UMOJA CFC is a product of the Norwegian Council of Cultural Schools and is created upon the vision of promoting peace and development through international cultural networking.
Currently eight partner countries (South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Uganda and Norway) and a number of cultural institutions are involved. In each country a national ensemble, counting around 15 young talented artists between the age of 17 and 27, was established through auditions earlier this year. The national ensembles of the four East African countries and Norway have recently been together in Kampala for nearly two weeks to develop and promote skills, to gain cultural understanding and respect, to stimulate cross-over work and create artistically interesting results. Teachers and administrators from cultural institutions in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Norway have also been here to work with the young artists and to strengthen their institutional ties. Norwegian development authorities have supported UMOJA CFC since 2003.
Uganda was included in UMOJA this year. Both the Embassy and the international UMOJA team have been extremely pleased to see how well the Uganda national team and ensemble have integrated into the larger UMOJA family. Makerere Department of Performing Arts and Film, the local hosting partner, has done a great job!
During the weekend of 23-25 September the five national ensembles had individual shows at the National Theatre. There were all in all ten shows that included elements of dance, music, acrobatics and circus. They were all of top quality, something that the audience managed to express – the atmosphere in the theatre was amazingly positive and at times euphoric!
On Friday 30 September the 80 artists set up a brand new UMOJA International Show that had been designed and rehearsed during the week following the shows at the National Theatre. The International Show comprised of individual/national, as well as joint, pieces. The Ndere Centre which has room for 1000 people was almost full - towards the end one actually had to turn people away. The show was of excellent quality and the revellers all seemed to be very impressed.
UMOJA and the Embassy received quite a lot of press coverage during the Festival. Follow thelink to read Ambassador Gaustadsæther’s feature article, which was printed in both New Vision and the Monitor.
For the Embassy this has been a most rewarding exercise. The agreement with the Norwegian Council of Cultural Schools for the UMOJA CFC programme is for a period of four years, meaning we all have more similar cultural experiences to look forward to!!