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DENNIS D. MUHUMUZA
The paint brush makes light leaps across the canvas. After a few minutes, we see a thickly painted abstract piece with bright colours and intertwined things called 'Love Is Greater Than Power'.
“Each brush of the paint is a reflection of the beauty of the love of Christ,” says the artist, “because I believe this love is a truly beautiful thing that binds the world together.”
A painter of portraits, landscapes and events, Rolland Tibirusya Roldan, inspired by daily happenings and the magic of the moments, claims to have pioneered expressive live painting in Uganda.
“I began this functional art in church, where I would interpret sermons and take time to capture the message in a piece of art,” he says. “I’ve not seen any artist who has challenged me in this creative idea. I’ve even tried to encourage others to do this but they say they can’t paint on a live event.”
What his colleagues have shunned, he has continued to do. When Kirk Franklin was performing at the Kampala Serena Hotel earlier this year, Rolland was working vigorously to illustrate the mood and emotion of the day. He enthusiastically shares his unforgettable experience: “As the music was playing with people singing and dancing with Kirk Franklin, I was capturing everything on canvas with my paint brush. Later on, Franklin came and signed on the paintings. He said, “Good work brother,” then he gave me a hug. Other important people like pastors and MDs signed on the portraits but the signature of Kirk Franklin with my paint brush is the one that really was so amazing.”
The two paintings were auctioned and fetched Shs32m. Ten percent of that belonged to the painter and the rest to the African Children’s Choir but up to now, he has never received his share.
“They keep dodging me and I’ve taken them to courts,” he said dejectedly.
His other live paintings have generated millions of shillings for unprivileged children. When the Soweto String Quartet (SSQ) performed here in a Mulago Heart Benefit concert, his artwork raised 17 million shillings. And at the Nyaka concert earlier this year to raise money to build a school for HIV/Aids orphans in Kanungu District, another of his works generated 4.75m, which went to help the cause.
Rolland also participated in the Chogm charity walk organised by the Charity Walkers Club. During the walk from Entebbe to Kampala, he was on a pickup car painting, and his final product sold for $500. In all, his live paintings have this year alone raised over Shs80m for different causes.
“I’m not a philanthropist,” he says of his big-heartedness. “It’s just more of a blessing to give than to receive. When I use my art pieces to fundraise for noble causes that make a difference in young people’s lives, I’m just sharing the love of God and honouring Him for saving me from wickedness. I used to do paintings of nude women, and now that I’m born-again, my only heart’s desire is to do art that carries the spirit of God.”
As a boy, Rolland was apprenticed to his elder sisters, who are professional artists as well. The 26-year-old says he was an art champ all through school and has a BA Industrial and Fine Art degree from Makerere University.
“As a Mukiga from Kabale, where I grew up seeing men enjoying togetherness around a pot of Bushera, I believe in the communal doing of things,” he says. This belief in communism is reflected in his art, with the symbol of the cross and the prismatic colours of the rainbow dominating.
“As a born-again Christian, I recognise the cross as the greatest exhibit in the history of humanity and it helps me share my faith with the world through by paintings,” he says. “The colours of the rainbow are symbolic of hope and renewal that can only be found in Jesus Christ.”
Rolland’s work is simple but radical. At the time masked homosexuals demonstrated in Kampala demanding equal rights, he joined the prophetic gathering at Kampala Pentecostal Church to cry out to God to save the land from getting befouled by what he views as an abominable act. His painting showed multitudes with red tears and a panga reflective of the blood of Jesus and the sword of the spirit respectively, which would cleanse the land.
Another piece displayed at the recent WAPI concert at Hotel Africana had this expression: “Do not lie with a woman as one lies with a man; that is detestable!” – Lev 18: 22. This was displeasing to gays.
“Many were asking me why I was doing this to them but I used the chance to tell them that God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve; that homosexuality is a dishonour to God and that there is no way we can raise generations through homosexuality,” says the artist. “One of them was touched and told me, “Truly the God you serve is real,” and asked me to keep him in prayer as he works on his salvation.”
Rolland is perturbed by the nearly inexistent appreciation of art in Uganda. “I’m always burdened when a muzungu comes and buys a piece at $1000, then some Ugandan who cannot buy it at Shs50,000 calls it junk,” he says. “I urge Ugandans to respect our work because every piece of art is a brainchild in itself; even if you repeated it, it would never be the same; we put in so much and this art comes from the soul.”
It would also please him to see the creation of a national archive, where the best Ugandan art pieces are preserved for future reference as is done in Kenya.
Meanwhile, Rolland will stay put at the Makerere-based Mitchell Hall Armour Arts Gallery, wearing his helmet of salvation and spreading the goodness of God further through art.
--Sunday Monitor, September 7, 2008
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Ugandan bloggers gone crazy
Citizen journalists have taken the world by storm providing an alternative source of information on their blogs, but Ugandan bloggers are not standing up to be counted, writes Dennis D. Muhumuza
On the evening of July 31, a short woman in blue compact jeans chased a beefy man around a bar table as she mirthfully pleaded to have her phone back. Patrons raised their eyes from their drinks and watched on mystified, wondering if this “run-and-catch” was part of the entertainment menu. The players were members of the Ugandan blogging community who had just gathered at the Turkish restaurant, Effendys, with the rest of the inner circle for their monthly meet-ups – what they call the “Happy Hour”.
Before arriving here an hour or thereabouts, a debate had raged between two bloggers and a visiting American: Are all Ugandan bloggers okay with taking their meetings to a bar? And what’s the whole essence of having a Happy Hour? Is it just to celebrate life by drinking expensive coffee and beer, fraternising, raising money for an orphanage or engaging intellectually say on the rising food prices?
With Michael Jackson’s Thriller blaring in the background, Thomas Smyth literally shouted his order, for that was the only way the waitress was going to hear. That’s about when the two adults pursued themselves around tables. It was the beginning of a shocking evening for t
he American. Soon, girls were eyeing him surreptitiously and whispering (possibly about his towering height) and taking pictures with their phones. Thomas Smyth gulped his drink and left the Happy Hour prematurely. He had come with a hypothesis: That this community of erudite bloggers was going to transform the Ugandan society but a few minutes with them and he began to doubt.
