Korean cultural performers leave Ugandans yearning for more

Korean cultural performers leave Ugandans yearning for more

By John Semakula

President Park-Geune-hye took her seat in one of the biggest halls at Serena Hotel in Kampala, waiting for the Cultural Exchange Performance between Uganda and South Korea to start.

In the audience were strictly selected high-profile Ugandans and Koreans working in Uganda plus visitors from South Korea who had come with their President for a two day state visit to Uganda.

Before the show started, a Korean lady picked up a microphone and announced that the long awaited moment had come. "No one should stand up to walk when the show is on," she announced.

Next to the Korean leader were lines of tough looking security agents from her country monitoring the hall 

In a flicker of a second, super Korean performers swarmed the stage, unmasking South Korea through music and drama. The Korean performance was a combination of hi-tech sound effects and gadgets brought out clearly through Taekwondo. The performance was one of the events organised by the two countries to celebrate 50 years of diplomatic relations. 

Korean President, Park-Geune-hye who addressed the audience at the end of the show said culture could be used to bring people of different backgrounds together to stop wars.  

One of the performances that left Ugandans dumbfounded and nearly tore their ribs apart in prolonged laughter was when the Korean performers danced on their heads and hands with the abdomens and chests dangling in the air.

The other spectacular performance involved gadgets that portrayed the performers as moving robots in darkness. The performers had been wired that one would hardly know they were real people until the lights on their bodies went off and the hall's main lights returned.

High profile Ugandans, who attended the show included trade Minister, Amelia Kyambadde, state minister for animal husbandry, Bright Rwamirama and NRM government chief whip Ruth Nankabirwa. The Ugandan audience clapped endlessly throughout the one hour performance.

At one point, a Ugandan cultural group, Acholi Cultural Foundation took to the stage with Lakalaka dance but only portrayed a sharp contrast in cultures and levels of technologies between the two countries.

A group of Ugandan children as young five years learning Taekwondo from Koreans academies in Uganda also took the audience by surprise when members kicked the air like their trainers.

Before the kickoff of the show, the South Korean tourism sector used the chance to highlight some of their tourism facilities including investigative movies, music and soaps.