Arts meet albinism awareness campaign
People in Senior Chief Nankumba’s area had a full dose of fun on Tuesday when an albinism awareness meeting, which took place in their area, was filled with artistic activities such as songs, dances and drama performances.
The activity, whose main aim was to raise awareness on protecting the rights of persons with albinism (PWAs), used the songs, dances and drama to spread the message, thereby making people that travelled from as far as 10 kilometres to kill two birds with one stone.
The meeting was organised by UN Women with support from the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DfID).
Among the performances were two short stage plays from Wavelength Multimedia featuring artists such as Ching’aning’ani and his nephew Yuda (from a popular television series called Ching’aning’ani) and dances and songs from Fikisa of Akamwire fame, a group that stirred the nation into paying attention with their fusion of ethnic Yao and urban music over four years ago.
People of Nankumba community also staged their play as well as traditional dances such as beni and gule wamkulu to show the visiting artists that they are not amateurs in entertainment.
The plays highlighted how PWAs are hunted like animals and treated as a gateway to riches by their close relations and people in their communities. They then brought home the message that though such is the case, albinism is just the skin colour, nothing more than that. n
