AIDS drama, dance give hope
Nov 24, 2004
THE second annual TASO drama festival, which took place last Saturday, was a celebration of narrative, music, dance and drama.
By Emmanuel Ssejjengo
THE second annual TASO drama festival, which took place last Saturday, was a celebration of narrative, music, dance and drama.
The occasion could have been one of the greatest things that has ever happened on stage ever since Ugandans started the fight against HIV/AIDS.
Eight TASO drama groups from different regions of the country converged at Pope Paul Memorial Community Centre to compete for a crown.
There were folk songs, traditional dances, original African compositions, creative dances, instrumental compositions, testimonies and plays. The testimonies, especially the one given by a group from Mbale, were frightening, engaging but also monologues, which bring hope and confidence.
With the theme ‘Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) in TASO; a combination of ART and positive living is the way forward’, the different groups performed not only to explain the message, but also to broaden it.
The instruments the groups used included horns and bow-harps, which they blew like they had never done before. The result was a scintillating rhyme that left the audience gaping.
TASO Gulu was the winner of the competition, while Mbale and Jinja were first and second runners-up respectively.
The plays focussed on positive living and openness. They relied on grim humour to keep the audience alert. It was less about the theatrical skill, but the thematic strength of the plays that worked up the audience.
The Tororo group was expected to carry the day on the sympathy vote because they were involved in a car accident en-route to Kampala, but they didn’t.
It was hard to believe that about 90 per cent of members of the performing groups are HIV positive. They were no docile bodies and no docile minds
With some performances not related to the theme of the day, the audience got moments of relaxation. This was ‘infotainment’ (Information and entertainment) at its best, with acts revealing expert information on the theme.
In the TASO Mbale creative dance, a character who has HIV, searches for innocent people, attacks them and down they go. With time, however, people are able to “resurrectâ€, and with the help of ARVs (represented by two characters), HIV is fought and collapses. The kadodi traditional dance featured in the performance. One way of measuring the success of any performance, is to make a follow up to find out whether it changes people’s lives in the long run.
The politics of performance space (Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s words) did not apply. After announcing TASO Gulu as the winner, the group went outside the hall while dancing.
What had been confined to the stage had now spilled over to the open. Many, including MP David Matovu Bbyatika, joined the group.
Dr Jessica Kahwa of the Music, Dance and Drama department at Makerere University, was awed at how the use of performing arts in Uganda has been expanded to educate the masses on issues such as HIV/AIDS.
Jimmy Kolker, the US ambassodor, who was chief guest, said the festival was a “phenomenal exhibition.â€
He added that drama is one of the weapons in fighting HIV/AIDS.
Ends
THE second annual TASO drama festival, which took place last Saturday, was a celebration of narrative, music, dance and drama.
The occasion could have been one of the greatest things that has ever happened on stage ever since Ugandans started the fight against HIV/AIDS.
Eight TASO drama groups from different regions of the country converged at Pope Paul Memorial Community Centre to compete for a crown.
There were folk songs, traditional dances, original African compositions, creative dances, instrumental compositions, testimonies and plays. The testimonies, especially the one given by a group from Mbale, were frightening, engaging but also monologues, which bring hope and confidence.
With the theme ‘Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) in TASO; a combination of ART and positive living is the way forward’, the different groups performed not only to explain the message, but also to broaden it.
The instruments the groups used included horns and bow-harps, which they blew like they had never done before. The result was a scintillating rhyme that left the audience gaping.
TASO Gulu was the winner of the competition, while Mbale and Jinja were first and second runners-up respectively.
The plays focussed on positive living and openness. They relied on grim humour to keep the audience alert. It was less about the theatrical skill, but the thematic strength of the plays that worked up the audience.
The Tororo group was expected to carry the day on the sympathy vote because they were involved in a car accident en-route to Kampala, but they didn’t.
It was hard to believe that about 90 per cent of members of the performing groups are HIV positive. They were no docile bodies and no docile minds
With some performances not related to the theme of the day, the audience got moments of relaxation. This was ‘infotainment’ (Information and entertainment) at its best, with acts revealing expert information on the theme.
In the TASO Mbale creative dance, a character who has HIV, searches for innocent people, attacks them and down they go. With time, however, people are able to “resurrectâ€, and with the help of ARVs (represented by two characters), HIV is fought and collapses. The kadodi traditional dance featured in the performance. One way of measuring the success of any performance, is to make a follow up to find out whether it changes people’s lives in the long run.
The politics of performance space (Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s words) did not apply. After announcing TASO Gulu as the winner, the group went outside the hall while dancing.
What had been confined to the stage had now spilled over to the open. Many, including MP David Matovu Bbyatika, joined the group.
Dr Jessica Kahwa of the Music, Dance and Drama department at Makerere University, was awed at how the use of performing arts in Uganda has been expanded to educate the masses on issues such as HIV/AIDS.
Jimmy Kolker, the US ambassodor, who was chief guest, said the festival was a “phenomenal exhibition.â€
He added that drama is one of the weapons in fighting HIV/AIDS.
Ends