He didn’t know that a clever Ugandan blogger, S.A.G.E, had in August 2007 summed the Ugandan blogging scenario as “the theatre of the absurd” for which he incurred the wrath of the “blogren.” Blogger Savage had called him “a waste of space on earth and a disgrace to the entire human population
” and insulted his parents saying they would have done the “world a huge favour had they decided to have a good night’s sleep instead of engaging in hanky panky the night” S.A.G.E was “conceived.” Ironically, Savage’s attack of S.A.G.E drew a backlash as equally inane. One blogger Keitetsi said Savage sounded like “a menopausal goose” and that if his comments were “on paper, it would be the kind of stuff people in jail use to wipe their butts.”
As drama ensued, the personalities of many Ugandan bloggers were exposed to a level where the discerning would no longer find it confounding that a woman would for example upload a picture of her g-string on her blog and ask if the readers like it.
A June 30 blog entry boldly titled “Boobs!” by Ugandan blogger Carlo, contained four pictures of women’s cleavage. Her blog soon jammed with comments from men and women begging with desperation to know to whom the ample busts belonged – Carlo’s or her sisters. Only a few wondered if she was crazy to flash such erotica.
“My blog is called Carlo’s for a reason; it’s all about me, so I put up what I want,” she defended herself. “I put them [cleavage] there to attract attention as a light-hearted beginning of a week so we’re not totally focused on serious issues but can laugh sometimes and be ridiculous, you get?”
While it’s true it’s the blogger’s prerogative to fill their blogs with whatever material, those creating blogs are prompted to restrict their sites to invited readers or to put a disclaimer that the blog contains adult content.
From S.A.G.E’s understanding, bloggers are supposed to update their lives and voice their opinions on things they strongly feel about to provoke intellectually stimulating debate.
“But in Uganda, it’s more of who’s more dirty,” he says. “They are not going to be interested if you don’t tickle the bad boy and the bad girl in them; so girls talk about the first time they lost their virginity in the shower room, and boys about how sweet sex in the morgue is and everyone cheers and their egos are massaged. Their superficiality comes to the surface as they smite those that would rather tell them the truth than hype them.”
Journalist Rodney Muhumuza agrees. “We don’t seem to have a lot of reported blogs in Uganda, which is very disappointing. In America, bloggers investigate and conduct interviews to scoop 'The New York Times' but most Ugandan bloggers that I know care about life at its most basic,” said Muhumuza, who writes The Kampala Review blog. “It’s more often about sex, sex and more sex. It’s hardly the stuff that will inspire a sober mind.”
Could it be they know they write banality that they hide under pseudonyms? Rather than heroes, you meet unrepentant cynics and provocateurs that spend a bulk of their time venting, fantasising and gibbering about trivialities with unflagging devotion. Writing about life in the Internet age, David Kaiza dramatically captured this in the June 30-July 6 issue of 'The EastAfrican' by noting, “The culture (of blogging) puffs out like a hot air balloon; directionless and pointless.”
It is this lack of focus that has left Ugandan journalist and blogger Benon Herbert Oluka disappointed: “I would expect people to use their blogs to give more insight into everyday happenings because I tend to get hooked to thought-provoking articles than someone whose blog is about where they hang out last night.”
One of the most popular and respected Ugandan bloggers, 27th Comrade, thinks many Ugandan bloggers are “simply not interested in serious discourse; it’s not a bad thing; it’s just different.”
Flipping the other side of the coin, there are also purpose-driven bloggers, however few, that command the respect of the intelligent and educated alike. Tumwijuke of the Ugandan Insomniac blog is for example loved for her ability to “poke the social conscience of people”. Writing with zing and flair, she has almost single-handedly cracked into the dominance of traditional media by arousing discussion on issues of national and global importance, for which she was in February this year voted Uganda’s best blogger by fellow “blogren”.
For some however, the uniqueness of blogs is the greatest thing to happen online. “Bloggers don’t have to follow conventional rules like the newspapers and that’s what I love most,” says Jared Ombui an avid reader of blogs. “Writing for them is a heart thing and often you find closet stories; the kind you will never see in our newspapers. I love that they are usually short and funny and also the comments from readers are hilarious.”
For blogger Denda, it’s the spirit of comradeship that he loves about blogging. “It’s like neighbours checking on each other,” he said. “I knock on your blog anytime and find out what’s going on in your ‘house’. During the Happy Hour we share ideas and swap books and meet some of the bloggers we love to read –that’s the whole beauty about blogging.”
It’s a positive sign especially in this era where blogs are increasingly being seen as points of reference. Already, there is a heated debate on the Internet that they will soon replace mainstream media which shows the power blogs possess.
Still, if the world’s best comic-strip artist was to invent something that best depicts the Ugandan blogging experience as whole, it would not be the kind patriots would like. It’s only after we have revolutionised the way we think and blog that people like Thomas Smyth will not leave the Happy Hour with inhibitions.
--Daily Monitor, Monday September 1, 2008
On the evening of July 31, a short woman in blue compact jeans chased a beefy man around a bar table as she mirthfully pleaded to have her phone back. Patrons raised their eyes from their drinks and watched on mystified, wondering if this “run-and-catch” was part of the entertainment menu. The players were members of the Ugandan blogging community who had just gathered at the Turkish restaurant, Effendys, with the rest of the inner circle for their monthly meet-ups – what they call the “Happy Hour”.
Before arriving here an hour or thereabouts, a debate had raged between two bloggers and a visiting American: Are all Ugandan bloggers okay with taking their meetings to a bar? And what’s the whole essence of having a Happy Hour? Is it just to celebrate life by drinking expensive coffee and beer, fraternising, raising money for an orphanage or engaging intellectually say on the rising food prices?
