A wreath for Cissy Muwanga

Aug 21, 2011

ON Tuesday, the country woke up to sad news of the passing of a legend — renowned Ebonies actress Cissy Muwanga. The veteran actress died in the wee hours of Tuesday at International Hospital Kampala, about 2:30 am.

By Nigel Nassar

ON Tuesday, the country woke up to sad news of the passing of a legend — renowned Ebonies actress Cissy Muwanga. The veteran actress died in the wee hours of Tuesday at International Hospital Kampala, about 2:30 am.

She was 57, the oldest and one of the longest serving of the Ebonies, having joined the group in 1982.

The cause of death — a swollen leg that was later amputated and it escalated into a blood clot. The late had also battled with high blood pressure and diabetes for long.

Popularly known as Mama Naka owing to her role as Nakawunde’s mother in the group’s television drama That’s Life Mwattu, Muwanga had acted in big roles of about 30 Ebonies productions by the time she passed on.

She was last seen on stage at Theatre La Bonita on Easter Sunday, April 24, in the play Holly Devil D Wanchekecha, in which she portrayed police woman Nalongo.

From then on, the ever jovial Muwanga was bedridden until she breathed her last. Samuel Migadde, one of the late’s six children, was by her side when she passed. “I was holding her hand while saying the Lord’s Prayer just when she lifted her eyebrows like she was saying something, and then went silent,” recalls a distraught Migadde, an editor at the Ebonies’ VCL Studios.

“My mother was a nice person. I always wished I could be at least half the person she was. I know she has gone to heaven.”

A refined actress, Muwanga stood out on stage because of the convincing way she came off as. Fans referred to her by the names of the characters she portrayed, the reason she died a woman of many aliases, including Matron, from the group’s family drama Bibaawo.

At a vigil that was held for her Tuesday night at the National Theatre, mourners, the majority of whom from the arts world, were all-praises for the late. It was the same story at her requiem mass on Wednesday at Rubaga Cathedral. At her burial in Lutengo, Mukono district, a mammoth crowd paid its last respects.

You could tell her works had an indelible mark on all; what with a woman who, along with the Ebonies, traversed the entire Uganda, the U.S, Europe and the UAE doing what she did best!

An actress of her standing will be hard to replace. Didn’t we all grow up seeing her on TV and thinking all she was acting was real?

A true entertainer, Muwanga was funny without trying. When she acted elderly, no one would dispute. Yet when she went youthful, Muwanga came off as one hell of a damsel with the animation of a girl let off the anchor — the girly make-up, swanky phones, the prance of swagger, name it.

That was Cissy Muwanga, a Catholic, born to the late Nicholas Kayemba and Namubiru Kayemba of Nammere, Mpererwe.

Following the death of her parents, Muwanga moved in at a convent with her aunt, who paid her tuition at Budini Primary in Kaliro and Naggalama Secondary, where she cut her teeth in acting.

But in S.4, her aunt died and she dropped out, later securing training in child care and nutrition at Mwana Mugimu Nutrition Centre. This helped her secure a job at Sanyu Babies Home, and later at Mulago Hospital children’s ward.

Here, she doubled as a teacher at Twin Age Nursery School in Kampala, a job she eventually settled in after marrying her now deceased husband, John Musoke.

Later, she quit and got another job at Ebonies’ director JWK Ssembajjwe’s Jim Cat Nursery School, while also a Local Council chairlady in Kabowa.

When she starred in a village play about domestic violence and won a trophy for portraying a chauvinistic husband, Ssembajjwe was to catch wind of it, close the school and cast her for the role of Witch in Daisy, the group’s debut full length play 29 years ago.

Until her candle burned out on Tuesday, Muwanga, who was also in-charge of welfare at Ebonies, had never looked back. Thank you for the entertainment, Cissy Muwanga. May your soul rest in eternal peace.

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