When you are interested in the history of your motherland, it inspires you to research more about your history, living in a country like Uganda where 85% of the population is under the age of 30, it limits you to find out anyone with the history of 100 years ago, but through dancing you start to discover some of the history that is existing in your body, Karamoja residency.

Ssenyonga Oscar Uganda

Ssenyonga Oscar of Uganda

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Continuing with our research on the Ugandan practical norm and tribal dances we will start with

  MAGGUNJU DANCE

maggunju is a dance performed by the people known as Baganda who live in the central region of Uganda. This region covers the districts of Mpigi, Wakiso, Masaka, Mubende, Kiboga, Luwero, and Mukono. Amaggunju has a royal significance in the history of the Kingdom of Buganda. Amaggunju was a result of the people’s search for ideas to entertain an infant king, Kabaka Mulondo, who ascended the throne of Buganda while still in his mother’s womb. This followed the passing of his father, who had left no son to take after him. It is important to note that while Buganda is a patrilineal culture, the Kabaka is an exceptional case which takes up the mother’s clan.

Mulondo’s mother was Namulonda, after whom the throne of Buganda was named as her reward for carrying the king in her womb until he was born. And when the baby king was born, he found one of the taboos for Buganda’s kings was that they were never expected to cry no matter the circumstance. This is the reason behind the Buganda custom that kings are never allowed to attend burial ceremonies, even for their closest relative or parents.

maggunju was a dance that resulted in the quest of ensuring that the infant king was constantly entertained. One clan, the Obutiko (“mushroom”) clan was assigned the duty of dancing in order for the king never to cry until he grew up to fully understand his duties as the Kabaka of Buganda. The dance amaggunju is said to have derived its name from the infant king’s maternal uncle , Gunju, who was assigned the responsibility to entertain this infant king.

Ssenyonga Oscar Uganda

 

I,m from a land of 46 dances, Which means i have been made by these 46 practical norms I,m part part of all these Dances,each one is part of me,

Now i know your asking yourself how,I,m going to share each Dance and why we were practicing that particular dance at hat Particular time and why we should keep practicing it or not, I Will start with what you call Uganda, and what you call Ugandans,

Ugandans can be classified into several broad linguistic groups: the Bantu-speaking majority, who live in the central, southern and western parts of the country; and non-Bantu speakers who occupy the eastern, northern and northwestern portions of the country (who may in turn be sub-divided into Nilotic and Central Sudanic peoples). The first category includes the large and historically highly centralized kingdom of Buganda, the smaller western Ugandan kingdoms of Bunyoro, Nkore and Toro, and the Busoga states to the east of Buganda. The peoples in the second category include the Iteso, Langi, Acholi, Alur, Karamojong, Jie, Madi, and Lugbara in the north and a number of other smaller societies in the eastern part of the country

Bantu-speakers entered southern Uganda probably by the end of the first millennium a.d. and developed centralized kingdoms by the fifteenth or the sixteenth century. At independence, Bantu-language speakers made up approximately two thirds of the population. Their languages are classified as Eastern Lacustrine and Western Lacustrine Bantu in reference to the populous region surrounding East Africa's Great Lakes (Victoria, Kyoga, Edward, and Albert in Uganda; Kivu and Tanganyika to the south). Eastern Lacustrine peoples include the Baganda (whose language is Luganda), the Basoga, the Bagisu, and many smaller societies in Uganda

Fembi by Oscar Ssenyonga

Within Us is a piece about relationships choreographed and danced by Ssenyonga Oscar. It’s a piece that brings out a more tender side of the dancer, while maintaining the standard of performance art beyond pure dance. It begins with the dancer laying on the floor with a female mannequin and its various parts upstage. The first movements are clearly the dancer remembering the touch of that woman, who is now just a shadow, during happier times. The track playing is an acoustic love song. The pieces of the mannequin laying on the floor project the pieces of the past as the dancer reminisces.

As the dancer moves to an upright position, we are shifted from remembering to an attempted reconstructing of the love they once shared, as the dancer attempts to assemble the deconstructed mannequin. The soundtrack switches to live spoken word, which hits home the point as it paints an audio picture of the situation.
The next segment shows us the response of the woman. The soundtrack changes to a haunting female spoken work, effectively shifting the mood and painting a picture of the two sides that there are to every story. The struggle of two trying to become one is reflected in the variety of movement—from stagnation to fighting, static to vibrant, as we journey with them. The true intertwining of sound and movement, as well as the fusion of different styles, brings out the kaleidoscope of emotions in any relationship.


The music and words then cut out completely, leaving the audience with only a soundtrack of vigorous breathing, though the movements would appear to be anything but a struggle, rather a natural outpouring of the dancer’s heart.
Suddenly and effortlessly, as rope is whipped out of seemingly nowhere, as the soundtrack changes to an a acapella hymn for a stark contrast with the morbid symbol of the rope. The rope takes on a life of its own as it moves from punishing the dancer to punishing the female, until the female spoken word returns in objection. Finally, the two—dancer and mannequin—end together on the floor, expressing the sentiment that no one escapes a failed relationship unscathed.

SYMPOSIUM ON THE STATE OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN EAST AFRICA

ORGANIZED BY MAMBYA PERFORMING ARTS FOUNDATION.

Theme: How can art be used to promote Human Rights?