With Michael Jackson’s Thriller blaring in the background, Thomas Smyth literally shouted his order, for that was the only way the waitress was going to hear. That’s about when the two adults pursued themselves around tables. It was the beginning of a shocking evening for t
he American. Soon, girls were eyeing him surreptitiously and whispering (possibly about his towering height) and taking pictures with their phones. Thomas Smyth gulped his drink and left the Happy Hour prematurely. He had come with a hypothesis: That this community of erudite bloggers was going to transform the Ugandan society but a few minutes with them and he began to doubt.He didn’t know that a clever Ugandan blogger, S.A.G.E, had in August 2007 summed the Ugandan blogging scenario as “the theatre of the absurd” for which he incurred the wrath of the “blogren.” Blogger Savage had called him “a waste of space on earth and a disgrace to the entire human population
” and insulted his parents saying they would have done the “world a huge favour had they decided to have a good night’s sleep instead of engaging in hanky panky the night” S.A.G.E was “conceived.” Ironically, Savage’s attack of S.A.G.E drew a backlash as equally inane. One blogger Keitetsi said Savage sounded like “a menopausal goose” and that if his comments were “on paper, it would be the kind of stuff people in jail use to wipe their butts.”As drama ensued, the personalities of many Ugandan bloggers were exposed to a level where the discerning would no longer find it confounding that a woman would for example upload a picture of her g-string on her blog and ask if the readers like it.
A June 30 blog entry boldly titled “Boobs!” by Ugandan blogger Carlo, contained four pictures of women’s cleavage. Her blog soon jammed with comments from men and women begging with desperation to know to whom the ample busts belonged – Carlo’s or her sisters. Only a few wondered if she was crazy to flash such erotica.
“My blog is called Carlo’s for a reason; it’s all about me, so I put up what I want,” she defended herself. “I put them [cleavage] there to attract attention as a light-hearted beginning of a week so we’re not totally focused on serious issues but can laugh sometimes and be ridiculous, you get?”
While it’s true it’s the blogger’s prerogative to fill their blogs with whatever material, those creating blogs are prompted to restrict their sites to invited readers or to put a disclaimer that the blog contains adult content.
From S.A.G.E’s understanding, bloggers are supposed to update their lives and voice their opinions on things they strongly feel about to provoke intellectually stimulating debate.
“But in Uganda, it’s more of who’s more dirty,” he says. “They are not going to be interested if you don’t tickle the bad boy and the bad girl in them; so girls talk about the first time they lost their virginity in the shower room, and boys about how sweet sex in the morgue is and everyone cheers and their egos are massaged. Their superficiality comes to the surface as they smite those that would rather tell them the truth than hype them.”
Journalist Rodney Muhumuza agrees. “We don’t seem to have a lot of reported blogs in Uganda, which is very disappointing. In America, bloggers investigate and conduct interviews to scoop 'The New York Times' but most Ugandan bloggers that I know care about life at its most basic,” said Muhumuza, who writes The Kampala Review blog. “It’s more often about sex, sex and more sex. It’s hardly the stuff that will inspire a sober mind.”
Could it be they know they write banality that they hide under pseudonyms? Rather than heroes, you meet unrepentant cynics and provocateurs that spend a bulk of their time venting, fantasising and gibbering about trivialities with unflagging devotion. Writing about life in the Internet age, David Kaiza dramatically captured this in the June 30-July 6 issue of 'The EastAfrican' by noting, “The culture (of blogging) puffs out like a hot air balloon; directionless and pointless.”
It is this lack of focus that has left Ugandan journalist and blogger Benon Herbert Oluka disappointed: “I would expect people to use their blogs to give more insight into everyday happenings because I tend to get hooked to thought-provoking articles than someone whose blog is about where they hang out last night.”
One of the most popular and respected Ugandan bloggers, 27th Comrade, thinks many Ugandan bloggers are “simply not interested in serious discourse; it’s not a bad thing; it’s just different.”
Flipping the other side of the coin, there are also purpose-driven bloggers, however few, that command the respect of the intelligent and educated alike. Tumwijuke of the Ugandan Insomniac blog is for example loved for her ability to “poke the social conscience of people”. Writing with zing and flair, she has almost single-handedly cracked into the dominance of traditional media by arousing discussion on issues of national and global importance, for which she was in February this year voted Uganda’s best blogger by fellow “blogren”.
For some however, the uniqueness of blogs is the greatest thing to happen online. “Bloggers don’t have to follow conventional rules like the newspapers and that’s what I love most,” says Jared Ombui an avid reader of blogs. “Writing for them is a heart thing and often you find closet stories; the kind you will never see in our newspapers. I love that they are usually short and funny and also the comments from readers are hilarious.”
For blogger Denda, it’s the spirit of comradeship that he loves about blogging. “It’s like neighbours checking on each other,” he said. “I knock on your blog anytime and find out what’s going on in your ‘house’. During the Happy Hour we share ideas and swap books and meet some of the bloggers we love to read –that’s the whole beauty about blogging.”
It’s a positive sign especially in this era where blogs are increasingly being seen as points of reference. Already, there is a heated debate on the Internet that they will soon replace mainstream media which shows the power blogs possess.
Still, if the world’s best comic-strip artist was to invent something that best depicts the Ugandan blogging experience as whole, it would not be the kind patriots would like. It’s only after we have revolutionised the way we think and blog that people like Thomas Smyth will not leave the Happy Hour with inhibitions.
--Daily Monitor, Monday September 1, 2008
Original reggae comrade vows to help Uganda find its reggae roots
DENNIS D. MUHUMUZA
“Well, reggae music is created by Rasta people, and it carries earth force, people rhythm...it is a rhythm of working people, movement, a music of the masses, see?” – Bob Marley (1945-1981).
True music lovers find it absurd that many years after those words were first uttered by the man that is globally recognised as the father of reggae music, Uganda has not felt the sweet tremors of that genre like Jamaica or South Africa have. And it’s largely because of this that Edson Nimwesiga, known onstage as Jare, set out to help Uganda find its reggae identity.
The lean Kampala-based singer and composer recently released his debut album titled Bad Man’s State.
