Children of Uganda Carry on their Culture
Children of Uganda," an award-winning dance troop, features youngsters who were orphaned by HIV/AIDS. This troop performs internationally to increase awareness of AIDS and its impact on children. The tours raise funds for an organization of the same name established in 1995 to care for orphans who have lost one or both parents to AIDS. In Uganda, a beautiful country in East Africa, AIDS is a leading cause of death, killing more than 200 people a day. The deaths from this disease have left behind 2.4 million orphans.
The dance troop has appeared at the White House, on the David Letterman show, at the Grammy's salute to U-2's Bono, for former US Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill during his trip to Africa, the World Bank, MTV/Nickelodeon, Nike, Morgan Stanley and other corporations.
This year's 10th Anniversary Tour of Light performing in 31 cities across the country and at hundreds of venues hopes to raise $1.5 million. In addition to coping with AIDS infection rates, Uganda is also confronting the Lord's Resistance Army that since 1987has been engaged in brutal armed rebellion in the north of the country.
The Uganda Children's Charity Foundation, founded and directed by Alexis Hefley, helps orphaned youngsters and other disadvantaged children become healthy and productive members of society. With over 700 children under its care, the charity supports two orphanages in Uganda, as well as children living with HIV-positive widowed mothers. In addition, the charity sponsors the dance troop spotlighting children enrolled in its programs and scholarships to study in the U.S.
Supporters of the orphanages thought its young people should know their cultural heritage. Uganda, the source of the Nile River, is also the source of a rich array of folk traditions from 52 different ethnic groups. The idea of a company began on a small scale. At home ensembles perform at weddings, diplomatic events and other celebrations. The troop is small no longer.
Peter Kasule, after losing both of his parents as a young boy, lived in the orphanage from 1989 to1996. One of the original dancers, he grew up to become artistic director of the "professional" Children of Uganda company. On scholarship, Kasule attended the Arts Magnet High School in Dallas, Texas, and recently completed his junior year at the College of Santa Fe in New Mexico where he is studying Music Technology with a focus on composition, recording and blending African and Western music. He said, "As a student in the U.S., I saw dance and musical performances here and figured out what Americans like. I select the dancers. It takes about three months to put a show together."
The troop is comprised of 22 of the most talented Ugandan orphans. Six-year-old Miriam Namala is the youngest performer. Her father died of AIDS and her mother, who also suffers from the disease, is too sick to care for her. Older performers like Peter Mugga, 19, have been dancing with the troop for several years. Performing is therapeutic and empowering. It brings joy and optimism into the children's lives.
With humor and great stage presence, Kasule serves as MC and teacher. He explains what the dances and instruments are, teaches the audience a few Ugandan words, and even has them dance at their seats. Well-rehearsed, the Ugandan dancers and musicians win over audiences with their skill, high energy and smiling faces. Incorporating traditional and modern Ugandan textiles, the troop's costumes are dramatically beautiful with vibrant colors, cowry shells, beads, head pieces and animal skins. Some elements are integral to the performance of a particular dance
Through dance and song, the "Children of Uganda's" exuberant and powerful programs tell the stories, history, legends and beliefs of East Africa. For example, in "Kundiba Ntafire," mothers urge their children to heed the lessons they impart, for as one phrase cautions, when their parents have died, they will be like "cows feeding on the grass," that is, they will need to look after themselves.
The dances come from Uganda and also Rwanda, Congo, Tanzania and Kenya whose countrymen live in Uganda. The troop sings in Luganda, Swahili and English. Some of the performance pieces are named for complex syncopated or polyrhythmic drum rhythms (Bakisimba, Ekitaguriro and Larakaraka); others are named after the featured instrument (Embaire, a xylophone, Engoma, drums) or reflect the culture of origin. The work Kinyarawanda is also the name Rwanda's predominant language.
The troop plays a variety of drums, harps, flutes and xylophones. Two of the nine male musicians, who also dance, are youths. Endege are the ankle bells that dancers wear to emphasize their foot movements. The girls also play instruments in one or two dances.
I was in Uganda in 1963. At that time the Ministry of Culture and Community Development was holding local competitions to select an ethnic group's best performers to create a modern company that would represent of all Uganda. The troop would create a highly visible symbol of unity in diversity.
This cultural development was part of a "renaissance" of African dance. During the years of colonial rule, British missionaries and administrators often denigrated, and successfully repressed, Ugandan music and dance on what too many of them considered the "dark continent." Colonialists saw the "white man's burden" was to spread Western civilization, including Christianity. They thought the pelvic and shoulder shimmy movements were immoral. And they also objected to Ugandan dancing because it was often linked to indigenous religions.
The first Ugandan national group performed for visiting members of the United Nations. I suggested the delegation would be more appreciative of the men wearing the older traditional costume of skins instead of a man's suit jacket wrapped around the waist, swiveling hips sending the sleeves flying outward. Dance always changes and the Ugandan performers wanted to be modern.
In 1967 I saw "Heart Beat of Africa" at Expo in Canada. Attracting national attention, the company was an attempt to preserve valued elements of ethnic cultures, enhance its national pride and unity, and project the image of Uganda to the world. I noticed two dancers who seemed different than the others. They were the troupe's co-directors: Francis Odida, educated in the United Kingdom at the Old Vic Theatre School in Bristol, and Okot p'Bitek, who earned a doctorate in social anthropology and was a published author (e.g., Song of Lawino). The company was an example of the rare unity of the educated and illiterate and the urban and village dwellers.
It is no easy feat to take dances out of their traditional contexts where dances may go on for hours amidst family and neighbors with food and drink, and then present the dances in an attractive, yet reasonably "authentic" form on a modern stage. Staging dances means formalizing the village spontaneity and vitality, modifying movements, music, costumes and lighting for theatrical effect. The "Children of Uganda" achieve this as they carry on the professionalism of "Heart Beat of Africa," performing with expertise many of the dances I had seen in their country performed by children and by adults.