Friday, 9 May 2025
Author: start

Musician Julius Sese finds new inspiration after going through trauma

In this Design Hustle, we get to talk to Julius Sese, a musician extraordinaire. If you have never heard of him, now you have the chance to get to know all about him and his inspiration for his new album

Read More >>

Michelle Masanza: ‘I want to make the world fall in love with African beauty’

In this eight podcast episode, Design Hustle host Patricia Opio talks to Michelle Masanza, the 19 year old founder of AfroShinda and ‘Third World Girl’. AfroShinda is a Ugandan based online store that curates African made products. Its mission is to make the world fall in love with African beauty by telling the African story with love and respect for her land, her people, and her heritage.

Read More >>

Being Accountable for Your Own Talents & Success – Business woman Lisa Ariyo takes the lead

Lisa Ariyo gives us insight into her journey of building her multi-passionate career as accountant, author and consultant. Lisa is driven by a passion for excellence in all she does and this can easily be seen through her work. She has recently written a cook book and is inspired by steadfast and consistent hard work.

Read More >>

Nabuguzi Kiwanuka: “You will not get feedback if you don’t leave your comfort zone”

Nabuguzi loves conversations and was once told she had a beautiful voice. She ventured into podcasting leading to the development of Hashtime with Nabuguzi Kiwanuka. In this podcast she talks of her own struggles in dealing with imposter syndrome as she navigates building her businesses.

Read More >>

A Clever Mind: How an Entrepreneur Solved Three Problems At Once With Jigsaw Puzzles

By Patricia Opio For this third edition of the Design Hustle I talk to Emily Banya, who besides her job at American Chamber of Commerce based at Design Hub, also runs a creative company of her own. Emily please briefly

Read More >>

Design Hub introduces the ‘Design Hustle’ to profile creative entrepreneurs

The ”DESIGN HUSTLE” is a new Design Hub Kampala initiative under its Business Resilience Programme, in collaboration with The Innovation Village and with support from Master Card Foundation. Design Hub Kampala and Start Journal developed a larger communication strategy with the aim to connect the Start Journal content to other media.

Read More >>

Sidney Kasfir speaking at a symposium at Makerere School of Fine Art & Design in 2014. Image by Fiona Siegenthaler

Sidney Kasfir – a selfless researcher and educationist

In 2013, I won a coveted Fulbright Fellowship to spend the winter semester at Emory University, USA. I shared my excitement with my PhD supervisor, (1999-2003) Prof. John Picton. I told him that Professor Sidney Kasfir was going to be my mentor and John’s remark was, ‘you are very lucky because Sidney is a very intelligent and devoted scholar.’ Dr. George Kyeyune remembers professor Sidney Kasfir

Read More >>

Professor Sidney L. Kasfir (left). Image from twitter.com/LKasfir

Weeraba Sidney Littlefield Kasfir – Goodbye Sidney Littlefield Kasfir

It was indeed a sad moment when Kasfir concluded her earthly life. She completed her mission of researching and formally constructing contemporary African Art History. It was a journey that she started way back in 1967 in Uganda, where she worked as a managing director of the Nommo Gallery. It was a day to reflect on the different encounters many of us in Uganda had with her, the moments we shared with her. Kizito Maria Kasule reflects.

Read More >>

Margaret Trowell School of Industrial and Fine Arts, Makerere University, Kampala. (image by Margaret Nagawa)

Catalyzing Connections: A legacy by Sidney Littlefield Kasfir on African Art

The one thing that is constant in an artist’s life is the need to create, exhibit, get sincere feedback from an audience, but most importantly be allowed to reflect on their development through friendly, sincere and constructive criticism. Sidney Littlefield Kasfir, I believe, provided these to many African artists. We will greatly miss her and thankfully, she has contributed to discussions on some of the momentous journeys of African Art.

