Throughout the month, twenty of the country’s freshest contemporary artists and artist collectives converted Kampala’s iconic mean of transport into art pieces bearing different messages.
Each day, the exhibition would move to a different location and engaged the locals there. They were 28 locations like Makerere University, Wandegeya, Ntinda, Queens’s way and Owino Market among others.
During the KCCA festival at the beginning of the month, the Boda boda parade was the epitome of creativity with a range of motorcycles with imagery messages on road safety, working together and respecting one another.
Papa Shabani’s moving photo studio was breath taking, he invited locals to play card, enjoy games and other activities as they waited for him to take their pictures.
Then there was Joshua Kagimu and the Twezule which was made of rubbish and waste, it mostly included bottle tops, scratch cards, plastic and cloth fitted with a drum. Kagimu didn’t only modify the Boda but also turned it into a platform for street children to share their inner musical talents thus the name Twezule (self-discovery).
Kagimu notes that he was touched by many of the stories the children on the streets had to share as well as their impressive talents – most of them were aspiring rappers.
The Boda boda was used since it reaches out to all levels of Ugandans; “the survival means within the boda boda users is what we were interested in. it lies in between  creativity and responsibility which is why the only mediator was the artist to create his motorcycle as a voice to his audience,” says Nansubuga.
For the Artists’ studio, they opened their work spaces to the public giving them a chance to witness the creating process.
“I followed the Bodas to Kasubi, then Makerere and Wandegeya,” said one of the revelers who paid attention to the festival after learning it was free.
It may be too early to conclude that people have all of a sudden changed attitudes and thus appreciate creative minds, though with the power and message spread by art on the wheels, art may have as well rode its self through different local’s hearts.