By Kalungi Kabuye

I ’ll always remember the first time I entered Norman Cinema, now Watoto Church; and if those folks have their way, probably won’t be around for much longer. I remember it because it was also my first time to watch a film in a cinema. My eldest sister, Rose, took me out for a treat. To make it even more memorable, it was a James Bond movie.

Thus began a life-long fascination with cinema. I still remember the wonderful times when we left school at Budo (with or without permission) and went to watch yet another kung-fu movie with my best pal Nat Mulira (RIP); and how we felt like we were truly kung-fu masters afterwards. I was to act upon that fascination and took up martial arts the first chance I had, eventually becoming a 2nd dan (degree) black belt in the Korean martial art, tae-kwon-do.

I’ve been to dozens of cinemas since then, including the times we would pay for one and stay to watch movies the whole day somewhere along Moi Avenue in Nairobi.

I’ve watched IMAX cinema, and, of course, the 3D that we have now. I still have to do virtual, but I will still remember the magic I felt every time I entered Norman Cinema.

Those golden years of cinema we had five in Kampala, with the others being Odeon Cinema (where Fido Dido is and I hear another church holds services inside during the day), Neeta Cinema, which is now Labonita Theatre and Delite, which is opposite the Railway Station, not sure what actually goes on there. There was also the Drive-In cinema in Ntinda, which is now largely a parking lot for trucks.

Effectively, cinema stopped in the mid-1970s, along with most of Uganda’s economy. It was not till the 1990s that Cineplex opened along William Street, so I do understand why the great majority of Ugandans do not have any memories of cinema before that. That includes the management of Watoto Church, who want to break down what was Norman cinema and put up yet another ‘modern’ structure.

I am not sure how far the court case Watoto filed against Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) has gone or if I would be in contempt of court to comment on it. But while headlines trumpeted how Watoto had ‘won’ the case, my reading of the learned judge’s ruling is that KCCA was ordered to reconsider the said application. It is not the role of the good judge to approve development plans, so Watoto is not out of the woods just yet.

One of the arguments put forward by the church’s lawyers was that other ‘heritage’ structures had been destroyed on KCCA’s watch, so it was unfair for the city authorities to deny Watoto the right to destroy theirs. Seriously? This was rightly rejected by the learned judge, although it has been the main argument used by keyboard pundits in the various debates taking place on social media.

Legalities aside, what kind of country are we that we would so easily do away with our cultural heritage? Granted, much of our early towns were built by Indians, but it is part of our history and replacing that heritage with buildings that look like badly made bread is not the answer. For the life of me, I do not know where Kampala architects came up with the arcades that are threatening to overrun the country. They really are an eyesore.

There are reasons why London draws so many tourists who go to gape at the old buildings that have so much history and why, maybe, some rich Indians (when they are done with discrimination against each other on the basis of caste and religion) will come to wander the streets of Kampala and wonder at the heritage. There is also a reason why schools like King’s College Budo, who preserve most of their early structures, to go with the school’s heritage, will always be considered a class higher than all the roadside academies of this country and their ‘burnt bread’ buildings.

The survey some media didn’t like

The Uganda National Audience Measurement Survey 2023 issued by the IPSOS, ranking the performances of TV and radio stations, raised quite a ruckus.

But then, most such surveys always do, especially in a matooke republic like ours where statistics don’t really matter and impressions are what many prefer.

Whatever survey you carry out and however clearly you spell out the methodology used and how the results were arrived at, someone will not like them. It may be ranking Uganda’s top celebrities, or the films that Ugandans liked best; or, as in this case, what stations they watch or listen to – people who do not come out on top will always sulk and call them ‘fake’. After a while the whole hullabaloo will die down and life goes on.

But not this time. Because some entitled fellows have ‘demanded’ that IPSOS ‘pull’ down the survey, until ‘resolution’ of the matter. What matter? That their beloved stations did not do well in the survey? Hogwash!

Every election year in Uganda, different opinion polls are published. If some parties don’t like what those polls show, they organise their own that show they are in the lead. Maybe that is what the National Association for Broadcasters (NAB) should do, instead of threatening to go to court over an opinion survey.

It is also ironical in that NAB is supposed to represent all their members, including those that topped the IPSOS survey. Someone in NAB has let illusions of grandeur get to their heads. Take a chill pill, pal.