  

Held on Friday 10^th .March.2017

At 04:30 pm

Uganda National Cultural Center, National Theater

PANELISTS 

FAIZAL KIWEEWA

JULIAN NABUNYA

JULIUS LUGAAYA

MODERATOR

SARAH NSIGAYE

The symposium commenced at 04:30pm with the MC directing the panelists to their seats.

The MC invited the Moderator (Sarah Nsigaye) and she requested the panelists to introduce themselves. Laterthe MC invited the Robert Ssempijja for a performance which was an elegant one of its kind.

The MC invited the founder of Mambya Performing Arts FoundationMr. Ssenyonga Oscar who briefly narrated the journey of the organization as highlighted below.

Mambya Performing Arts Foundation started way back in 2012,Nansana, Wakiso with the main aim of letting dance to be able to talk and to tell stories and now the organization operates at the Uganda National Cultural Center, Uganda National Theater. "The reason for organising the symposium was to find means and ways of how art can communicate" he added.

The moderator on behalf of the audience, gave a vote of thanks to the founder of Mambya Performing Arts Foundation and also read the agenda of the symposium to everyone.

Symposium opened.

Moderator to all the panelists. Express to us your mind how we can promote rights in Uganda & East Africa using Art.

Key points from the panelists’ responses.

·         Talking and saying what you feel is art. The solution is supposed to be invented by an artist concerning his/ her rights before being given by another person.

·         Art itself, (The industry of Art) call for its rights from the government and all the enforcement agencies.

·         Art has a strong foundation from 60s and its one of the way to display culture and beliefs in Uganda, East Africa and beyond. In past, art was strongly respected compared to the present era.

Moderator to the Audience. How can art be performed to create a stronger and significant effect to the public like it was in the past?

Different people reacted to this question and it was a warm discussion between the audience and the panelists. Among the various responses that were specified, the following points were substantial and they were captured from the dialogs.

a.     In Uganda and East Africa in general, Art is about culture and it takes each culture its way of arts performance to develop ways of handling rights.

b.    Entertainment vary with age. Art in line with entertainment,its generational where by tastes vary in accordance with age differences and art ought to target all age groups.

c.     Artists are supposed to know what they’re doing and why because most of the times artists carry crosses for a huge populace whose voices can’t be hard.

d.    Artists ought to be open to everyone.  For example, children, the adults and the law. And they (artists) should stop creating catastrophe with fellow artists if art is to rock and boom.

e.    People in Uganda and East Africa don’t their human rights and can’t really tell whether their rights are being violated.

From the discussion, another question was arises from the audience. Who’s an Artist? This was towards the closure of the symposium and it wasn’t thoroughly justified. This left an opening question for the next symposium.

The MC closed the symposium with a prayer and invited the audience for refreshments. 

 The audience numbers

Eva

What I heard of Friday's discussion was interesting - there was clearly no agreement on what human rights in the arts means, which seemed normal, as everyone has a different perspective on this.  The suggestion about having some preliminary info on Facebook before the event was an interesting one, but it does assume that people will look at it before the event (which they might not do).  As I was not present at the start of the discussions, don't know if the panellist’s introductory remarks tried to set out some initial ideas about how they define of human rights.  There were also some interesting comments on entertainment V the artistic endeavour - not something artists want to hear about, but it's certainly true that most audiences for theatre/dance are looking for entertainment, and do not want to be 'educated' or overtly influenced.  But that should not stop an artist doing what they want to do, they just need to understand that the response they receive may differ from what they had hoped.

Helena Burning

The symposium was a good event bringing likeminded people together to discuss the ways forwards in regard to the arts promoting human rights. It left me thinking and more motivated that the arts is an important tool to be used to advocate and be a voice for the voiceless. 

Possibly for future events It would also be great to have time to go into groups (of people with similar backgrounds e.g. poets/ musicians/ dancers) and discuss questions to feedback to the larger group? 

Thank you once again for this important and unique forum within Kampala.

Kerry Bradshaw

The symposium brought together a great mix of performance and visual artists, journalists, human rights activists festival organizers and members of the public to explore the role that the arts has on human rights. It generated thought provoking discussion on the current human rights situation in Uganda and arts ability to freely approach this subject in its work - some attendees stating that there are still many taboo issues which affect the funding and performance possibilities in Uganda whilst most attendees expressed a relatively high freedom of expression in Uganda. The live performance was the stand part of the symposium for me - I'll be looking out for related performances and next year’s symposium! Kerry Bradshaw awamu.co.uk

Chat conversation end,

Brian Okyani

According to me the symposium was good interesting, me personally i learn a lot that there more that can be done apart in arts apart from looking at it only in perspective of entertainment.

 Debate was flowing very well, there was cooperation between the panelist and the audience, the moderation did very fantastic job,

the panelist did very good job, they were well informed and reacted to the questions according me my self i learnt from them

they quite speakers and i think have more experience on the topic discussed, would love to have debated with them more based on their knowledge and experience they spoke in sincerity and in the right way.

the audience was cooperative with they responded making them more interested in more of the dialogues to come, though few participated i think most were not aware of importance of human rights which i would recommend awareness and make them know that rights can easily promoted,

The symposium was one of its kind that should continue with time, the dialogue opened up minds of most individuals especially directors, think if more were to be done we shall get to know what kind of morals do we need to impact to the society.

 https://www.facebook.com/humanrightssymposium/

www.mambya.org