Straddling seven hills, and situated on the northern shores of Lake Victoria, is Kampala, the capital city of Uganda.
Kampala is also Uganda’s commercial capital, having blossomed from its earliest days as a major stop on the East African Railway line, aka The Lunatic Express.
As one of the safest cities in East Africa today, and complimented by its equatorial weather, Kampala has flourished for affordable living and boasts breathtaking views. The Kasubi Tombs are a key attraction and were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001.
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Serendipity generously weaves a new memory for Ruth as she sits with Philippa Namutebi Kabali-Kagwa. The conversation begins with a brief reminiscing about when they first met almost two decades ago in Kenyatta University in Kenya. Graduation led to different paths and the two met again in Cape Town, in another ether orchestrated move just outside iKhaya Lodge.
Philippa’s entrée into Storytelling came to her as naturally as breathing, as the youngest child of Faye and Henry Barlow who loved to craft words. Starting with a poem for a dear friend, whilst in high school, Philippa was fortunate when whilst in university, the beautifully scripted poem was included in the publication of A.D Amateshe’s Anthology of East African Song & Poetry. Even at seventeen, Philippa’s depth of feeling that she so fluidly infuses into her storytelling and facilitating, was evident as she tackled the perennial question of sorrow and joy as the constant intertwining themes of life.
Philippa emerged from Kenyatta University having successfully held on to her desire to study both music and literature. The former she had been drawn into by a love affair that turned into her marriage as she joined her then boyfriend’s band. The two disciplines continued to flow seamlessly in her life. Through them she explores the various questions of life, how to give and to receive, how to hold joy and pain as well as how to hold space for others.
In typical fashion, in the year that Philippa published her first three children’s books with the Cambridge Rainbow Readers, she also welcomed her youngest child. With the fourth children’s book, Katiti’s Song, Philippa drew on Baganda folklore in choosing her daughter’s favourite childhood story. Here began the dappling with the immortal world of story as she drew on heritage and brought a story imbued with metaphor that applies to the present day. That it has been translated into other languages, only demonstrates how the story evolves and slips into life and culture, where it is told.
The memoir, Flame and Song, published by Modjaji Books in South Africa and Sooo Many Stories in Uganda, began as a journal in response to an urge to capture the story of her family and the turbulent period in Uganda in which Philippa grew. The storytelling brings to vibrant life the family home, yet the reader is suddenly juxtaposed against the ratatatat of machine gun fire and lost lives, followed by the upheaval of exile to Ethiopia and then to Kenya.
The flow in the re-telling is exquisite. Gentle, honest, sad and happy too. A life of a family and a nation in that time is immortalised. Relatives visited, songs, re-sung, the harshness of war and civil strife not unlike what is still sadly prevalent in parts of Africa and the world.
Flame and Song is a celebration of life, and what can be more defiant against demise as life surely is.
Connect with Philippa: Philippa Namutebi Kabali-Kagwa | LinkedIn
Twendeni. Africa is ready.
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