Abafrika bid farewell to Rutamirika

Oct 26, 2008

IT is hard to say farewell to a great artist. And even as Desha Munyangoga, the director of Abafrika Entertainment, asked the audience to let Winkle Rutamirika rest in peace and hold their tears, many did not. For it was hard to hold back their tears and even harder to let him rest as talk centred

By Emmanuel Ssejjengo

IT is hard to say farewell to a great artist. And even as Desha Munyangoga, the director of Abafrika Entertainment, asked the audience to let Winkle Rutamirika rest in peace and hold their tears, many did not. For it was hard to hold back their tears and even harder to let him rest as talk centred on Rutamirika, a playwright and director in Abafrika Entertainment, who was slain earlier this year.

This was at the premiere of Abafrika Entertainment’s first movie, Bye Bye Rutamirika, at the National Theatre last Friday. It is a mini documentary that makes it hard to tell which of the sub-tales was fictitious and which was not.

It is the story of Dick (Munyangoga) who falls in love with a country girl, but is dissuaded of the affair by all close to him; bosses, friends and brothers.

He persists, almost driving his spirits to high levels of insanity, but finally wins the battle. At last, when they should be “living happily,” he loses his closest friend, Rutamirika.

And there continued the tears for the deceased, a man who popularised theatre drama throughout western Uganda in a career that spanned over 20 years. The clips of his stage acts at the end provided the biographical evidence. The culture music score by Innocent Mujinya gave the movie the feel of a dirge.

While others rest in peace, great artists cannot, for they always remain on our minds and lips. That is Rutamirika, who lives on from the other world. The movie is still showing at the National Theatre this weekend.

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