Travel the world in kabbo ka muwala
A creation by Xenson portraying bondage. PHOTOS BY MICHEAL KAKUMILIZI
A glass installation hangs from the ceiling at the Makerere Art Gallery. It is the work of Immy Mali, a Ugandan artist in a long distance relationship. The glasses pieces are screen shots taken from Mali’s conversation with her boyfriend. “Virtually Mine” might seem like a chandelier whose pieces make sweet sounds as the wind blows, but from one end, this piece forms an illusioned figure of a man.
Away from acrylics on canvass, the 20 artists showcasing in Kabbo ka Muwala (A Girl’s Basket) chose contemporary art perspectives to tackle the narratives of migration. The tide of new media as in our social life has changed the artist too, as Mwangi Hutter’s (DE/KE) video (Nothing Solid) of a woman with loosening balloons knotted in her hair.
Ethiopia’s Helen Zeru chose to transfix a TV screen in a mound of soil, showing a burning ‘paper’ boat, floating on a pod of water. This piece “I live, Leave Everywhere” concentrates one’s thoughts that as a boat leaves one destination, it travels to all sorts of places and stays there only long enough for its next trip. Several people who travel across the globe are no different.
Some pieces tackle Xenophobia, South Africa as case study where attacks were against migrants, illegal migration and repatriation of refugees and results from Zimbabwe’s floods that resettled people.
The Niche
Apart from discussing migration between East & South Africa/globally, Kabbo Ka Muwala defies the pattern of exhibitions showcasing in Europe first before they travel to Africa. Beginning her journey in Zimbabwe this ‘bride’ is Uganda before migrating to the port city of Bremen, German. The works too are travelling and changing in display compelled by reference to these respective regions. The catalogue is illustrated with essays by the curatorial and scholarly team, sharing original tales of these works and propelling scholarship linkages in cultural studies and social sciences. The exhibition opened at the Makerere Art Gallery on April 14, and will last till June 12, 2016. In context, the works are migrating too, having opened in February at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Harare and slated for Städtische Galerie Bremen, Germany on September 24 till December 11.
Conception
More than a year ago, five art scholars, curators and artists met to discuss migration. The project was artistically designed to explore perspectives on multitudes migrating in and from southern and eastern Africa; through the eyes of artists from these regions.
Prof George Kyeyune of Margaret Trowell School of Fine Art explained the traditional phenomena of the title “Kabbo Ka Muwala”. This idiom in Luganda originates from the cultural give away ceremonies (Kwanjula) where the bride leaves her parents’ home for her husband’s with a basket of goodies and always returns with a basket full.