“I’m the original reggae comrade; I call my music truth and roots reggae,” he said with a Jamaican twang. “No nation can live without reggae music and it’s historically known that it’s only through reggae that we can strengthen our roots and cultures.”
Jare’s music comes with mellow choruses and a militant message that reflects a strong awareness of betrayal on earth, the suffering of people and the unfairness of life. In Take It or Leave It, he has a sermon to the different political camps: “Togetherness is still needed for the common vision for it is the common vision that made Romans make Rome look like it is now,” he sings.
Listening to Jare’s music, one almost feels the spirit of Peter Tosh, Bob Marley and Lucky Dube floating by. He actually tributes them in Back to Babylon, a song he was forced to do after Lucky Dube was murdered.
“The people who have really struggled to fight for the black man’s peace have been killed – Patrice Lumumba, Martin Luther, Lucky Dube…” he says. “In the song, I say worse shall come to worst if the Rastaman hates another Rastaman, worse shall come to worst if the Rastaman fights another Rastaman, worse shall come to worst if the Rastaman kills another Rastaman; who’s gonna stand to fight for our rights and freedom when the Rastaman is gone?”
So, does approaching his music in a Rastafarian fashion make Jare a Rastafarian?
“I really wouldn’t mind someone calling me a Rastafarian as long as he sees the true colours of a Rastaman in me,” he says humbly. “Rastafarianism is a conscious movement whose slogan is love, peace and maximum respect. And whoever brings all the three to light is a true Rastaman.”
Interestingly, Jare is not a man with rugged Rastafarian dreadlocks, and this he attributes to his beliefs as a Christian. Ugandan politicians will particularly not like listening to Which God is 4 yo Country. Jare sings: “They say for God and my country as if they have no eyes to see disadvantaged children sleeping on the streets, starving, burning, dying, whose parents still live but split because of adultery…they say abortion, lesbianism and homosexuality should be legalised; are we gonna be ruled again by mercenaries? Because procreation definitely is gonna be less or no more…and they say for God and my country but remember they shall be cursed if they used My name in their wickedness…”
Another song, We are One, draws from the violence that followed the last presidential elections in Kenya. It reminds the listener that we all are children of God - “big up people, stop the violence, we are brothers and sisters”.
A computer Engineer, Jare began singing in primary school, and often courted trouble for skipping school to listen to reggae music. But it was not until 2005 that the 32-year-old started composing his music.
“It’s not been easy, because in Uganda you have to first pull crowds before sponsors can step in, and what’s more, some artistes want to do music for business so they do one reggae song and switch to other genres of music; which is why reggae music has not taken root,” says Jare.
“The Holy Spirit connects my words to rhythms that’s gonna impact and gain me worldwide respect,” he says. “I’ll continue to do this music till I can breathe no more!”
--Sunday Monitor, August 31, 2008
“Well, reggae music is created by Rasta people, and it carries earth force, people rhythm...it is a rhythm of working people, movement, a music of the masses, see?” – Bob Marley (1945-1981).
True music lovers find it absurd that many years after those words were first uttered by the man that is globally recognised as the father of reggae music, Uganda has not felt the sweet tremors of that genre like Jamaica or South Africa have. And it’s largely because of this that Edson Nimwesiga, known onstage as Jare, set out to help Uganda find its reggae identity.
The lean Kampala-based singer and composer recently released his debut album titled Bad Man’s State.
“I’m the original reggae comrade; I call my music truth and roots reggae,” he said with a Jamaican twang. “No nation can live without reggae music and it’s historically known that it’s only through reggae that we can strengthen our roots and cultures.”
Jare’s music comes with mellow choruses and a militant message that reflects a strong awareness of betrayal on earth, the suffering of people and the unfairness of life. In Take It or Leave It, he has a sermon to the different political camps: “Togetherness is still needed for the common vision for it is the common vision that made Romans make Rome look like it is now,” he sings.
Listening to Jare’s music, one almost feels the spirit of Peter Tosh, Bob Marley and Lucky Dube floating by. He actually tributes them in Back to Babylon, a song he was forced to do after Lucky Dube was murdered.
“The people who have really struggled to fight for the black man’s peace have been killed – Patrice Lumumba, Martin Luther, Lucky Dube…” he says. “In the song, I say worse shall come to worst if the Rastaman hates another Rastaman, worse shall come to worst if the Rastaman fights another Rastaman, worse shall come to worst if the Rastaman kills another Rastaman; who’s gonna stand to fight for our rights and freedom when the Rastaman is gone?”
So, does approaching his music in a Rastafarian fashion make Jare a Rastafarian?
“I really wouldn’t mind someone calling me a Rastafarian as long as he sees the true colours of a Rastaman in me,” he says humbly. “Rastafarianism is a conscious movement whose slogan is love, peace and maximum respect. And whoever brings all the three to light is a true Rastaman.”
Interestingly, Jare is not a man with rugged Rastafarian dreadlocks, and this he attributes to his beliefs as a Christian. Ugandan politicians will particularly not like listening to Which God is 4 yo Country. Jare sings: “They say for God and my country as if they have no eyes to see disadvantaged children sleeping on the streets, starving, burning, dying, whose parents still live but split because of adultery…they say abortion, lesbianism and homosexuality should be legalised; are we gonna be ruled again by mercenaries? Because procreation definitely is gonna be less or no more…and they say for God and my country but remember they shall be cursed if they used My name in their wickedness…”
Another song, We are One, draws from the violence that followed the last presidential elections in Kenya. It reminds the listener that we all are children of God - “big up people, stop the violence, we are brothers and sisters”.
A computer Engineer, Jare began singing in primary school, and often courted trouble for skipping school to listen to reggae music. But it was not until 2005 that the 32-year-old started composing his music.
“It’s not been easy, because in Uganda you have to first pull crowds before sponsors can step in, and what’s more, some artistes want to do music for business so they do one reggae song and switch to other genres of music; which is why reggae music has not taken root,” says Jare.
