Category: breakdance project uganda

kampala street arts festival

I spent Sunday afternoon selling juice and sandwiches to passersby at the first ever Kampala Street Arts Festival. Organized by Peter Otim, who sells his paintings, batiks and sculpture in his gallery on Bukoto Street, the festival filled the street with local artists, musicians, restaurateurs and those who came to admire their work.

BBC’s Sarah Grainger compiled a photo essay that shows participants making art out of the city’s ubiquitous potholes, and I was able to get a few shots of Breakdance Project Uganda and Sylvester & Abramz, who performed at the event.

decoding NGO-speak

As I was putting together my Hiphop for a Cause review on Monday, I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was, despite my best efforts and enthusiastic use of words like “brilliant” and “cool,” a bit…dreary. Limp. Uninspiring, even.

Part of this is undoubtedly due to my complete lack of meaningful knowledge concerning hiphop, breakdancing and the art of writing about such things, but I don’t think it’s all my fault. Take, for example, this paragraph:

Breakdance Project Uganda was founded by Ugandan hiphop artist Abramz several years ago to empower street kids, formerly abducted child soldiers and other disadvantaged children throughout Uganda using hiphop and breakdance. BPU offers free breakdancing classes to these children, giving them a positive means of expressing themselves and encouraging them to become future BPU teachers.

I’d wager a fistful of shillings that 98% of all developing-nation NGO mission statements sound vaguely similar. Replace “disadvantaged children” with “widows” or “the unemployed” and “hiphop” with “well-digging” or “brownie-baking,” and you have what is meant to be a rousing, passionate declaration of How To Change Lives. But what does it mean? Empower them to do what? Express what, exactly? For a statement that’s supposed to save the world, it’s pretty bland.

I propose we get rid of the vapid euphemisms and talk about what these NGOs really do. Striving to give people “something constructive” to do means attempting to distract them from destructive alternatives — violence, drugs, prostitution, lethargy. Providing “outlets for expression” means letting them blow off anger, frustration, sadness or sheer boredom without robbing, assaulting or seducing the next person they see.

Bowing to a politically correct notion of what they Can and Cannot say neutralizes the immense value of these organizations. I understand that labeling their clients as potential bullies, welfare cases or criminals may come off as patronizing and imperialistic, which isn’t great for business. At the same time, they wouldn’t exist in a perfect world, and shrowding their goals in drab, dispassionate NGO-speak makes them seem like nothing more than part of the nonprofit bandwagon, with a clip-art logo and a cookie-cutter mission statement. There has to be a better way.

I’m not talking about late-night television appeals to lift child mothers out of poverty with only 10 cents a day or histrionic threats that a teenage gang will take over the inner city unless someone donates a new arts center. I’m talking about stripping off a little of the sugarcoating, employing a little more precision in their vocabulary, revealing a little of the rawness that exists in their spheres of influence without giving in to a showy, maudlin kind of despair.

Breakdance Project Uganda teaches street kids how to breakdance so they have a way to prove their social superiority that doesn’t include beating the shit out of each other. To their credit, this is basically how they introduced the first breakdance battle on Sunday: “these kids used to fight, but now they dance.”

I should have just said that.

hiphop makes me happy

Last night I left the house (goodbye, Scrubs, I’ll miss you so) and went to the Sharing Youth Center in Nsambya for Breakdance Project Uganda’s Hiphop For a Cause show.

I say this as only a white girl from the midwest can: How. Cool.

Breakdance Project Uganda was founded by Ugandan hiphop artist Abramz several years ago to empower street kids, formerly abducted child soldiers and other disadvantaged children throughout Uganda using hiphop and breakdance. BPU offers free breakdancing classes to these children, giving them a positive means of expressing themselves and encouraging them to become future BPU teachers.

The Hiphop For a Cause performers ranged from Lyrical G, the hiphop winner of the 2006 Pearl of Africa Music awards, to a group of children from HEALS, an afterschool program in Gulu, to kids from the Kingship Orphanage in Kampala who had been training with LA-based hiphop choreographer Jessica Dexter.

Over 100 people attended the show, all proceeds from which will go into further Breakdance Project Uganda programming.

Abramz and his crew of mouthwateringly talented dancers offer classes at the Sharing Youth Center every Monday and Wednesday from around 5:00 to 9:00 PM. Classes are free and open to anyone who wants to learn.

hiphop for a cause


photo © Glenna Gordon

I’ve written before about Abramz, a Ugandan hiphop artist and community activist whose work with disadvantaged children and youth throughout Uganda makes me squeal like the little, breakdancing-wannabe I am.

This weekend his Breakdance Project Uganda is presenting HIPHOP FOR A CAUSE on Sunday, May 6th at the Sharing Youth Centre, Nsambya. The festival aims to show people the positive role that hiphop plays in Ugandan societies and to encourage youth and children to participate in community work. It will feature breakdancers and hiphop artists, most of whom are youth and disadvantaged children, from Gulu (H.E.A.L.S), Kampala & andother areas of Uganda.

RAP PERFORMANCES BY: Sylvester & Abramz, Lyrical G, Swamp Kamp, DE.P.P.I Static from Belgium and many more

VENUE: Sharing Youth Centre, Nsambya
TIME: 2 to 6:30 PM
DATE: Sunday, May 6th
COST: 3,000 shillings

the united nations of this rap…stuff

The violence in Karamoja is likely the biggest forgotten, neglected part of what has been called the biggest forgotten, neglected humanitarian emergency in the world. Both UPDF soldiers and rebels have been accused of gross human rights violations, drought is sweeping the northeast, and the violence has gotten so bad that the night commuter phenomenon, previously restricted to areas under LRA attack, is spreading to the region.

Amidst it all, there is hope — in the form of a hip-hop duo called the Rocky Boyz Crew. Ugly-Unit and Legless, its two young members, aim to promote unity and reverse negative perceptions of Karamoja through their music.

Another hip-hop artist in Kampala is doing the same thing. Abramz, a rapper and breakdancer, works in Nsambya, Gulu and Mbale to encourage at-risk youth to work together for social change through Breakdance Project Uganda.

I met Abramz at the Global Kimeeza II conference last month, and his passion for both his art and his work made my insides all smooshy (in a good way). If anyone knows how I can get in touch with the Rocky Boyz Crew and beg them to let me hang out with them for a few days, let me know.

Jay-Z may think he’s the UN of this rap shit, but he clearly hasn’t met these guys.

EDIT: Ariaka’s right. “Rebels” is the term the UPDF has applied to armed Karamojong, who some would argue are protecting their land, cattle and/or families against government attacks.