Art that speaks strongly of home

By Gerald BusingeMOST of us like art. In more than one way, it is the conveyor of a people’s culture. Beautiful, well drawn or well sculptured art can be interesting to look at, especially if you can associate with and comprehend what is being conveyed in it. That’s the feeling you will get when you look at banana fibre art that will surely interest you.Onesmus Ngoboka, one of the Architects of this banana art, says he likes this kind of art so much because it is African and depicts real life situations in the African setting. And he has packaged them in the form of cards, the kind you always send to your loved ones.“I saw these foreign cards as a way of foreign dominion. I was looking at ways of promoting our own African cultures depicted in this simple art,” Ngoboka said about his inspiration in undertaking banana fibre art.This is different from the drawings you see everyday, or the writings and carvings you see. This kind of art may even be addictive. Seeing kids playing; women from gardening or collecting firewood in the real village setting; Mary with baby Jesus, Uganda cranes; or a rural woman pounding in a family setting — all packaged with banana fibres on a clean paper card without words.All that is left for you is to make your own interpretation: “Why should you send someone a card with words you found there? It does not say what you really wanted to express. But with our cards, you write in your own handwriting what you want to say and send the card with the kind of art that your person best associates with,” Ngoboka said. But he said marketing the cards remains a problem. They are already selling at Nabaca Fabrics in Wandegeya, Expose Africa on Buganda Road, Aristoc Booklex, Mango Grove in Ntinda (a white hangout), and Entebbe Zoo among other places.But what may surprise you, most of this art is just exported to Western counties, while it is African. “Whites want this banana fibre art so much. They buy it in plenty,” Ngoboka revealed. He said this kind of art, unlike the cards sold in most shops, increases one’s power to be innovative, to imagine and express our attitudes and feelings to the people we cherish: “When you buy this kind of card, you write what you want and when you get it. It is more real, not this common stuff,” Ngoboka said.He makes them through Touch of Grace Designers in Cornerstone, on Acacia Avenue. They go for between sh1000 and sh1500. “It is also looking for a way of living to me,” Ngoboka said. And he does not have to import anything to make this kind of art. Don’t you also have banana plantations at your home? You could make yourself a living!He said they normally produce the art on order. “But we are looking forward to marketing it everywhere. We are looking for interested partners,” Ngoboka said. ends