“The Holy Spirit connects my words to rhythms that’s gonna impact and gain me worldwide respect,” he says. “I’ll continue to do this music till I can breathe no more!”
--Sunday Monitor, August 31, 2008
Living the ambience of the poetic world
DENNIS D. MUHUMUZA
The 100-seater room at the National Theatre was on Saturday night full; so packed in fact that one could hardly find where to stand. Now, this was shocking because previous poetry events, at least in Uganda, are not known to pull such crowds. And you ask: why was this different?
The answer lay not in the fact that the show was free but in the packaging of the product. Apart from the musicality of the name The Lantern Society of Poets, this was the opening of the many poetry recitals dubbed ‘The Lantern Meet of Poets’ by this group of creative artists and budding Ugandan poets.
It was not until last year that they began and continue to meet fortnightly at the National Theatre although the idea was first mooted three years ago by four Makerere University students with the same passion for poetry.
“We wanted to share poetry, talk and critique young poets’ work with a view of raising the intellectual bar, the social bar, the literary bar and all the bars you can think of,” said group member Colin Asiimwe.
If the hush that encompassed the room and the concentration of the viewers and the wild applause that followed every act meant raising the bar, then it’s alright to give credit where it’s due, after all that is a mark of intellectualism.
Poetry is said to be an intricate subject too deep to be comprehended or performed by ordinary mortals. But don’t be deceived. A girl named Rachel had it right with enunciation and her system was sync with her rippling voice. She seemed unaware of the spotlight and her recitation of The Musician left the spectators spellbound.
The live musical breaks too had the audience riveted –especially the guitarists plucking away like no one was looking, and the guy that came and sat on a wooden stool and played a love song on his violin for “all the ladies in the house!”
Here were poems on the circumstances that define life; the good and bad times, love and hate, fortune and misfortune and all things brought out dramatically vocally to make the sensitive cry and laugh and the stony-hearted drink from their small bottles of gin. Only one or two of the performers were slightly inaudible.
When finally the curtain fell after three hours of outstanding performance, the Lantern Poets received an explosive ovation from the audience, at which point, a smiling Guy Mambo, the group director, promised another show over the Christmas holiday.
It was time to head home, singing that old Luther Vandross/Janet Jackson song, that truly the best things in life are free!
--Daily Monitor, August 23, 2008
The 100-seater room at the National Theatre was on Saturday night full; so packed in fact that one could hardly find where to stand. Now, this was shocking because previous poetry events, at least in Uganda, are not known to pull such crowds. And you ask: why was this different?
The answer lay not in the fact that the show was free but in the packaging of the product. Apart from the musicality of the name The Lantern Society of Poets, this was the opening of the many poetry recitals dubbed ‘The Lantern Meet of Poets’ by this group of creative artists and budding Ugandan poets.
It was not until last year that they began and continue to meet fortnightly at the National Theatre although the idea was first mooted three years ago by four Makerere University students with the same passion for poetry.
“We wanted to share poetry, talk and critique young poets’ work with a view of raising the intellectual bar, the social bar, the literary bar and all the bars you can think of,” said group member Colin Asiimwe.
If the hush that encompassed the room and the concentration of the viewers and the wild applause that followed every act meant raising the bar, then it’s alright to give credit where it’s due, after all that is a mark of intellectualism.
Poetry is said to be an intricate subject too deep to be comprehended or performed by ordinary mortals. But don’t be deceived. A girl named Rachel had it right with enunciation and her system was sync with her rippling voice. She seemed unaware of the spotlight and her recitation of The Musician left the spectators spellbound.
The live musical breaks too had the audience riveted –especially the guitarists plucking away like no one was looking, and the guy that came and sat on a wooden stool and played a love song on his violin for “all the ladies in the house!”
Here were poems on the circumstances that define life; the good and bad times, love and hate, fortune and misfortune and all things brought out dramatically vocally to make the sensitive cry and laugh and the stony-hearted drink from their small bottles of gin. Only one or two of the performers were slightly inaudible.
When finally the curtain fell after three hours of outstanding performance, the Lantern Poets received an explosive ovation from the audience, at which point, a smiling Guy Mambo, the group director, promised another show over the Christmas holiday.
It was time to head home, singing that old Luther Vandross/Janet Jackson song, that truly the best things in life are free!
--Daily Monitor, August 23, 2008
Wapi brings out youthful vitality and talent but...
DENNIS D. MUHUMUZA
“Word for real, hip-hop in the buildin’,” rapper 2-Xtrim shouted as he swaggered cross the stage. He was right.
How then is the British Council initiative going to help the industry by bringing out the best in these budding artistes if all they can do is mime? Perhaps we should let that slip as music is but a tiny strand of Wapi as a whole.
In fashion and modelling, creations by Mukisa Harriet Nagaya from Natty Fashion House, with their original African touch, casual as they came, stood out. The audience were particularly drawn to the Ethiopian scarf designs and the wedding attire.
The ‘bride and groom’, dressed to high heavens, slow-walked on stage in the radiance of all as real wedding couples do, to the beat of P-Square’s Do Me, a song which added a comical twist to the affair. Ugandan rapper Saint CA, did something different –recited a poem about victims of crime that truly was a revelation.
Art lovers were also captured by the expressive live paintings of Rolands Tbirusya Roldan, particularly the piece that preached against homosexuality: “Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman;” it was written on, “that is detestable” –Lev. 18:22”
However, more professional assistance must be put in place to propel these youngsters into the mainstream limelight and be appreciated on the world stage.
The second edition of ‘Words and Pictures’ (Wapi) concert kicked off with hype on Saturday at Hotel Africana’s People’s Space. Performers competed to live up to the do’s theme, “Gwe Ani? Define your identity” as they flashed unique identities in the way they were dressed, performance styles to their stage names and hip-hop parlance.
“Word for real, hip-hop in the buildin’,” rapper 2-Xtrim shouted as he swaggered cross the stage. He was right.
Hip-hop dominated the repertoire of creative acts. But that’s not to mean it was the best. Some songs carried a message on cross-generational sex, the dangers of drugs and generally advocated social change. However, everyone was miming.
