BOOKS:: Transcendent Spirit
A young resident of the Children of Uganda home in Kiwanga. About seventy percent of Uganda's orphans are victims of AIDS - more than one million children. Others are from families torn apart by the long-running bloody rebellion on Uganda's border with Sudan and those affected by severe poverty.
Dusk falls over the main courtyard at the orphanage in Rakai district. It was in the fishing villages of Rakai in southwestern Uganda that the AIDS epidemic first emerged some three decades ago.
Sweeping the chapel at dawn at the Kiwanga home. Children rise at five each day for morning prayers. They make their beds, do chores and begin the school day promptly at seven.
Children at both orphanages are taught strict discipline and modesty. Girls and boys wear their hair cut short and do their laundry by hand.
Noeline Nabasezi waits in line for a shower.
Rakai students wait to take part in dance classes and, possibly, a chance to try out for the dance troupe that tours the US.
Primary school children at Rakai home usually eat posho (maize meal porridge) and beans for lunch. The children line up with their tin plates to get their servings, then are allowed to sit where they like to eat and talk with their friends.
Lunch at the Kiwanga home in Kampala is a much stricter affair than the Rakai home. The staff serves the same porridge, but the children all eat in one lunchroom in strict silence overseen by house mothers.
Sunday afternoon is a time for sports and relaxation at the Kiwanga home.
Peter Kasule lived at the Daughters of Charity home in Kampala for seven years after the death of his parents and was a US Scholarship high school and college student. Now the artistic director of the dance troupe, Kasule likes to mix African dance and music with Western forms. He not only choreographs the troupe’s acclaimed performances, but also serves as master of ceremonies.
At the Kiwanga home the children spend hours each day training and learning dances. Every child is given a chance to try out for the dance troupe, but only about two dozen of the most talented and hardworking kids are chosen to go on tour. “There are those who really love it passionately, and those are the ones who really rise to the top,” said Alexis Hefley.
Six-year-old Miriam Namala was a star of the most recent US tour with her featured solo during the Titi Katitila dance she rehearses here. The dance comes from the Bunyoro-Kitara people who celebrate one of the many extraordinary birds found in eastern Uganda. The lyrics say the titi katitila always sleeps better after seeing a friend.
Teddy sits by her mother’s side during a rare visit to her childhood home. Annette says her pride in her daughter’s accomplishments helps to make up for the losses she has suffered.
In 2006, Peter Kasule finally made the journey to a mountaintop in Tanzania, where his father is buried. He placed stones on the grave, completing the last rites a Ugandan son must perform.
Bernard in Katwe, a rough-and-tumble neighborhood of metalworkers and storefronts on the outskirts of Kampala. He once lived in a room there with his mother and two brothers.
The children hold nothing back during a dress rehearsal before a show at the Joyce Theater in New York. Zaam Nandyose, 16, is rehearsing a dance called Ekitaguriro, which belongs to the nomadic Banyankole people of western Uganda. The Banyankole are sometimes ribbed by their countrymen for their great devotion to their herds of cattle. This dance praises the long-horned cows of Ankole and Rwanda – found nowhere else on earth. The dancers imitate the sounds, rhythms, and the movements of the graceful cows. This piece features the omukuri, a flute used to herd the cattle.
Dancer, Francis Lubuulwa, 17, after the show said “People think, these are children who have lost their parents; they have had so many problems. But then they see us perform and tell us how wonderful it is. They see the joy and smiles we carry on stage. People learn from us that life goes on.”
Francis Kalule, Brian Odong, Brian Aine and Patrick Nyakojo perform the Kinyarwanda dance named for the Rwandan language. It features the Rwemeza drums of the Banyarwanda royalty, played to announce the king’s entrance to the court.
