The newly elected and sworn in Lubaga South Member of Parliament, Hon Kato Lubwama will be the Chief Guest as Uganda joins the rest of the World to celebrate the World Culture Day.
The local celebrations, which are going to be celebrated under the theme; “Celebrating our Cultural Diversity: The role of culture in creating peace and unity for sustainable development” will be conducted at the Uganda National Cultural Centre (UNCC)- National Theatre on 21, May, 2016.
“As the custodian of Culture in Uganda, It is mandatory that we celebrate this day. This is a very important day to us as an institution,” said Francis Peter Ojede the Executive Director UNCC. “We are organizing this event under the theme “Celebrating our Cultural Diversity: The role of Culture in creating peace and Unity for sustainable development.”
The Public Relations Officer of UNCC, Mr Robert Musiitwa, said choosing Hon Lubwama, one of Uganda’s leading actors as the Chief Guest for World Culture Day is a sign that UNCC recognizes artistes and supports art and culture.
“We decided to have Hon Lubwama as our Guest of Honour to demonstrate the importance of artists to us and the special role they play in our society. Currently, many upcoming artistes are looking at him as their role model,” Mr Musiitwa said.
ACTIVITIES FOR THE DAY
Cultural dialogue
As part of the celebration, there will be a key note address by Prof. Dr. Mageni Patrick, Dean, School of Liberal and Performing Arts, College of Humanities and Social Sciences MUK.
The discussant will be Prof. Dr. Mercy Mirembe Ntangaare, Director MEBO theatre and Senior Lecturer MUK and Prof Okaka Opio of Kyambogo University. The moderator will be Andrew Ssebagala of House of Talets.
Workshops
Dance, drum and backcloth making workshops will be conducted as well.
Performances
There will be performances from Galaxy International School Uganda, St, Kizito Kawempe, Royal Institute, Talanta Uganda many others.
Exhibitions
Through exhibition we believe to achieve the theme goal by having the best exhibition space ever with various exhibitors that will not only showcase but also teach and define Uganda’s culture as a whole complex of distinctive, spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features that characterize society or social groups. It includes not only the arts and letters but also modes of life, fundamental rights of human being, value systems, traditions, habits and behaviors.
WHY CELEBRATE CULTURE DAY
The World Culture Day offers Ugandans, the opportunity to reflect, recognize and take stock of the contribution of culture in development and also to assert the importance of our cultures. In so doing we are able to concretize actions, to preserve and promote our culture in its broadest sense thereby paying attention to its intrinsic values so that culture can play its rightful role in the sustainable development of Uganda.
The Government of Uganda through the Ministry of Gender Labour and Social Development and through Uganda National Cultural Centre recognizes the role of culture in the lives of people and the role that culture plays in the nation’s development.
This is realised through achievements in terms of cultural development in form of the recent policy initiatives, including: the launch of Uganda’s national culture policy that UNATCOM played a great role in making this happen, the launch of the policy on the use of local languages as a medium of instruction in primary education, the development of a draft national policy on traditional and complementary medicine, the restoration of “institutions of traditional and cultural leaders”, as per the 1995 Uganda Constitution, the initial elaboration of a data base on national monuments and sites, the promotion of local languages as subjects in educational curricula, the translation of key policy documents in Uganda’s principal local languages, the draft of the national creative industries authority, the ratification of some UNESCO Conventions to mention but a few. The above achievements so far attained call for celebration and such celebrations ought to be done on the World Culture Day.