Tuesday, 19 Mar 2024
Month: August 2012

Image from the first WAZO - Talking Arts.

David Kaiza on Ugandan Arts: Substance or airy pursuits?

“My suspicion is that we in Ugandan arts are chasing air. Are we producing art? There are financing mechanisms, gallery systems, dependence on expatriate markets, and educational systems that hold us back. But these are also precisely the challenges that should offend us enough to try and overcome them. We have had social turmoil for decades, through the 1970s, 1980s to the present. Are we using our talents to create entertainment rather than taking society to task?” Read David Kaiza’s essay presented at the first WAZO Talking Arts meeting in Kampala.

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The Ugandan Paradox: A rich country of poor people

Joachim Buwembo claims that he wrote The Ugandan Paradox to be able take part in the bonanza of cash squandering sure to ensue as government heads the celebrations of Uganda marking 50 years of Independence. In this book review, Iwaya Mataachi concludes that “The Ugandan Paradox is about a Uganda in decay, with a hero scarcity. All the people Joachim Buwembo meets know something is going wrong, and Buwembo himself understands this more than others.”

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Uganda’s Independence Monuments at 50

Perhaps one day Ugandan artists and citizens will honor Maloba and his vision by reappropriating Independence Monument from its current appropriation, even theft, by the NRM as a rallying place for reflection on the 50 years of betrayals of the original promise of independence. Armed with the social media that Ugandan artists utilize so effectively, they may give birth to a new generation of promise to transform Uganda. What will their monuments, the monuments for the next 50 years of independence, look like?

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Visual artist Bruno Ruganzu's Eco Art project

Color, participation and art at the LaBa! Street Art Festival

What happens when over 200 artists, painters, dancers, musicians, sculptors, fashion designers, and photographers come together in what has become a yearly festival of art? Throw in the angle of celebrating Uganda’s 50 years of independence and what do you have? A blazing hub of activity, color competition for the eyes, music for the ears, perplexity and appreciation for the mind, and inspiration for the heart.

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