Authors,+Writers,+Musicians

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Among the many countries in Africa, Uganda has many performers that range from writing poems and books to creating gospel and up-beat music. Below are a few of the many entertainers throughout the country of Uganda we decided to share with the class. =====

__Author[[image:olutayo.jpg align="right"]]__
 We felt the most important author to present was Olutayo K. Osunsan. Olutayo is a famous author from Kampala, Uganda. He is a graduate of International School of Uganda and is the author of //Strange Beauty.// His poems and writings have appeared in several publications around the world and he is currently working on his next collection of poems titled: //The Poet In May//. Also he is also currently working on several books including two co-authored works.

Strange Beauty is a collection of poems that add up to reveal that "failures, trials, limitations, hardships, and losses only make us stronger by relying on Gods strength and resources; they help us dare to believe and make us ignorant enough to aim higher than we can possibly achieve". In a strange but beautiful way we begin to realize that everything that happened was actually stretch us, to make us people of character, dept and integrity". Sources:[|http://www.writers.net/writers/books/2725]



__Musicians__
Aside from published works, Africa especially in Uganda is full of many musicians who bring lively music to many people across the world. Since there are so many artists, we only picked a few to present to the class.



//Achilla Orru:// is a blind, Ugandan-born musician who is a master of the lokembe, or thumb piano, and is regularly heard on CBC Radio. Achilla was awarded the title of "King of the Lukembé" during his recent trip to Uganda. He is now currently based in Toronto, Canada, and has developed an international reputation for his kalimba (lukembé) playing. Below is a clip of Achilla Orru performing in Toronto in 2009. media type="youtube" key="kYvEj4R4geU" height="240" width="297" align="center"

//Silas// //Babaluku// Balabyekkubos//:// The hip-hop genre is a challenging department to dab into but is currently on the rise in Uganda. Babaluku's music type is called lugaflow which is singing in native language luganda. Babaluku is the founder and head of the Bavubuka all stars, "an initiative that oversees promising hip hop artists who have the ability to lay out the rightful message with a slogan “Akaffe Kabatuze".

Babaluku started his music career 1994 laying the foundation of Hip Hop in Uganda. Babaluku traveled to the United States to learn more about Hip hop and after acquiring some experience, he bounced back in 2001 with Bavubuka all stars as the next music generation.

Babaluku argues that hip hop is the only type of music that carries message “ I do this music because I get inspiration and it’s the only way I can express myself .”

Below is a clip of Babaluku singing which also includes picture of Uganda:

media type="youtube" key="Ngm2D8B5gQg" height="241" width="300" align="center"

Source:[| http://www.musicuganda.com/solo.html]



A group called the The African Christian Team (ACT) is a "gospel weapon formed by gospel artists with the aim of fighting HIV/AIDS, immorality and corruption". They are a group located in Kampala the capital city of Uganda in East Africa. The ACT is a "non profit making production, which aims at changing the world to make it a better and safe place to live in". ACT was formed due to the high levels of Immorality, Divorce, Corruption and HIV/AIDS infections especially among young people in Uganda and other parts of Africa. The group's gospel messages are delivered through "music, dance and drama, seminars, conferences and talk shows". They travel to "schools, Churches, Media houses and Conference halls to address these issues.

Their goal is to "ensure that people are guided and caused to follows Godly ways in their day today life". Source:[| http://www.musicuganda.com/ACT.html]

__Reaction:__
After learning about the fun cultural aspects of Uganda, I feel as though this country will be building up and advertising many new artists around the world in the next generation. Aside from just these few artists above, many other artists are still learning in school and are trying to become published/copyrighted so they have the ability to own their work. I feel as though more authors and writers should be published around the world so people in the United States and other countries can really understand life in Uganda. I also feel that the music should be spread even more around the globe because people in Africa sing about their feelings just as American artists do in the United States. If people listened and focused more on books from Africa, especially Uganda, they would be able to compare how different culture is in Africa to America or other countries
 * //- Carly Scorziello//**