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Arts and crafts
of the Pearl of Africa
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Uganda has an amazingly good array of crafts for sale to tourists
although they are still not well promoted. A few well-exposed
Ugandan artists who have lived abroad have mixed with marketing
cartels and some of them now know how to market their works
overseas. Among them is Nuwa Wamala Nyanzi a largely self-taught
artist now of world renown. Nuwa has not only sold his work
to many individuals both abroad and locally but has also made
good contacts to a point that some of his work can be purchased
by email from a warehouse in the United States. He is well known
in the art fraternity and diplomatic and expatriate community
a number of whom buy his work. One
of the best sources of good fine art is the Margaret Trowel
School of Fine Art, Industrial Art and Design at Makerere
University where both talented students and their lecturers
paint or sculpt good quality stuff in equal measure. There
are a number of art galleries in town, the oldest being Nommo
Gallery which is near the Presidential Lodge in Kampala. It
holds exhibitions both for talented, well-known and amateur
artists. The gallery is home to the Uganda Artists Association
a body that brings together both young and old artists. You
will encounter good crafts and art in small kiosks on Buganda
Road after the Chief Magistrate's Court.
Uganda lost most of its artists to
neighbouring countries and abroad during the days of Idi Amin's
bad rule; now foreign artists from With Democratic Republic
of Congo (DRC) and Kenya make their way to Kampala. Some of
the With Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)an artwork is of
good rich quality, especially canvas works depicting rich
warm sunsets and luxuriant greenery of the tropical forests
there and small villages by the river. With Democratic Republic
of Congo (DRC)an artists are great craftsmen and they sell
good so-called "primitive art" statues, antique
like chairs and masks. Many of them also peddle elaborate
folding stools and wooden chests. You are advised to scrutinise
woodwork which is often passed on as antiques when it is not.
Another gallery to visit is Tulifanya, right behind the Crested
Towers building near Radio Uganda. Here a German lady commissions
and counsels local artists to paint some themes styled on
some imaginative European motifs which she has marketed for
them successfully. The gallery also offers excellent framing
services and runs a small pleasant cafe on its small compound.
Some of Uganda's arts and crafts are
actually the musical instruments such as drums, thumb pianos,
stopped clay and reed pipes, lyre fiddles and rattles. Some
cast-iron bells are worn on the legs of dancers. Do not forget
the traditional gomesi dress for women, an elaborate bodice
which women in Uganda get dressed in to impress at weddings
and prayer sessions. Men wear kanzus, which are long white
tunics with a collar-less neck and embroidered red thread
that streams down the middle. Kanzus were modified after Arab
dresses which first came to Uganda when slavers traded in
ivory in the 19th century. Bodingi or gomesi were first introduced
at Gayaza, the first women's high school in Uganda where it
was part of the uniform. There is a story about an Asian tailor
called Gomes after whom the women's dress was named.
Bark cloth
One of the finest materials from which Ugandan artists make
work is bark cloth, a fibrous if coarse, material scrapped
from a fig tree. Lubugo as it is called in Luganda is made
from the bark of a fig tree after being soaked in water for
a few days before artisans hammer it out with a toothed mallet
into a fabric. The fabric comes out in various browns, some
of a very rich dark brown colour. Bark cloths hold a high
place in many rituals in the kingdoms of Buganda and Bunyoro
where princes and princesses were obliged to wear them. Yards
of it, for example, are used to screen or drape the walls
of shrines and god's homes. Kings wear them -particularly
of a white colour- on big commemorative ceremonies; chiefs
swear by them while wearing yards of it knotted at the shoulder
with a spear in hand. And during burials, dead bodies are
wrapped up in bark cloth. In the early days of kingdoms in
Uganda, notable chiefs would be buried in wrappings of up
to 200 pieces of mbugo. Today, since the revival of kingdoms
bark cloth has regained its prestige with many Baganda making
all manner of wear out of it including very attractive hats
that bear the Buganda insignia, coats and long flowing robes.
Gourds
They have many uses some of which include being the traditional
containers for beer. When halved into two gourds they make
good beer drinking bowls. Some long-necked gourds are used
for collecting or drinking water while others are for keeping
salt or cow butter. Many artists in Uganda etch and write
on them or embroider them with tiny beads before sale. Huge
gourds are used to carry banana wine for funerals and weddings.
As a matter of protocol, such gourds have to be draped with
yellow banana leaves and gently put on top of dry banana leaves
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