Celebrating firsts with Because of Her

Uganda’s leadership has, for the past few years, had a science fetish. Over the last few years, there has been a strong emphasis on science over the arts, with numerous clips of the President asking if reading William Shakespeare could cure Covid-19 in the early days of the pandemic.
Yet, favouring sciences over the arts has not dampened the spirit of creatives to make art, nor has it stopped the public from celebrating good art and the artists behind it.

March being the month dedicated to celebrating women, the Because of Her annual exhibition is already underway. The exhibition’s biggest selling point is documenting women achievers—people who have broken the ceiling and gone where no woman in the past had.
However, unlike the past years, where most of the achievers came from the fields of education, engineering, business, and politics, this year, art and sports took centre stage. 

The exhibition that took place at the Uganda Museum’s Car Gallery showcased remarkable women who have dominated the fields of visual art, film, music, and broadcast, among other fields.
The exhibition, which Uwera Posha and Kehangi Kesha are in charge of curating, aimed to change the narrative and project a positive and realistic image of Ugandan women.

The aim is to save Ugandan women achievers from being victims of the famous Matilda effect. The Matilda effect is a bias against acknowledging the achievements of women scientists whose work is attributed to their male colleagues. Matilda Joslyn Gauge, a suffragist and abolitionist, first described this phenomenon in her essay Woman as Inventor.

The exhibition showcased the diverse talents and contributions of Ugandan women across various industries, highlighting their achievements and impact on society. By shedding light on these remarkable women, the curators hope to inspire future generations of female leaders and innovators in Uganda. 
Today, even when many women have achieved and contributed a lot in fields of science, sports, art, and culture, their contribution is at times forgotten and thus never documented.

This year, the exhibition shone a light on actress and producer, Ugandan-born, German-based Florence Kasumba. The actress, who has made waves in Hollywood since staring in the Warner Brothers DC film Wonder Woman and later picking up a role in Marvel’s Avengers saga films, Captain America: Civil War, Black Panther, Infinity Wars, End Game, and Wakanda Forever,among others, has cemented her position in Hollywood and yet never forgets her Ugandan roots.

Kasumba shares her pavilion with gospel singer and eco-artiste Sandra Suubi. Suubi has balanced music and visual art to talk about issues such as climate change and the lake overflowing with waste. 
But at the same time, she has raised her voice about issues that affect women, such as unrealistic expectations and marrying off daughters with the promise of a bed of roses that turns their lives into a pot of trauma.
Of course, besides the pictures, there was text, much of which quoted the people being celebrated.

One eye-catching celebration is that of the late Cecilia Ogwal. The documentation did a great deal of capturing her social life as a beauty contestant yet gave a lot of emphasis on her political career, which many people witnessed.
Probably one of the most outstanding at the exhibition is Madam Theresa Matovu’s. She was the first indigenous woman to hold the title of producer when UBC was still UTV.

Also known as Mama Treasure, Matovu used to produce a children’s programme where she used to have child guests come to studios for interviews, His Royal Highness Kabaka Ronald Mutebi was among her child guests.
Other people celebrated include Rhoda Kalema, Brigadier Charity Bainababo, the late Joyce Mpanga, Consolata Namyalo, Patience Poni Ayikoru, and Pumla Nabacwa, among others.