Luswata’s journey to owning a house

Luswata yielded to pressure and built a house in Namere. Photo by Andrew Kaggwa

What you need to know:

Building a house was not part of Philip Luswata’s plan. A friend pestered him, a neighbour inspired him, and before he knew it, his house project had become his new found love. He put thought in every phase from position of bedrooms, to colours and decor - every thing in his house has a story.

When actor and film director Philip Luswata bought land in Namere in 2003, he had not known about the village before, and neither was it on the list of places he intended to buy land from.

Luswata had no intention to buy land in the first place, thus, when a colleague from the National Theatre first showed him a piece of land in Kisaasi, he easily dismissed the idea to buy it since at that time, it had a graveyard. “But that is when someone talked about Namere,” in minutes, they were driving to Mpererwe and later Namere, Kawempe Division in Kampala.

He bought the land where his house stands but reveals that it was out of pressure to get a theatre colleague they referred to as uncle off his back. “I hated the place that never in my life did I imagine myself building a house let alone live here,” he says, adding that he bought the land because he had the money on him and knew that if he had gone back to the city with it, he would have bought a new car.

Luswata is a force to reckon with on Uganda’s theatre and film scene.

He was the first Ugandan and probably the only one to feature on South Africa’s successful TV drama Egoli Place of Gold, has been cast in regional productions such as Makutano Junction, films such as Queen of Katwe, Rain, Sometimes in April, Mpeke Town and NTV’s popular drama Honorablez.

He was the first resident in the area and thus, the small road connecting to his home has since been christened Luswata Close. “This place used to be wild that at times, you could find hunters heading to the bushes,” he says.

Since he was open about having little interest in Namere, after buying the place and fencing it off, his mother established a sweet potato garden: “I think she wanted to make sure I do not sell it.”

Building in Namere
However, one day, Luswata received a call from the lady who had sold him the piece of land, she had sold one of the plots that had been available to someone and they were starting to construct. “But she was worried that the person was building so close to my land,” he says.

Of course heading to Namere, Luswata imagined one of the villagers had put up a simple structure and it was not a big deal. “when I got here, I noticed my neighbour was putting up a serious house, I was shocked someone could put up such a house in the wildness.”

Inspired by his neighbour, he too put up a structure; a toilet. In 2006, he embarked on the house, with the Makutano Junction, a TV series as a main source of funding for the project. Makutano Junction had been well received in both Kenya and Tanzania.

House design
The house’s design came from a daring friend. “During a conversation, a friend had asked if it was possible to build a house where people in all the three bedrooms can see each other,” he says. Just like that, he got himself a design.
The original plan was to have a house that could also have space for theatre, but the finances could not let him execute this plan, thus abandoning it.

Six month progress
In six months, the house was up and it was at this point that things became complicated: he was out of money and yet, being an artiste, he says he was aware he had little to no chances of getting a loan.
“You cannot get a loan as an artiste because we don’t get monthly salaries, thus, there is hardly a plan to repay a loan,” he says.

One day, though, while at the National Theatre, a friend picked interest in his car and suggested that he would buy it. After negotiations, Luswata settled for Shs7m.

“But he asked me to wait around and he came back with around Shs6m in cash,” much as by the beginning of the day he had no plans of selling the car, he received the money and immediately booked roofing materials.

By end of the week, he had come to the house with a goat and drinks to motivate the workers. He says what moves a house under construction is the love the owner has towards it.
“The moment you start looking at this place as a house and cherish it, you will have the motivation to finish it,” he says.
After roofing it though, he was soon out of money and thus construction stalled again, this time for about two years.

Moving into the house
In 2008, tired of paying rent, Luswata moved back to his mother’s house. While there, he started using what he previously spent on rent to finish one of the rooms in which he later moved.

Today, two of his youngest children sleep in that room, painted in hot green with a number of Disney cartoon characters pasted on the walls. “This room has a vintage feel because it almost looks the same way it did 10 years back,” he says, adding that he finished it first and did the floor’s pvc tiles himself.

Much as he had not even wired it, he had sockets and light holders fitted in, he used more money to have a door placed on another room that would later become a bathroom.

A local defence personnel would sleep in the room.

Today, the house of course looks different, the brown ceramic tiles on the floor will easily warm you up when you get into the door; the house, like Luswata, has an artistic feel.

The interior
His table is made out of two discarded tyres and a round glass that used to be on another table; he assembled the table himself while the other art on the wall like a cartoon of himself, was offered by a friend and a cartoonist, Fred Katungi, while other works include his family portraits, newspaper clippings about his wedding, the first Thursday comedy night print advert and artworks that were done by Kenyan painters.

All the rooms have different colours for different reasons. For instance, the oldest girl’s room screams with a hot pink, which he says was her choice, while the master bedroom is laid back in sky blue and these are completely a contrast to the red and yellow that greet you in the living room.

“These colours were selected by my sister-in-law, she is an interior designer,” he says adding that the idea was that the two rooms are supposed to be bright.

Outside the house is a pergola Luswata built with the help of a friend, it occupies an area that previously had a tree. Once the tree gave in to the wind, he thought it would be important to replace it with a pergola that would have a plant creeping as a way of maintaining the green.

“But the plant refused to climb,” he says. For a house that started off in a single room, it looks much complete, yet Luswata says, there is much more to be done but acknowledges that it has been a gradual process.
“The hardest part of building is the finishing. Unlike roofing where you will clearly see what your money has done, with finishing, the progress is not as visible and it can be frustrating,” he says.

His philosophy on building
When you tell an ordinary Ugandan that a house will cost them Shs300m, they will never think of building because many of them have never imagined having such money in their life. What people have to be told is that a house is built brick by brick.

Luswata’s confessions
If I was not living here, I would be living in Entebbe, a place called Wamala, but the first time I was there, there were no neighbours and the place was hard to access.

My house is special because it has my children in it, there was a time this was only a shell of a house, today it’s a home because of my children.

If I could do it all over I would not be afraid to dare, I had wanted a storeyed house with a theatre and a bar on top, but I got scared, if I could do it again, I would not be scared.