Afrigo Band chose to celebrate its 36th anniversary during this season bringing up reminiscences we had comfortably bid goodbye to. The next stop was Watoto church on 18th December who had a Christmas presentation themed ‘One child’. Post Christmas, 27th December, had the pragmatic David Nsaiga at the Serena Garden roof top staging a show dubbed “Christmas peroxide”. Elizabeth Namakula reviews.
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Category: Music
Maurice Kirya at This is Uganda, 2011. Photo by Will Boase (www.willboase.com). All rights reserved.
Is this really Uganda?
The idea of a festival of the arts in the Ugandan sun was welcomed. Like others themed alike, This Is Uganda was expected to celebrate the Uganda free spirit in all cultural senses. In its second year, TIU shows it has set out to celebrate a different culture. Even when the organisers expected the event to be endorsed by a big number of revelers, at the end they were not happy with the turnout. At this rate, TIU might need to change tack in the next edition.
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At this year’s This Is Uganda-festival young people shared ideas, promoted their artistic merchandise and learnt a thing or two about culture. Some came to see, some came to feel, other came to show off. There were simple art projects with global consequences, but was there a real message? Henry Mzili Mujunga reviews the arts and crafts at TIU 2011.
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The first International Umoja Cultural Flying Carpet Show in Uganda was a phenomenal display of talents. New music, new choreography, new acrobats and circus, all pulled off with such admirable coordination and symbiosis that the audience didn’t have reason to yawn. The show was a success because Umoja’s overriding idea of creating together was fulfilled.
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Hooded teenagers in trainer sneakers stormed the “Raw Expression Party” organised by the Breakdance Project Uganda. Despite the success of the Raw Experience Party, the Breakdance Project Uganda should try to localize its content. The teenagers do not necessarily have to dress hip, talk slang and rhyme like the hip-hop celebrities in the U.S to garner attention and respect from other youth.
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Discovering accurate transcriptions of the Ganda standard tune, Gganga Alula, in the works of ethnomusicologist Peter Cooke spoke directly about the life of a song. If the true essence of our traditional culture is preserved, then we’re going to find better solutions to our problems, perhaps utilizing this very poetic wisdom. Serubiri Moses attempts to shed more light on preservation of the essential African arts.
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This years Bayimba Festival of the Arts outshone previous editions. Performers in the fields of music, dance and theatre were brought in from such locations as Europe, America and all over Africa. Artists and photographers exhibited their wares and a silent disco provided sufficient entertainment for dancehall music lovers. All in all, the Bayimba Festival tried to ensure that as many aspects of the arts were covered as possible.
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Imagine 80 talented young artists from five countries including Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda coming together in one phenomenal two-hour performance at the Ndere centre. Expect drums and traditional East African instruments fusing with contemporary music, creating new soundscapes and rhythms. Look forward to be thrilled by fearless acrobatics, intense dancers, unbelievable contortionists and unstoppable jugglers. There you have the Umoja Festival.
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“In moving an entire audience to the central feeling of the piece, the pianist communicates humanity more than anything else, transcending both time and space to speak to the eternal awareness in each person. Long after the show has ended, the moment that occurred is burned into memory as a thing of utmost meaning.” Serubiri Moses portrays Kiggundu Musoke before and during a piano performance.
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A talented and multidimensional artist in his own right, Michael Ouma has been there and done that and lived to play the tune. His insight into music is almost legendary and gives one the sense that he plays from a totally otherworldly place compared to his peers. His passion for music and his desire to see the day when Uganda’s music and its instruments are recognized globally fuel his daily pursuit to become better at what he does.
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He is the self dubbed Ugandan Youssou N’dour from the kind of music he plays. Joel Sebunjo is the mediator between two worlds that seemed incompatible artistically and he is taking this job very seriously. Samuel Lutaaya met up with
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Qwela is an Afro fusion outfit that has taken the music scene by storm with their upbeat. The leader Joseph Kahirimbanyi commands a strong contingent of talented individuals who have the potential to change the arts scene as we know it. Samuel Tebandeke Lutaaya talks to the musician.
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