As the excitement and pressure mounts for the Bayimba Festival of the Arts, Pamela Acaye is busy making final touches to her backdrops, the main stage screen, that speaks volumes about the creative mind she is.

Last year artist Xenson Senkaba treated us to an artistic display of plastics which he picked off the streets in city and the slums.

This year Acaye chose to make a bold statement with baskets, reminding us f the role of the basket in African society and beyond the obvious story, another story of the women that make these baskets. It was such a loud statement of this multi- artist.

Plainly seen, it was a beautiful display of baskets in various designs and shapes but Acaye was communicating more than shapes and beauty.

“These are baskets that represent a number of tribes in Uganda and through them I am representing the African woman,” she explained. It was themed ‘Eco of senses’, and from her poems displayed in between the baskets she was appealing to society to begin treating women with respect and dignity.

Acaye used the creatively woven stiff fibres to draw festivalgoers to her rich stories about women and directly taking on culture, which has for ages imprisoned women as the subordinate gender. She also elaborates on how the role of the basket has revolved from mere domestic use in home to serve food and drinks to becoming an art piece.
In between the baskets are spaces, which Acaye explains, represent freedom, liberty and grace women ought to live with. In there are also poems which only a keen reveler will notice and read.

“This particular one is called the endiro from western Uganda which were used to winnow grain. What’s amazing is women till the land and harvest but end up with an empty basket because the money (value) from the harvest is selfishly enjoyed by the men,” she shares, highlighting the plight of women using the basket.

This is an idea the 30-year-old artist has been played around with for some time. “I wanted to use symbols and familiar signs with our culture and use this backdrop as new space of expression for the women,” she adds.

But this was an arts festival and Acaye was able to express her versatility in fashion through which she spread her idea of women emancipation- less but creative outfits.

Acaye had the option of conveying it in poems but knew better he would not reach many people given the poor reading culture in Uganda so she chose to use an inspiring platform. Her beautiful stage display also had her collection of beads from women from various markets.

She simply didn’t pick items, she got to mingle and have these women from a cross ethnic divide share their experiences. She spent time to appreciate the processes through which the Arabic-Nubians go to make beautiful and intricate designs on their baskets.

She appreciated their art too, “Society treats these women like they’re destitute yet there are artists. It is their silent rebellion as they fight for economic independence. Many are single mothers from IDP camps who raise their children, pay rent yet remain beautiful amidst all these struggles for survival. They need to be given space and earn and live with dignity.”

Pamela Acaye is a brilliant, creatively motivated and driven multimedia artist whose life is a somewhat definition of art, be it fashion, language or thoughts.

About Pamela Acaye
2006-Published poetic ‘Dawn of the Pearl’
2007- toured the world with Dawn of the Pearl
2008- Published ‘Celebrating our differences’, about the after-effects of the insurgency in Northern Uganda and preached about the need for peace and reconciliation
2011- Publishing ‘The Other Woman’ in November.

edgarraymond@gmail.com

EDGAR R. BATTE

If you have dealt with a few of the corporate companies you will know that before you can get that cheque signed you will have to give in to a few underhand conditions. You will offer to give good cut off your sponsorship package to the guy that led you to the big man or the big man himself.

Now this is the Bayimba Festival of the Arts would not get sponsorship for its inauguration and subsequent year. What made it worse was only a handful of revelers turned up for the three-day festival.

“We only had sixty people come to the festival over the three days we held the festival,” Faisal Kiwewa, the festival director told this reporter in 2008.
Last year more than 50,000 revelers flocked National Theatre to groove to live performances from a well-produced fusion of rich African music as well as other activities like street theatre, fashion shows, silent disco et al.

But behind the scenes it’s not all rosy tales. Sponsorship is the biggest driver of the festival but the big corporate companies are not anywhere on the large festival banner, and Kiwewa explains why.

“You have no idea what happens behind the scenes,” he said. For a festival that calls for resources of up a $550,000 Kiwewa said that he would not bow to corruption from corporate companies just to get his festival going.

“Finding this money is a nightmare. We spend sleepless nights. We don’t have a beer company or a cell phone company on board, because when they come on board they want to give you half of what they promised,” he elaborated.

Pressed to explain what he meant about corporates not delivering on their “promise”, Kiwewa said he’s asked to give kickbacks to corporate managers as a condition of sponsorship.

He did not mince his words: “Don’t say we are giving you 10 but give me 5 back. That’s why I am in bad books with the private sector. I hope they will learn. It is very straightforward corruption.”

Describing the free-for-all ethos of Bayimba, Kiwewa took a swipe at big mobile phone and beer companies who are eager to promote big-name musicians simply because they want the big crowds. “They look at numbers – they won’t support visual artists, they won’t support dancers, because they want to get 50 000…”

He welcomed working with companies that supported Bayimba’s values of transparency and a belief in growing the Arts in Uganda that otherwise never see the light of day. “We will go with those who really believe in our values, people who support us genuinely,” he said.