How then is the British Council initiative going to help the industry by bringing out the best in these budding artistes if all they can do is mime? Perhaps we should let that slip as music is but a tiny strand of Wapi as a whole.
In fashion and modelling, creations by Mukisa Harriet Nagaya from Natty Fashion House, with their original African touch, casual as they came, stood out. The audience were particularly drawn to the Ethiopian scarf designs and the wedding attire.
The ‘bride and groom’, dressed to high heavens, slow-walked on stage in the radiance of all as real wedding couples do, to the beat of P-Square’s Do Me, a song which added a comical twist to the affair. Ugandan rapper Saint CA, did something different –recited a poem about victims of crime that truly was a revelation.
Art lovers were also captured by the expressive live paintings of Rolands Tbirusya Roldan, particularly the piece that preached against homosexuality: “Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman;” it was written on, “that is detestable” –Lev. 18:22”
You could read the hunger and thirst for fame in the eyes of the youngsters who performed at Wapi. Many echoed the same sound –that of gratefulness for the exposure and for the neutrality of the event.In that way, the British Council gets the plaudits for creating a forum through which these young and talented visual and verbal artists join artistically to express themselves.
However, more professional assistance must be put in place to propel these youngsters into the mainstream limelight and be appreciated on the world stage.
--Daily Monitor, August 23, 2008
Pneumonia kills more children than malaria
New evidence shows that pneumonia kills more children than malaria, measles and HIV/Aids combined. Though preventable, the disease remains neglected mainly due to ignorance of its causes and immediate symptoms, writes Dennis D. Muhumuza
In the acute child care unit of Mulago Hospital on Thursday mid-morning, a child of about five years lay in a slanted little bed; eyes sunken, pain all over his face, lungs visibly stiff. He was using a lot of energy to breath in what the doctor called “in-breathing.” Every time he did, his skeletal lungs expanded and contracted in a violent and alarming manner. A tube run from a container fixed to his bedpost, into his nose and directly into the blood vessel on his wrist. He was on oxygen which if removed, would make breathing difficult: “The oxygen is piped and must pass through water because if you don’t make it a little bit humid, it becomes dry and it dries up the chest,” explained the doctor.
Like tens of others packed in health centres countrywide, this child was battling a very painful case of pneumonia and would stay up to three days on oxygen depending on the severity of the disease. Unknown to many, pneumonia kills more children than measles, HIV/Aids, and malaria combined, according to a report, Progress For Children on www.unicef.org.
According to estimates from the United Nations children’s fund (Unicef), pneumonia kills over two million children in the world under the age of five every year. That is about the population of Kampala.
“Pneumonia is actually the leading infectious cause of death in children, contributing to about 20 percent of all under-five mortality rates. That translates to about 20,000 Ugandan children dying of pneumonia per year,” says Dr Eric Wobudeya, a paediatrician at Mulago Hospital Complex. “It’s a severe disease yet it has not been given the priority it deserves.”
This is because there has been little input to understand the grim disease. In fact, the first study, what Dr Jessica Nsungwa Sabiiti of Ministry of Health, called “A verbal autopsy” was only recently conducted around the country to determine the number of children the disease kills annually. The report is yet to be released.
As a paediatrician heading the ministry’s programme for the management of childhood illnesses, Sabiiti agrees that pneumonia has not been given enough emphasis because of the push given to malaria – long viewed as the number one cause of death in Africa. So malaria monopolised nearly all medical attention but all that is changing because with the help of the Global Fund, the effectiveness of the interventions put in place (mosquito nets and the new drugs) have weakened the severity of, and significantly reduced the proportion of patients dying of malaria.
After the examination of 2,080 children under the age of five in Mulago Hospital, it has been established that pneumonia is more common than malaria and needs to be dealt with before it wipes infants of the face of Uganda.
Things have not been helped by ignorance and the misconceptions surrounding the disease. Many times people say pneumonia is caused by cold – that if you don’t wrap your child in as much warmth it gets infected. Others are known to get painkillers and to administer all sorts of syrup or cough mixtures when a child begins to cry and cough and the temperature shoots off. The truth is that pneumonia is an infectious disease caused by bacteria and sometimes viruses.
Signs of pneumonia
Cough, fast breathing and high fever are signs of pneumonia and your child should be taken to the nearest health unit for proper treatment. These symptoms defer from those of the elderly where headache, chest pain, lung congestion and sometimes nausea and vomiting are symptoms.
Health experts say indoor pollution caused by smoke from firewood, congestion, poverty, poor ventilation, malnutrition and staying in a poor place like slums are some of the factors that influence infection.
Although a big problem among children under five and the elderly, with the spate of HIV/Aids, not even the youths can be spared.
“Pneumocystis Carinii Pneumonia (PCP) is the common cause of death in people with HIV/Aids but can be prevented with Septrine,” says Dr Wobudeya. He was quick to add that all forms of pneumonia, however fatal, are preventable when the disease is detected early and proper medication sought.
“Viral pneumonia is dangerous but the bacterial ones cause more deaths. And most of these are caused by two types of bacteria: Haemophilus Influenzae and Streptococcus Pneumoniae and both of these bacteria have vaccines and beyond the vaccines are other important preventable methods, for instance, if children develop measles, those children are more likely to get severe pneumonia, so if we immunise all our children against only measles we reduce the amount of mortality in pneumonia by about 10 percent,” says Dr Wobudeya.
“And in addition to drug treatment, a patient with pneumonia should stay in bed, eat healthy meals, and drink large amounts of liquids. With good treatment, it usually takes three days for patients to get better.”
Getting better is essential if Millennium Development Goal Four, which aims at reducing by two thirds the mortality rate among children under five by 2015, is to be achieved. There is however fear that it may take long to subdue this contagious disease especially with the fist of poverty dealing cruel blows in many households.
More troubling, according to Dr Wobudeya, is that pneumonia has become resistant to our simple drugs and yet chemotherapy which has helped combat the disease in the developed world are unavailable in government hospitals and poor clinics because they are expensive. While this poses no danger to the affluent who can rush their children to well-oiled clinics, the poor are left in despair because they cannot afford expensive treatment.
