Ashinga brings the world home
Ugandan children performing at the event. PHOTO BY EDGAR R. BATTE
Last Tuesday night at Ndere Centre was a sight for weary eyes as Ugandan and Japanese orphans of Ashinaga teamed up with USA’s Vassar College Choir to perform At Home in the World, a narrative musical uniting the three countries and the figuratively, world at large. The show, directed by world renowned stage director John Caird of the Les Miserables fame, attracted a full house long before it started at 7pm.
At Home in the World, Caird said, “Is a celebration of life and diversity in the midst of adversity; most being the tales of each of these children.”
True to his description, the narrative of the show told of disasters both natural and man-made. The opening Japanese piece for instance, dramatically relayed the tale of the 2006 Tsunami that hit Japan with the children recounting memories of loss. All was not grim however, as the choreographed playing of the Marimba (Japanese drums) by energetic children drew applause from an amazed crowd.
The choral performances of the Vassar College Choir were delivered beautifully; sadly though the genre the American youngsters were professionals at (choral music) was alien to the mostly Ugandan audience so much so that pieces like Someday deserving of a standing ovation were only greeting by slow and sparse handclaps.
Someday’s lyric read optimism of the current sad situations in the world; poverty, hunger and war among others.
The crowning act of the night went to the Ugandan children’s performance of the Bunyoro and Busoga courtship dances. Their energy and meticulous choreography put an edge to what was the commonly performed Kisoga dance.
Their retelling of their accounts of the HIV/Aids scourge was strangely refreshing in that it did not capitalise on the whole infidelity claim, but focussed on the love lost by their parent’s deaths.
The show came to a close with two unprecedented musical collaborations, I Want More/ Njagala Ngato’zo by the American and Ugandan performers and This is not What I Signed Up For that involved the entire three nation cast. The first collaboration focussed on the envies either national had of the other; depicting that the grass was clearly not as green as either side deemed.
The second showcased the minor differences in each of the Ugandan, Japanese and American cultures; brooding some dramatically tense atmosphere. The night ended with speeches from the Japanese Ambassador, HE Kazuaki Kameda and Dr Rose Nassali Lukwago, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education and Sports and a cocktail for all in attendance.
