The Awakening: Part II The Awakening will commence with Mujuni Raymond Carlton in a self-written piece titled “They asked me to write”, reprising the starting role he played in BITTERSWEET, and two recitals running with this same privilege being bestowed upon him by the concept, one begins to think-maybe it’s not a coincidence. He is a law student, a tenacious journalist and social activist which professions will merge with his hobby as he poeticises about what genuine love his. His stance is one of agitation and confusion as he muses of society’s demand that he should write about love. He tries, and yet he can’t access the sceneries of “flowery petals bulging in the earth’s crust” nor “Of lovers craft-fully bellowing cradled whispers”; what, with the scenery so botched with gloom and disease. After a startling description of the ensuing desperation and before a dramatic climax, he will put this paradoxical ideal of love into perspective: They asked me to write To write about love, To write about love as we saw lions grow enchanted to the Savannah, Eating all the tiniest grass creeping out of blood drenched soils As bloody investor-saws made love to beautiful green forests, The trees falling in black smoky industrial soot, Choking the lungs of penny-earning peasants ploughing his field Latter casts in this segment will include Remmy Bagenda (Sleeping In Uganda written by Zakaria Tiberindwa), Barbara Namuli (The Reason written by Peter Kagayi), Sabiti Jason Ntaro (‘War’ written by Elijah Bwojji), Agaba Archibald (Some Day-self written), Zindzi Kampororo (Flipside written by Ntaro Jason), Zak Tiberindwa (27 written Donald Massa), David Benon Kangye (Thickets written by Elijah Bwojji) and Solomon Manzi (I’ll not go home till am drunk written by Peter Kagayi). This initial segment will vent personal opinions from ‘imprisoned’ voices spanning character experiences from the common man to a war veteran. And yet it is not until the next movement that the actual awakening will begin. After the plea of imprisoned voices caught in the duplicity of the social situation, they will be visited by Messenger voices which will reveal what must feel like the causes of their dilemma. Perhaps most telling are evocations of Asia Tusiime in the Peter Kagayi written piece: And possibly you don’t know that, They live no more shadows and hang around us They know about you greed so they come with stashes of cash And you will forget your selves in a moment of flash And you will stash your own flesh on a steak of deceit And fornicate until you bleed from your ears and teeth And your guts will roast with gore on the altar of television Till you become emaciated bones For just their pleasure. As far as paradoxes are concerned, The Awakening has barely peeled the dark veil. And here the educator Peter Kagayi will demonstrate the death of innocence in the Emmanuel Ngabire written piece, “A lot of Childish Nonsense”. Armed with the blade of sarcasm, this persona (‘with a pot of brew swirling his brain’), will find his awakening from an unlikely source; the playtime muttering of children: They said that we were lost, deceived and lost To call ourselves Ugandan and yet we might as well be Kenyan or Rwandan That a child born in hospital might as well call it home Because that’s what determines who you are: where you are born But children are stupid, we all know that So don’t be upset by the nonsense they blurt. Other acts in this movement will include Ojakol Omerio (‘Government conspiracy- selfwritten), Pascal Olupot (Leadership Is Dead written by Ojakol Omerio), Esther Mutuzo (Jungle Wrangle written by Lillian Ngabirano), Tendo Anne (The Oracle by Elijah Bwojji), Peter Kagayi (Until there is no ear to hear the prophets written by Joel Nevender Muhumuza), Daniel Nuwamanya (Armageddon to Come-self written), Daniel Mutembesa (Winston Poems written by Emmanuel Ngabire) and Mutesi Latifah (It’s all good written by Daniel Nuwamanya). Within each of these lines there is vivid understanding that the Awakening will not come with a soft nudge, but rather, a wrench or heave applied by a digger to another who is stranded in a pit. The third segment will attempt to offer reasonable alternatives, strong tones of resolve, proclamations and visionary voices of hope. Perhaps typifying the idea behind this segment is Moses Mist Laku’s self-written poem “Rise”. While it laments the failure of family and community, it declares the value of culture and identity: all which it emphasises are not in practice, but the eternal principles that occasion them: I am the customs and the culture The riddles and their answers The moral of stories told by mothers I am the descendant of those that came before me The thread that stiches the past to the future Other pieces here will include: Joshua Okello (A Poet’s Speech written by Mujuni Carlton Raymond), Clare Asimwe (The Messenger), Lenny Busingye (Long Tooth Jackals written by Edgar Kangere), Kaboneire Juliet(Stand up and See written by Peter Kagayi), Linda Orando (Daughters of Eve-self written), Solomon Manzi (Ode to Patrice written by Edgar Kangere), Rachel Kunihira(Some Gone written by Archibald Agaba), Laura Byaruhanga (All things rise and fall written by Moses Mist Laku), Persis Babirye (Echoes of a beating heart written by Agaba Archibald), Jason Ntaro ( Who is to Blame) and Bridget Karemente (Something Better written by Solomon Manzi). There are a number of things to look out for. The Lantern Meet will perform some pieces submitted by the members of the audience which aesthetically and thematically suited the concept. But mostly there will be a variation on set; its form has the unity of a play, and yet all this numerous voices will aspire to be unique. What is clear is that the poetry will move from vents and pleas of affected voices, to a vivid declaration that their situation needs to change, and finally options given by visionaries on how this change might be impacted. We hope along the way we shall all find our Awakening. BE AWAKENED.
Posted on: Fri, 04 Oct 2013 07:51:32 +0000
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