Locals speak out on Queen of Katwe

Left to right: Queen of Katwe actors Madina Nalwanga, Lupita Nyong’o and David Oyelowo in one of the movie scenes. Courtesy photo

What you need to know:

  • On the road from the market station to Kibuye, we meet Prossy Kabugo sitting near her merchandise wearing a head scarf.
  • Kabugo regrets missing the real Phiona Mutesi who she said was driven into the station and met the residents.

Kampala. Today is the premiere of the much anticipated Queen of Katwe movie. The larger part of the cast is Ugandan, and many among the extras, are from Katwe.
So we went back to the location that gives the film its name. Katwe was home to Phiona Mutesi on whose life the Walt Disney film is based.

On the road from the market station to Kibuye, we meet Prossy Kabugo sitting near her merchandise wearing a head scarf. Her emerald green sewing machine is to the left. Ffe tuli ba celeb! twaalimu mu firimu! (We are celebrities!! We were in the film)! she says teasingly when I mention the movie.
Kabugo acts as a tailor using her sewing machine which was placed “right there at Kibuye Junior School,” she says pointing to the steps on the school where the she sat.
She remembers what the set looked like, with school children moving up and about, herdsmen moving with cattle and a pair (Mr and Mrs Katende acted by Uganda’s Esther Tebandeke and Hollywood’s Nigerian David Oyolewo) who walked and gave each other a peck.

“I also acted around the railway, sending children back to their homes,” she says.
While you might miss Kabugo in action, her memory from the set brings such life. She speaks enthusiastically of the time which she says she and several other actors enjoyed tremendously.
On one end of the market, Diriisa Mawanda, a boda boda rider, is not as interested.
“I heard about it, but I didn’t bother much because I don’t poke my nose where I have no interest. I did not participate in any of the activities, but I saw them shooting around. I did not know about Mutesi either,” he says before he rides off.

Not shockingly, many of the people in Katwe have no idea who Lupita is. “That name does not ring any bells, I did not even know her,” confesses Joyce Nalongo, a trader in Katwe.
Like Mawanda, Nalongo did not know about Mutesi either. Perhaps this is because Mutesi eventually left Katwe and the story is as old as 2008.
However, Nalongo remembers the shooting of the movie.
“The whites who were shooting I saw them. They cast people carrying maize, others carried charts, and they came by my stall acting like they are buying from me,” Nalongo says.
“But what really intrigued me was how they would clear away speedily when someone called and then get back into action moving about like on a busy market day. They did it repeatedly, we found it intriguing,” she adds.

Andy Ssentongo whose boda boda motorcycle is staged at Ku Taawo (by the fly over tunnel), says he did not know about Mutesi but he witnessed the shooting of the movie.
However, he feels bad that the premiere is at Acacia Mall. “That place now is too up market for me. But that story is from here, it is ours. They should make copies so we can buy and watch,” he says.
Kabugo regrets missing the real Phiona Mutesi who she said was driven into the station and met the residents.
She narrates how they moved about with the crew shooting in locations such as Munkere, Jojo Pub, Ends Corner, Ku Taawo, railway and then dinner at Serena Hotel.
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