Art & Poetry in Concert: The Butterfly Dance

Uganda Mon 31-05-2010

Art & Poetry in Concert: The Butterfly Dance
By Sophie Alal/AfricanColours.com

Window dressing makes some uncomfortable situations bearable, while makeup, when skillfully applied to an ordinary face masks flaws and makes even the plainest individual an enigma.

And thus it is with visual art too, assuring that any extraordinary painting can transform a dull wall, page or any words by lending a little bit more of much needed colour and character.

The Butterfly Dance is the third episode in the poetry poster project series.

Mrs Butterfly by Paul Kaspa

It amounts to a mixed artistic grill, where established authors and upcoming writers collaborate with the finest of Uganda’s contemporary artists in transforming their words into colourful paintings.

The paintings were produced in the book to accompany the poems and stories.

Each one of the paintings was unique, though something similar shared by all of them was the presence of characters and plot. And so even after taking a casual glance, you can imagine what is going on without the help of the accompanying poem or story.

The various techniques employed in the artists’ colourful interpretations of the poems encompass a wide range of media and styles, giving birth to works of collage, acrylics and water colours.

The artists are Stella Atal, Maria Naita, Paul Kaspa Kasembeko, David Kigozi, Joseph Ntesibe, Anwar Sadat and James Musaali.

After seeing some of David Kigozi’s paintings for the first time, it is natural to give a sigh of wonder at the realism with which he executes his work. His craft is displayed in a number of ways.

One is the apparent ease with which he treats all his subjects, and the second is the economical use of colour which is in more ways dramatic, and no doubt done with an excellent artistic sense.

A Cockroach, shows fat cockroaches scurrying away to the right. In the near background, the black feet of chickens loom ominously, while the keen eye and beak of one of them is poised to strike.

A Cockroach by David Kigozi

After looking at the painting, the appropriate conclusion is that all the six cockroaches shall be eaten, as it is suggested in the poem of the same name written by Tino Akware.

Joseph Ntesibe took charge of painting Mama’s Garden of Beans, written by Hilda Twongyeirwe. The painting works from dark to light, unifying the dark greens and mid and light yellows.

An old lady is bending in the active process of digging in a lush garden. Beside her, on the right foreground is a basket of beans.

Her yellow gomesi, and light blue headscarf are flamboyant against the colourful background and the sky which is a washed blue. One peculiarity is the anatomical incorrectness of her disproportionately thin arms.

In essence, the watercolour is a cheerful abundance of various elements namely colour, but not least, admittedly an abundance of food too.

But why is her face hidden in shadow that conceals her expressions amidst all this abundance, I wonder? Perhaps the grueling task of farming has something to do with the situation, nevertheless it still remains one of the little mysteries of the piece.

With work mostly done in acrylics, the very distinct style of Paul Kaspa Kasembeko comes alive in two paintings which capture whimsical observations of life, and present a constant caricature of human beings in interaction with animals.

In Mrs. Butterfly which was written by Grace Atuhaire, the painting which doubles as the cover art, features a doe-eyed girl observing the life cycle of a butterfly.

Under her gaze is a speckled white butterfly, while lower down is a yellow pupa, a white caterpillar and a line of eggs stuck on a leaf.

Everything else in the background is rather abstract, considering that the butterfly seems to be facing the little girl as it sits on a floating flower.

New children’s literature tends to be driven by many things, of which the pursuit of creativity is one, and the other is engagement of the reader.

The Butterfly Dance is one such anthologies dedicated exclusively to children, for their reading pleasure in the current environment where books meant for children rarely ever have poetry in abundance.

There is a lot of self expression and brightness in this connected collaborative art which brings together artists from various fields; writers, painters, illustrators and musicians. It was started by a Dutch volunteer, Addy Beukema, three years ago.

As a retired teacher she mentioned that she was, “Shocked that there was no poetry anthology for children in primary schools in Uganda.”

The background to its beginnings delicately highlights the weaknesses of a reading culture attuned mainly to the needs of adults rather than children.

This being in so far as a foreign national becomes compelled to initiate the first ever Ugandan poetry anthology for children.

Mama's Basket Of Beans by Joseph Ntesibe

In subtle ways then, the poster poetry project is intended to be a long shot at rehabilitation. For the past three years, the anthology series has been examining this need.

The two distinct genres in the collection are poetry and narrative writing. In the narrative category are short stories where a number of writers tell stories that are familiar to their childhood.

Also notable are three songs based on scenes from childhood.

One is ‘Enkuba Etonnya’, a song about rain, written by Beverley Nambozo Nsengiyunva, which elegantly combines traditional Luganda rhythms with lyrics in English.

What the writers offer to children and what language the editors find permissible were deductible from sampling the first ten pages.

Most creatures are either mothers or fathers and are titled Mr. or Mrs. Although this may suit very young children in the line of reading made famous by Beatrix Potter, intelligent young readers of 10 to 13 years may find the reading level a little too tame for general enjoyment.

The attractive pages do hold one’s attention but then it is also possible to languidly agree that the print quality only barely manages to assuage the various issues that publishers deal with continuously.

Important details were glazed over and typos are found to be waving to be noticed.

Even if the paintings looked wonderful, errors in the text can be distracting. Consider the first line of the last stanza of Mary’s mango Tree.
‘Mary’s mangoes bring a smiles (sic)’
Then go ahead a few pages to Mr. Crow, where it is said of the bird
‘It patches (sic) on a branch above’

One wonders whether there was a first print run, which would have provided a chance to capture and kill published nightmares.

In addition to the aforementioned, there are several instances where the layout threatens to throw words off the edges of pages, as miniscule margins eventually became nonexistent.

By the time you reach the end of the book, you may wonder whether the truths of certain writings have been distorted by bungled editing.

It seems almost incredible that certain liberties were taken with the materials, but one reminds oneself that people are not finely tuned machines.

There is an ongoing battle being waged against clichéd writing, not just especially the kind that Binyavanga Wainaina protests about, but also the conventional type that comes from lazy writing, and the big ones that manage to live unscathed by the editors’ deleterious marker.

However, the more one goes on rambling about the publications, old or new, the more it is apparent that local publishing is an agonizing process that aspires to live up to difficult ideals of print perfection.

With this bedrock, there is still hope that today’s reading children at least have foundations to look back on, and later as grownups, carry on with writing other anthologies, for their own children.

The technology of their times shall probably be much kinder to them as they try to correct the flaws of their predecessors.

Looking on the lighter side, there are all these beautiful paintings and collages that make up for glitches in the poetry and prose.

And thanks to the artists, we can avert our eyes from anything that smirks of minor fault, and turn to something much more palatable.

And with a little dollop of optimism, the abundance of talent and all the grand ideas may even continue in collaboration, to deliver newer voices and fresh perspectives.

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Your Comments

denis mubiru: am kigozi,ntesibe and paul kaspa are su8ch great artists in uganda ......their works are so delicate yet mature in terms of executing color and they potray the ugandan culture...hey thanks alot guys...howevfger as a student persuing an art course in nkumba university i must critic their art pieces....... ...first not so much color is used... could we see different colors mixed on the palette