“Africa produces the best music in the world, but getting the music to the global level is still a big problem.” This viewpoint was given by Ruth Daniel, a co-founder of the global grassroots and creative community Un-Convention, at a press conference in Jinja. The press conference was organized by the Bayimba Cultural Foundation; launching the annual Bayimba Festival and DOADOA, the East African performing arts market at the Bax Conference Center.
Read More >>Rap music in Uganda can be traced back to the late 80s when Philly Bongole Lutaaya (RIP) performed his Nakazaana. During the last two decades numerous hip-hop artists have emerged on the scene, introducing new styles and coining genres like Lwaali, Luga-flow, and Uga-flow. Also, mainstream media has fallen in love with the celebrity artists; they sell newspapers, but are they connected to the hip-hop movement? Lutakome Felix analyses the recent history of hip-hop in Uganda.
Read More >>Felix Magima confronts two important, though rarely addressed, subjects in his recent exhibition at the AKA Gallery; women and religion. As his artworks speak, they often wade into taboo territories, therefore observing a new place, rarely approached by visual artists in Uganda. His new paintings “scream out” for freedom for women and the poor enslaved by religious commercialism. Serubiri Moses reviews for Startjournal.
Read More >>The British comedian and author Jane Bussmann recently did her stage performance of the book ‘The Worst Date Ever (or How It Took a Comedy Writer to Expose Africa’s Secret War)’ at MishMash, Kampala in front of a 600-strong crowd. By turns, her story was pathetic, funny and heartbreaking. Ugandan columnist Mildred Apenyo reviews for Startjournal: “To make art out of tragedy is a hard but essential thing. To make comedy out of sadness is more than essential.”
Read More >>This year’s Bayimba Regional Festival of Arts kicked off on May 4th in Jinja. Tshila, Kaz Kasozi, Afrikwetu Band, Mzungu Kichaa and Joel Sebunjo were some of the artists that took the music to the people. Bayimba continues to build a platform that helps local artists adjust to be able to produce better music.
Read More >>Picasso once said that all children are born artists. At IN MOVEMENT, a creative empowerment project for disadvantaged children, they have since 2006 run more than 5,000 hours of classes and activities to develop kids’ creative capacities. Abigail Bartels has visited the centre in Kansanga.
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