Kitagata Hospital, one of the biggest government hospitals in western Uganda, admits about 150 children suffering from pneumonia every month, according to its medical superintendent Dr Wilberforce Owembabazi, but the majority are those who don’t get to hospital.
This is a dire situation that the Uganda Paediatricians Association, whose major aim is to take care of the country’s children by ensuring they get good health care, may not handle on its own although it has rolled out an awareness campaign on child pneumonia throughout the country.
“We are working together with the Ministry of Health to prevent early neonatal death” [of babies aged 1-7months], says Dr Sabrina Bakeera Kitaka of the Department of Paediatrics Makerere Medical School, and the general secretary of the association. “Our aim really is to make pneumonia visible, do more advocacy and educate the communities but we are still limited by resources.”
The call by World Health Organisation (WHO) to have pneumonia managed at the community level has been heard by the Ministry of Health which is training nurses, nursing aides, lay workers and other volunteers in northern Uganda to become what Dr Sabiiti calls “mini-paediatricians.”
“You don’t need to be a paediatrician to manage pneumonia,” she said. “We are training them in using a respiratory timer developed by Unicef; we have taught them to examine the child and count the respiratory rate; and to ask the right questions from mother, and if the child is breathing faster than normal, has a cough then that child has pneumonia.”
The pain on the face of that Mulago child on oxygen is a haunting scene. Whatever means are used to scale up effective interventions; preventing death is all that matters.
--Daily Monitor, August 21, 2008
 |
| A child suffering from pneumonia at Mulago hospital |
Like tens of others packed in health centres countrywide, this child was battling a very painful case of pneumonia and would stay up to three days on oxygen depending on the severity of the disease. Unknown to many, pneumonia kills more children than measles, HIV/Aids, and malaria combined, according to a report, Progress For Children on www.unicef.org.
According to estimates from the United Nations children’s fund (Unicef), pneumonia kills over two million children in the world under the age of five every year. That is about the population of Kampala.
“Pneumonia is actually the leading infectious cause of death in children, contributing to about 20 percent of all under-five mortality rates. That translates to about 20,000 Ugandan children dying of pneumonia per year,” says Dr Eric Wobudeya, a paediatrician at Mulago Hospital Complex. “It’s a severe disease yet it has not been given the priority it deserves.”
This is because there has been little input to understand the grim disease. In fact, the first study, what Dr Jessica Nsungwa Sabiiti of Ministry of Health, called “A verbal autopsy” was only recently conducted around the country to determine the number of children the disease kills annually. The report is yet to be released.
As a paediatrician heading the ministry’s programme for the management of childhood illnesses, Sabiiti agrees that pneumonia has not been given enough emphasis because of the push given to malaria – long viewed as the number one cause of death in Africa. So malaria monopolised nearly all medical attention but all that is changing because with the help of the Global Fund, the effectiveness of the interventions put in place (mosquito nets and the new drugs) have weakened the severity of, and significantly reduced the proportion of patients dying of malaria.
After the examination of 2,080 children under the age of five in Mulago Hospital, it has been established that pneumonia is more common than malaria and needs to be dealt with before it wipes infants of the face of Uganda.
Things have not been helped by ignorance and the misconceptions surrounding the disease. Many times people say pneumonia is caused by cold – that if you don’t wrap your child in as much warmth it gets infected. Others are known to get painkillers and to administer all sorts of syrup or cough mixtures when a child begins to cry and cough and the temperature shoots off. The truth is that pneumonia is an infectious disease caused by bacteria and sometimes viruses.
Signs of pneumonia
Cough, fast breathing and high fever are signs of pneumonia and your child should be taken to the nearest health unit for proper treatment. These symptoms defer from those of the elderly where headache, chest pain, lung congestion and sometimes nausea and vomiting are symptoms.
Health experts say indoor pollution caused by smoke from firewood, congestion, poverty, poor ventilation, malnutrition and staying in a poor place like slums are some of the factors that influence infection.
Although a big problem among children under five and the elderly, with the spate of HIV/Aids, not even the youths can be spared.
“Pneumocystis Carinii Pneumonia (PCP) is the common cause of death in people with HIV/Aids but can be prevented with Septrine,” says Dr Wobudeya. He was quick to add that all forms of pneumonia, however fatal, are preventable when the disease is detected early and proper medication sought.
“Viral pneumonia is dangerous but the bacterial ones cause more deaths. And most of these are caused by two types of bacteria: Haemophilus Influenzae and Streptococcus Pneumoniae and both of these bacteria have vaccines and beyond the vaccines are other important preventable methods, for instance, if children develop measles, those children are more likely to get severe pneumonia, so if we immunise all our children against only measles we reduce the amount of mortality in pneumonia by about 10 percent,” says Dr Wobudeya.
“And in addition to drug treatment, a patient with pneumonia should stay in bed, eat healthy meals, and drink large amounts of liquids. With good treatment, it usually takes three days for patients to get better.”
Getting better is essential if Millennium Development Goal Four, which aims at reducing by two thirds the mortality rate among children under five by 2015, is to be achieved. There is however fear that it may take long to subdue this contagious disease especially with the fist of poverty dealing cruel blows in many households.
More troubling, according to Dr Wobudeya, is that pneumonia has become resistant to our simple drugs and yet chemotherapy which has helped combat the disease in the developed world are unavailable in government hospitals and poor clinics because they are expensive. While this poses no danger to the affluent who can rush their children to well-oiled clinics, the poor are left in despair because they cannot afford expensive treatment.
Kitagata Hospital, one of the biggest government hospitals in western Uganda, admits about 150 children suffering from pneumonia every month, according to its medical superintendent Dr Wilberforce Owembabazi, but the majority are those who don’t get to hospital.
This is a dire situation that the Uganda Paediatricians Association, whose major aim is to take care of the country’s children by ensuring they get good health care, may not handle on its own although it has rolled out an awareness campaign on child pneumonia throughout the country.
