My artwork titled Nakulabye, which is 4 meters long and weighs 440 pounds, is an intimidating sculptural replica of the Omweso game board (Fig. 1). The wooden sculpture, twenty times larger than an average Omweso game board, includes four cane stools to sit on during play. Its composition is derived from a human face, and it has thirty-two pits (8 × 4) in the configuration of a mancala board. This sculpture was inspired by my engagement with a group of men that I visited in July 2016 in Nakulabye, a town in an urban area of Kampala City, Uganda. At the Nakulabye Omweso Club, a shop veranda in Nakulabye Town, these men play Omweso and chat against the backdrop of a small television that mostly screens British Premiere Leagues. Observing their exchanges, which seem to be informed by moves on the Omweso board and reveal strong, clearly...
Reconfiguring the Omweso Board Game: Performing Narratives of Buganda Material Culture
Rose Kirumira Namubiru is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Industrial and Fine Art Makerere University specializing in ceramics and sculpture. She a is a widely recognized and exhibited female sculptor in Uganda. Her major artistic research interests are reconfiguring cultural artifacts of the Baganda. She has practical experience in initiating and organizing national and international artists workshops and residencies in Africa. [email protected]
Rose Kirumira Namubiru is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Industrial and Fine Art Makerere University specializing in ceramics and sculpture. She a is a widely recognized and exhibited female sculptor in Uganda. Her major artistic research interests are reconfiguring cultural artifacts of the Baganda. She has practical experience in initiating and organizing national and international artists workshops and residencies in Africa. [email protected]
Rose Namubiru Kirumira; Reconfiguring the Omweso Board Game: Performing Narratives of Buganda Material Culture. African Arts 2019; 52 (2): 52–65. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/afar_a_00460
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