Twenty years later, Mbowa is still influencing theatre

Rose Mbowa, who died on February 11, 1999, was a renowned scholar, a teacher, composer, dancer, an activist and community educator.
Celebrated as the ‘first Ugandan lady of letters’ the plays she wrote were Nalumansi: The Mother of Lukabwe, Mother Uganda and Her Children, Mine by Right, The Stepmother, Awake or Sleeping, and Nnyonozi.

She also performed with a number of different theatre companies in Uganda. In 1973 she was named best actress at the National Theatre and received the Presidential Meritorious Award for Acting.
She also received the National Theatre Best Production Award twice: for her play Nalumansi in 1982 and for The Marriage of Anansewa by Efua Sutherland in 1983. She performed the title role in Bertolt Brecht’s play Mother Courage and her Children (Luganda: Maama Nalukalala).

Her poems appeared in E.A. Journal Edition (1971), Voice of the Commonwealth, East African Poetry (edited by David Cook and David Rubadiri) and the Uganda Literature Bureau. She published a number of articles and presented papers on Ugandan theatre at international conferences. She composed the Women’s Anthem in Uganda.

Background
Mbowa was born in Kigezi in western Uganda on January 18, 1943 to Eriosi and Eva Mbowa. She attended Gayaza High School and then joined Makerere University where she obtained a BA in English in 1968 and a Diploma in Drama in same year. She then proceeded to Leeds University in the UK and obtained an MA in Theatre Arts and Drama in 1971.

When Mbowa returned from the UK she worked for a year as a producer at Radio Uganda. She joined Makerere University in 1971 as tutorial fellow in the Literature Department rising to position of lecturer in the newly created Department of Music, Dance and Drama in 1972. She later headed the department in 1982 and was elevated to associate professor in 1985 were she served up to her death.

Celebrating a legacy
The annual Prof. Rose Mbowa memorial Lecture that was held on February 19, at the National Theatre in Kampala was organised by the Uganda National Cultural Centre and Makerere University.

In his keynote address the dean, School of Liberal and Performing Arts, Makerere University, Dr Patrick Mangeni, said: “We do this not for the benefit of Mbowa, but in recognition of her hand in shaping and contributing to the development of theatre in Uganda in particular and the application of theatre in responding to the human needs of our society.

We come here as theatre artists, educators and change agents to reflect and hold ourselves to account along key milestones of value and practice that Rose Mbowa marked with insight, commitment and sacrifice, regardless.”

The Theatre for Development movement emerged in Africa in the early to the mid-1990s with an emphasis on the arts and development of structures and institutions in order to foster development through theatre.

Theatre for change
According to Dr Mangeni, Mbowa attended regional workshops in theatre for development on which she drew to pioneer the integration of theatre and development as key elements in as mainstream courses within Makerere University. “Her attribute was the keenness to participate in, learn developments in theatre or theatre methodologies and apply them in learning and practice context.”

“Rose Mbowa was one of the pioneers in the institutionalisation of theatre for development curricular in educational and community settings and the application of theatre (in structured form) as a frame to foster positive change in communities. The roots of these are in her involvement in taking theatre to the people initiatives and in particular the Makerere Free Travelling theatre of the late 1960’s and early 70’s to the application of theatre as an intervention with(in) communities,” Dr Mangeni says.

The activist
Dr Mangeni said that Mbowa was active in the course of social justice and equity, and also a champion on the rights of women and children to healthier society.

“Rose Mbowa was at the fore front situating drama significantly in gender equity, national reconciliation and reconstruction and, human rights, as advanced in the productions of her three plays of Nalumansi: The Mother of Lukabwe (1985), Mother Uganda and Her Children (1987) and Mine by Right (1988).”

“Nalumansi: The Mother of Lukabwe was Uganda’s pitch for the International Women’s Congress in Kenya in 1985 (at which event Francis Imbuga created and presented his drama Aminta). Mbowa goes a mile, like in all her plays, by focusing on the life of the ordinary women struggling with a typical drunken husband that is in practice a dangerous dependent armed with hopeless notions of culture.”

“Her commitment to developing Uganda and with theatre as one of the most viable and effective tool is indeed illustrated through Mother Uganda and her Children production through theater as a viable tool for this purposes. She crafts theatre as a viable frame and voice for advancing reconciliation as well serving as a critical tool to advance the image of National Resistance Movement government. Indeed government not only supported the performance of the play in Uganda but regionally in North Africa and the United Kingdom,” Dr. Mangeni, who was Mbowa’s student at Makerere University, added.

Dr Mangeni recalled that Mbowa was a person that served to enhance quality and arbitrate standards. “She worked to improve performances at all levels, be it in church settings, women, school and other forum in Uganda and outside Uganda she worked as an adjudicator who gave very detailed feedback. But she also nurtured us taking us along and evaluating every bit of entry we made. Building and developing institutions for artists training, starting and developing programmes in Theatre and Community Development.”

Dr Mangeni credited Mbowa for building the Theatre Department at Makerere University from offering a Diploma in Drama under the Literature Department to a fully-fledged Department of Music, Dance and Drama. She also introduced bachelors and masters programmes in Music, Dance and Drama.

In her discussion paper titled “Theatre Formats At That Time” the Ugandan artist, actress and filmmaker Irene Kulabako recalled that Mbowa used to advise fellow thespians to watch everything, even the bad plays so they would know what not to do in their own plays.

Advice to theatre makers
Kulabako, who was a protégé of Mbowa, added that Mbowa would advise that: “When you expect an audience of 1,000 but only two people turn up for the show, put up the same quality and standard of a show as you would have done for 1,000 people.”

According to Kulabako, Mbowa also advised thus: “Don’t look for the money. Do the work and the money will look for you.”

According to Dr. Mangeni, Mbowa through her work, sought to support the identification of talent to enhance artistic and institutional capacity. “She was a trainer who enabled with focus of quality and relevance.

She also understood the role of trained artists and went out to the theatre to identify young talent to join Makerere. When blanket educational qualifications became a challenge that limited what Mbowa considered trainable, she originated special entry option for artists that may be talented, capable but did not have the minimum requirement for entry at that.”

“And many joined Makerere, positively engaged with the rigor of university training satisfactory, gained additional knowledge and skills and were duly awarded qualifications of Makerere University. Thus the artist who could not further education because of one reason or another could not get a school certificate, women and youth struggling with aids on account of culture and disproportionate historical and power relations got an opportunity to develop being position to advance art education and industry. The artist went to enhance their theatre groups to extents which included formation of new theatre groups,” Dr Mangeni added.