“We are working together with the Ministry of Health to prevent early neonatal death” [of babies aged 1-7months], says Dr Sabrina Bakeera Kitaka of the Department of Paediatrics Makerere Medical School, and the general secretary of the association. “Our aim really is to make pneumonia visible, do more advocacy and educate the communities but we are still limited by resources.”
The call by World Health Organisation (WHO) to have pneumonia managed at the community level has been heard by the Ministry of Health which is training nurses, nursing aides, lay workers and other volunteers in northern Uganda to become what Dr Sabiiti calls “mini-paediatricians.”
“You don’t need to be a paediatrician to manage pneumonia,” she said. “We are training them in using a respiratory timer developed by Unicef; we have taught them to examine the child and count the respiratory rate; and to ask the right questions from mother, and if the child is breathing faster than normal, has a cough then that child has pneumonia.”
The pain on the face of that Mulago child on oxygen is a haunting scene. Whatever means are used to scale up effective interventions; preventing death is all that matters.
--Daily Monitor, August 21, 2008
Losing isn’t an option for me - new Miss Uganda
By DENNIS D. MUHUMUZA
Oftentimes, in the absence of her parents, about 13 years ago, a five-year-old girl would wear her Sunday best and smear her small lips thick with her mother’s lipstick, and after seeing her reflection in the mirror and making sure everything was alright, would frolic around the room proudly and gracefully like many little girls do.
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| THE WINNER'S SMILE: Dora Mwima, new Miss Uganda 2008 [Photo by Dennis D. Muhumuza] |
The chance she had been waiting for came in August 2006 when she participated in the Miss Teen Kenya but was disqualified on account of being Ugandan. It was a blue day for the then 16-year-old but she vowed to do it again when she returned home.
All is well, it is said, that ends well – thus it ended for the beauty on that glamorous night at Kampala Serena Hotel, where she was crowned Miss Uganda 2008, replacing the outgoing queen, Monica Kansiime. For a fleeting moment shortly before she was crowned, as she strutted across the stage in a self-designed creative outfit that she believes amplified her magnetism, with all eyes on her, Dora Mwima prayed in her heart: “Oh God, please give me this crown; I’m so not going to let you down; I’ll make everyone proud, please!”
It was a prayer said with the confidence of knowing she had her parents’ blessings. Her father, Mr Benjamin Mwima, is an evangelist who has travelled to over 150 countries preaching the gospel. Her mother, Ms Imelda Mwima, also did her best to encourage her.
“My family supported me because they have always known about my dream to succeed especially in the fashion and modelling world,” said the 5’6 girl. “They know that I’m a strong Christian and that God does not look at the outside but inside, and that it doesn’t matter if I participate in this show, which many think is immoral.”
Beating 17 other equally stunning beauties to the crown was a remarkable feat for the 18-year-old, who at the same event was voted Miss Personality.
“I think I deserved all this because of my character, my attitude and my behaviour,” she said confidently. “I’m more than unique, courageous, and more than confident; and above all I don’t fear failure at all.”
It’s this lethal combination of uniqueness, courage and fearlessness, she said, that will help her make history as the first Miss Uganda and the second African after Agbani Darego in 2001, to become Miss World when she represents the country at this year’s pageant in Ukraine.
“Why not? Who says that a Miss Uganda can never become a Miss World?” she poses her own questions and answers them: “I’m not going there to merely represent my country but I’m going there with all my zeal to bring the Miss World crown home.”
She speaks with a strong will and a fierce determination this girl, and for a moment you wonder where hails all this boldness, seeing as she has been home- schooled from all her life. It’s more of an American system and she says she has been trained by her mom with a professional supervisor dropping in occasionally with exams.
For someone who is inspired by God and not man, she’s quite something. Fluent in English, Swahili, French, Luganda and Greek, and with the exposure attained from travelling with her Dad to many countries, this Tororo girl has an independent outlook on life and has set high goals which will definitely help propel her further during the Miss World contest.
Ms Solaya Zalwango, the director of MKM Promotions, the official Miss Uganda organisers says: “We’ve scouted girls before but this is the first time we had someone like this; someone that young women will want to be like. She has a very good chance of winning Miss World; in fact if she drops out in the first lot, I’ll be so disappointed.”
The big-hearted beauty wants to help the hopeless; the people who have come to their endpoints and don’t have the spirit to face another day: “I’m going to go out to hospitals and orphanages, talk to people, and encourage them. I volunteered in Aga Khan in Kenya so I have experience at sharing with people and I know I can do it.”
She also wants to build something for her community in Tororo on her plot of land, given to her by her father when she was a child.
“Perhaps an institution for ladies; a clinic, or a school; once I‘m sure of what it should be, I’ll just develop the idea,” she says.
When reminded that some of her predecessors promised much but did little, this third of four children said, “I cannot do everything, because I’m only one, but at least I can do something and I will never refuse to do what I can. I will do it will all my heart. I want to work with the Miss Uganda organisers and any well-wisher who loves to see this Ugandan succeed in her vision of reaching out to the hopeless and needy.”
One thing Mwiima will never do is pose nude for magazines. In her own words: “Not even a million bucks are worth everyone out there looking at my goodies.”
It’s clearly the voice of an articulate girl who likes sweet potatoes as much as she likes listening to instrumental music and soft rock, reading motivational books, and visiting new restaurants, shopping malls and boutiques “to gaze at the different designs and know what’s on the fashion market and all that.”
With an innocent exterior, a dark smooth skin, bright eyes, a smile made more dazzling by pure white teeth, two little pins on her nose and a commanding height and warm personality, Dora Mwima is quite memorable; the kind of person you look at and want to look again.
Sorry guys, no boyfriend, right now she’s focused on accomplishing her dreams as Miss Uganda, and then she will fly to France or Italy for professional studies in interior design, fashion and art.
Her parting words after this interview, done at Sheraton Kampala Hotel, were inspirational - “I don’t see any virtue in losing. This society wants people who win.
--Sunday Monitor, August 17, 2008
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