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30 Years of Bananas: Why Uganda should be wary of same old diet at 57
Scene. The cast during a scene in 30 years of Bananas, at Play House, a new theatre, last month in Mengo, Kampala. PHOTO BY EDGAR R. BATTE
What you need to know:
History. The play was first staged in 1992 by playwright and actor Alex Mukulu when Uganda marked 30 years of independence.
Thirty Years of Bananas offers as much reflection as depressing ideas about Uganda’s political trajectory. Insightful in revealing the egocentricity, tribal overtones in the top leadership with excesses that reveal traits of national economic imbalances, lapse in judgement, electoral immaturity that has characterised and defined the national leadership to the detriment of motherland, through the decades.
The play, first staged in 1992 by playwright and actor Alex Mukulu, at the time when Uganda marked 30 years of independence, is back on stage under the directorship of another respected playwright, producer and actor Philip Luswata.
In his delivery of thematic concerns, he uses multilingual diction, symbolism, music, dance and humour.
He unpacks the storyline from different fronts but majorly using engaging narratives and thereon football to represent politics and the players denoted as Ugandans, whose deplorable continuous failure to steer their country to a decent future redraws them to a dependence syndrome, ironically to the colonial masters whose exit they were happy to celebrate.
The instances bring the argument by President Paul Kagame to life. “There is this myth that we always have to look outside the continent to fund major initiatives. But this simply cannot be true when Africa is losing billions every year through lost taxes, sending private assets abroad, and other factors.”
The playwright uses a young cast that is curious enough to question the past that has come to define their present.
In that, they learn about the figures that have led and ruled Uganda, their making and unmaking, and how it contextually affected the country.
Like celebrated English tragedian William Shakespeare sarcastically chose to load his vital messages through ‘the fool’, Luswata takes on an evolving role of one Kaleekeezi, a migrant who rises from a domestic worker, within circles of the influential, to a civil leader who affirms the political stereotype use of deceit packaged in wilted flowery talk sanitised as manifestos to the electorate.
This should beg the pertinent questions, as; Do we get the leader we deserve? Did we rush the chants of independence? Can we, ever, achieve national consensus? How can we divorce tribalism from politics? Are we better off resigning to enjoying more years of the bananas irrespective of the taste and their quality?
Lest we risk developing ulcers, there is reason to do some soul searching. The crack in political supremacy reveals more need for social dialysis that bares a society whose moral fibre has been damaged is sore, with septic moral decadence.
The cast uses music to fortify the thematic concerns, with sobering lyrics that sting deep, stemming evocative results in the conscience. In essence, Uganda is on the pedestal and has the choice of engaging in some hard talk, reflect over the seemingly difficult but realistic questions then look into its soul for plausible answers and ultimately responses.
It’s not only 30 years of bananas, Uganda will celebrate 57 years of independence this October. The play is still on stage, for a number of weekend, at the Playwright’s Playhouse, in Mengo, off Balintuuma Road.
ABOUT THE PLAY
Title: 30 Years of Bananas
Director: Philip Luswata
Playwright: Alex Mukulu/Philip Luswata
Genre: Political
Cast: Wide-ranging
Duration: Two hours
