The Foundation’s activities during the first half of 2008 were centered around the first edition of the Bayimba International Music Festival that took place from 19-21 June 2008. The festival consisted of three days of live performances which were preceded by seven days of workshops for Traditional Dance and Music, Contemporary Arts and Hip Hop. The activities took place under the Festival’s theme “Understanding Who We Are”, stimulating intra- and interdisciplinary cultural exchange and creativity.
All workshops were attended by local and regional artists.
Please find below a brief on each of the workshops.
Contemporary Art workshop
Contemporary art has the potential of conveying important messages to the public. More so than modern art “ that is mainly aimed at aesthetics “ contemporary art is connecting to aspects of our daily social life and is therefore a means of communicating views and create awareness about social issues, such as environment, the role of women, human rights, HIV/AIDS, multiculturalism.
The Contemporary Art workshop was held at Creations Studio and was coordinated by the prominent and inspirational Ugandan contemporary artist Xenson Ssenkaba (who is at the same time painter, fashion designer, song and screen writer and poet, fusing ancient art with modern life). The workshop brought together twelve Ugandan painters from different regions of Uganda and two sculptors from Burundi. The participants in the workshop produced six large art pieces (2 by 6 feet) of oil on canvas. These art pieces became the back drops of the Festival stage.
Traditional Dance and Music workshop
During the Traditional Dance and Music workshop a remarkable collaboration took place. Ugandan traditional dances were combined with Burundian Gutamba Engoma, Amalaba and Inoole dance from Rwanda while they also met with Modern African contemporary dancers.
The workshop was led by Percussion Discussion Afrika. Next to them, Madinda Dance Troup, Talking Drums from Kenya, Umocyo from Rwanda and Burundian Drummers participated in the workshop while they were choreographed by Mutumizi Dance Company. Interesting is that the workshop also involved translators as troupes spoke different languages. The workshop built a strong relationship amongst the groups, not only were they learning from each other, using the same dance formations and sharing ideas, but the 50 dancers and 20 drummers also advised each other on how to improve on their performances.
The collaboration during the Traditional Dance workshop resulted in an excellent joint musical piece which was performed live during the opening ceremony as well as closing night of the Bayimba Festival. The theme song of the Bayimba Festival was produced by Percussion Discussion Afrika.
Hip Hop workshop
The Hip Hop culture has never been embraced by the majority of Ugandans because it is felt as an adopted culture from Europe and the USA. They are doubtful of the new generation that is rapping and miming songs of their favourite Hip Hop artists from the developing world of which the music and lyrics are not understood. Only few Hip Hop artists are appreciated. They often produce from simple studios and their work is mostly presented during high school and talent shows. Yet there is potential as a number of Hip Hop artists have an important message to convey to the public.
Bayimba Cultural Foundation found it necessary to bring about a change in this by creating awareness that Hip Hop is a culture that started years ago with our grand parents telling stories and poems on the bonfire accompanied by their small traditional instruments like the kora, thumb piano, guitars and adungu.
The Hip Hop workshop was held at the Uganda National Theatre studios with ten Ugandan artists (GNL, Lyrical G, Easy Tex, Simon and members of Bavubuka All-stars) and one Burundian poet collaborating with a live traditional band. For the Hip Hop artists it was a great experience to record live music while understanding the pleasure of working with traditional instruments that are easily recognised by the people of Uganda and East Africa. The song that was produced during the workshop was performed during the Festival.
The Festival
The Bayimba International Festival of Music and Arts was the first ever organised festival in Uganda. With three days of live performances, the festival broke through with the fusion of music and arts and an exchange between cultures with several local, regional and international artists sharing the same platform with their sounds, beats and moves of joy and excitement.
While the Festival aimed at exposing the creativity and live performances of local artists, such as Baxmba Waves, Soul Beat Africa, Sarah Ndagire, Harry II Lwanga, Mako Nikoshwa, Susan Kerunein, Joel Sebunjo and Sundiata, Klear Kuts, Blood Brothers and Tshila, it also aimed at linking those Ugandan performers to established regional and international performers such as the Yunasi from Kenya, the Inyanje Band from Rwanda and Didier Awadi from Senegal. The festival also provided space to other local artists (GNL, Easy Tex and Lyrical G, Shanks Monitor), Musana Mo from Kenya and beginning artists from Karamoja (K’jong Boys, Home Boyz Crew).
The Festival also allowed a wider public to explore a range of exciting performances, including Ugandan performers that are setting for exposure to the world.
Several cultural troupes socialised during the workshops (see above) and performed during the opening ceremony to embrace the birth of the Bayimba International Festival of Music and Arts, a proof that unifying performers of different cultural disciplines stimulates creativity. Other cultural troupes that performed during the Festival were the Madinda Troupe (Uganda), the Burundian Drummers, the Umocyo Dance Troupe (Rwanda), the Ugabingi performers (from the street kids camp in Kampala slums), the Makindye Muslim Khalifaâ’s (a Muslim orphanage) and Albert Ssempeke with his family and others.
Dance and fashion were also part of the Festival programme, which significantly added to the spectrum of performing arts in Uganda and East Africa. Keiga Dance Company, under the leadership of Jonas Byaruhanga, choreographed a special performance for the Festival, a performance that was new to the eyes of many people as contemporary dance is often not consumed by a wider public. Also Uganda’s best contemporary fashion designers, Stella Atal, Xenson Ssenkaba and Latif, were showcasing their outfits. It was exiting to see how they were interacting with the audience, people were storming the stage to try out the outfits and model in them.
Besides performances, the Festival grounds provided space to others to expose their cultural creativity. Arts and handcraft exhibitors, including creative women groups that aim at self empowerment, organised their exhibition stalls. There was also a dome for African cinema, showing revolutionary films and documentaries about the development of music and arts in Africa.
Through the Festival the Foundation was able to send out the message that sharing ideas and experiences is a key factor in developing individual artists and bringing culture in Uganda and East Africa to a higher level. It is also the way to create a better understanding of our culture and creating awareness for the role of culture in development. The Festival was the first important step in creating a vibrant platform for cultural exchange and learning in Uganda and East Africa.