Read More >>

Professor Kasfir (right) during the Kampala Art Biennale Symposium 2014 at Makerere University (image by Fiona Siegenthaler)

In Remembrance of Sidney Littlefield Kasfir (1939-2019)

Professor Sidney Littlefield Kasfir was an art historian born in York, Maine, USA in 1939 and breathed her last on the 29th of December 2019 in Maralal, Samburu County, Kenya. We, in Uganda, artists, art historians, and curators mourn the passing of a friend, mentor and educator who championed art with her generous spirit, deep and far-reaching knowledge, love of people, and joyous disposition.

Read More >>

Liz Mbabazi Co-ordinator of the Kuonyesha Project during an artist info session.

A new dawn in arts funding in Uganda’s creative sector

Lack of funding and the ‘strings attached’ to donor funding scenarios continue to be-devil many creative projects by artists in the local communities. It is one thing to have a brilliant idea on paper and another altogether to be able to execute it as a result of the financial constraints or because of creativity being compromised by the many donor requirements. Dominic Muwanguzi attends an info session of Kuonyesha Arts Fund, that promises financial empowerment in the sector.

Read More >>

Waswad, Weird Animal (Amidst The Taste of Time), 2017, ebony and teak. Photo: Waswad.

Waswad Creates Extra-terrestrial Beings

If there is a Ugandan artist who can readily fit into the international art circuit, there is none other than Donald August Wasswa a.k.a Waswad. The contemporary art world is always looking for new ways of expression and Waswad fulfils this with his body of work exhibited at Afriart Gallery

Read More >>

Illustration by Diana Bwengye after the poem Embraces at Bedtime by Daphine Arinda

Embraces at Bedtime – A poem by Daphine Arinda

…The repetitive phrases in “Embraces at Bedtime” call to mind the intimacy and comfort lost between a mother and her daughter when the mother is scarred by sexual abuse from their own childhood. The underlying narrative casts a sinister shadow

Read More >>

Indian alley with director Dan Moss, Ashish Verma and Nicolas Fagerberg - Image: Imperial Blue

Imperial Blues: European-African co-production in the post-colonial era

Who has the right to make an “African film”? Can filmmakers who do not originate from the continent make such films that reference the continent? Who decides this? This an many more questions were raised during a conversation between Samuel Lutaaya Tebandeke (Ugandan filmmaker) and David Cecil (British producer) on British-Ugandan production Imperial Blue.

Read More >>

The team working on their co-creation (image by Design Hub Kampala)

Four minds of Gender Equity – The making of a stop motion animation

What does a group of artists with backgrounds in different fields have in common when they come together to work on a topic as huge and as controversial as Gender Equity? Actress and creative mind Esteri Tebandeke reflects on a co-creation process initiated by Design Hub and Hivos.

Read More >>

"What it is" - Illustration by Diana Bwengye after the poem by Daphine Arinda

WHAT IT IS

In “What it is”, Arinda returns to the theme of abuse and traces the cycles of violence, pain, and (internalised) patriarchy from formative experiences of girlhood to relate them to womanhood as Ugandan women may experience it now.

Read More >>

Jackie Akello

The money of Music in Uganda

There is a popular prevailing assumption that when you make a hit song, you break through and achieve lots of success. The reality is very sobering. Every music artist must have a side hustle or alternative streams of income other than recording and performing music. Acaye Elizabeth Pamela dives into the Ugandan music industry and speaks to some key players to investigate where the money is in music.

Read More >>

The #Talkonit team on a mission in Katwe

#Talkonit, A Censored Art Experiment About Freedom Of Expression

What happens when 5 artists are given a platform to work on a social topic that aims to create and diversify debate in society? As a member of this first Artistic Expression Lab, visual artist Matt Kayem reflects on the topic of Freedom of Expression and the social art experiment they initiated.

Read More >>

Illustration by Diana Bwengye

WHAT IT IS – Arinda Daphine’s Poetry Series on Sexuality and Womanhood

Writer Gloria Kiconco introduces a new poetry series by Daphine Arinda titled “What it is”, The series traces the journey from girlhood to womanhood. Arinda is one of the few poets in Uganda to explore erotica, a genre that is challenging, sensitive, and often politicised. It is easy to dismiss erotica as a genre. It is easy to assume it has no power or deep social and political influence because it is pornographic.

Read More >>