Kyebando project hits a bullseye in recycling

On sale at Ekilawuli Shop is an assortment of beautiful personal ornaments and decorative household items made out of glass waste. It includes beads, necklaces, bracelets, bangles, bowls, drinking glasses, hand-blown vases, jars, plates, wind chimes, chandeliers, key holders, candle holders, paper weights, and lamp shades, among others.

The Afrika Arts Kollective (AAK) programmes manager, Zeridah Kobusingye, who is taking me around the shop, says if a client walks into the outlet, he or she is able to buy the products that are available. 

“We have not yet opened a shop in town, but one can find everything here for now,” she says, adding, “Our clients mainly like drinking glasses and flower vases. They admire the way we cut glass to make these products.”

AAK is an art organisation in Uganda that is stimulating social change through art and culture. It runs the Ekilawuli Community Art Studio in Kyebando, a poverty-stricken pre-urban slum on the outskirts of Kampala. The entire facility was built with recycled glass, cement and sand.

The Ekilawuli Shop is run by AAK under its project dubbed the Ekilawuli Glass Works, a glass arts studio. The glass studio’s mission is to provide art and skills training to the members of this community, where unemployment is at a staggering 80 percent. It also allows members to use the studio for their own entrepreneurial endeavours.

The Ekilawuli (Luganda word for glass) project brings together women and youth to learn about glass up-cycling. The studio currently serves as a fabrication site for more than 30 artists, who are able to support their families with their work. 

Production process

Recycling the abundant glass waste from the neighbourhood and around Kampala, the women fabricate consumer goods, jewellery and art pieces and sell them at local markets and directly to restaurants, retail stores and collectors in Kampala.

“We reach out to hotels, restaurants, events such as festivals and the different communities around the city about our community project and they in turn supply us with the glass waste,” the AAK founder and creative programmes director, Brian Gisa, says. “We are interested in all types of glass waste,” he adds.

When the glass waste is brought to the studio, it is sorted according to colours and brands, Kobusingye says, adding, “We then soak the bottles in water for five hours to remove the labels. The reason we soak the bottles is that when it is blown with the label, it will affect the final product and the furnace.”

The glass is crushed into smaller pieces and then put in a furnace, which consumes 100 kilogrammes of glass per shift, the studio manager, Bernard Omony, explains. The melting of the glass takes eight hours in the furnace that runs on electricity at 1,400 degrees centigrade. 

“We use blowing pipes to collect the melted glass, which is in the form of syrup, from the furnace. We then embark on glass blowing,” Gisa explains, adding that “different glass art products such as flower vases, fruit dishes, wine glasses, glass plates, wine decanters, among others” are produced.

Omony says the beads furnace runs on LPG gas at 1150 degrees centigrade. The Anneler section runs at 500 degrees centigrade for cooling the beads. 

It takes two to 24 hours to cool down the beads before starting on the bead making. 

“Many people who walk in here also love taking part in the glass blowing process,” Kobusingye says.

The shop serves as a retail sales point for glass markets throughout Kampala.

“We currently have our products in Kyebando, Kisalosalo at our Ekilawuli Community Art Studio, but also have them on display and sale at Aloo Bags at Forest Mall-Lugogo in Kampala,” Gisa says.  

When asked what pleases him the most when people buy their products, Gisa replies: “The customers recommending our product to other people.”

Starting out

Established in 2013, AAK is an art collaborative that focuses on organising innovative projects to address social-economic issues affecting Kyebando.

AAK does this by identifying, nurturing and linking artists, and facilitating them to work collectively in addressing social issues; sparking debate, and enhancing social dialogue about the prevalent issues. By facilitating regional collaboration between artists, and by creating markets for their productions, AAK seeks to build self-sustainable artists, who are vehicles for positive social change.

AAK provides a space for creative self-expression where it is sorely needed. Its programmes provide financial independence for its participants, as well as inspiration and pride in the neighbourhood for the community at large. 

The programmes are heavily focused on recycling and contribute to reducing waste and awareness of broader ecological issues in Kampala.

As to what inspired him into starting AAK, Gisa, says it was “the need for artists to play a role in their community by impacting it socially, economically, and environmentally.”

AAK created the Ekilawuli “glass works project” to create a community art space for glass art and craft training and entrepreneurship in the pre-urban slum of Kyebando. It aims to provide sustainable skills and incomes to locals while promoting Kyebando as an equal partner in the financial, cultural, and artistic life of Uganda. 

The project facilitates workshops linking professional artists to students seeking to learn new skills. Students have an opportunity to express themselves as they produce goods such as glassware purchased by restaurants, bars, and clubs throughout the region.

AAK further hosts exhibition fairs across Kampala, extending the reach of the studio’s entrepreneurial club to residents and collectors throughout the city. AAK also partners with universities in East Africa to offer internship opportunities to art students looking to acquire new skills not provided at their schools, further connecting Kyebando with other cultural institutions.

Solid waste management 

AAK works continuously to source the used glass bottles that constitute the raw materials for most of the studio’s work. This effort not only helps reduce waste in the city, but also raises consciousness about recycling and waste management issues and solutions. 

As to what attracted him into the glass waste recycling business, Gisa, says: “After our first project in 2013, which focused on different waste material in the community such as paper, plastic, found objects and metal, among others, and turning the waste into art raising awareness on recycling, we realised that glass was one material that was not being focused on in the recycling business. So, we took it on and started the glass recycling business since also, our community is affected by high alcohol consumption that has affected it socially.”

He further goes on to note thus: “Art is a medium of freedom of expression for the community. We believe glass is one material that the community can use to address different issues such as alcoholism, gender-based violence and unemployment.”

On how he involves the community in his project, Gisa, says: “We hold weekly meetings at our Ekilawuli Community Art Studio to engage community members, who are trained in glass recycling and upcycling on a weekly basis.”

Uganda has no proper glass recycling plant and most glass waste ends up in landfill sites. Such poor waste disposal habits prompted Gisa to “raise awareness” on the same and make “dumping and recycling centres” more accessible.

When asked if his work is helping in averting environmental degradation, Gisa replies in the affirmative. He adds that since glass “takes a lot of years to decompose or never does…recycling it helps avert environmental degradation.”

AAK runs a Mural Art Project that aims to provide a platform for people in pre-urban areas to transform their own public spaces, showcasing creativity from community artists. The project focuses its art on social issues, especially equality for women, children, disabled people and racial, ethnic and caste minorities. AAK works with landlords, government officials, and local stakeholders to secure space for its artists. 

“AAK’s Mural Project has helped address different issues within the community such as domestic violence, alcoholism and drug addiction by presenting them to the community as a dialogue daily through the murals painted in the community walls,” Gisa says. 

AAK has also created a new space in Kyebando to act as a creative art studio and library for children and professional artists. 

“We have currently set up a children’s community art library that has started weekly classes every Sunday in the Library Matatu and we are working with more than 20 children from the community,” Gisa says. 

When asked where he derives the energy to carry out this task every day, Gisa says: “We work as one community so the energy is driven at the community level.”

Gisa holds a Higher Diploma in Software Engineering (2007-2009) from ApTECH Computer International. The self-taught artist, who began practicing in 2010, has attended a number of arts management courses.