Ugandan spirit takes the stage

Spirit of Uganda 2012 North American Tour. Rajab Basoga. (photo by Dan Ozminkowski)

There’s a pivotal scene in the award-winning Broadway play “Book of Mormon,” where the main characters receive their missionary assignments and learn they’re being shipped off to Uganda.

“Uganda?” they ask. “Cool. Where’s that?”

Answer: “Africa.”

“Oh boy, like ‘Lion King?’”

That’s one association many Americans have when they think of Uganda, or Africa. Others are no less simplistic.

“Most people think of (dictator) Idi Amin or tragedy or corruption or AIDS,” says Alexis Hefley, director of Empower African Children, a non-profit group based in Texas. (http://www.empowerafricanchildren.org/spirit.asp)

Next week, she brings “The Spirit of Uganda” to the Wells Fargo Center for a drumming, singing celebration of traditional African music. The performers, ranging in age from 11 to 21, have become worldwide ambassadors for the 2.4 million orphans in their homeland.

When Hefley first set foot in the eastern African country in 1993, she saw “devastation — it reminded me of the ‘Twilight Zone.’ There weren’t any street lights or stop lights working.”

It was also a time before anti-retroviral drugs were widely available and HIV ravaged the population, leaving many children without parents. Only a small percentage of students graduated from primary school and went on to secondary schools, which they had to pay for.

Hefley began to work with school teachers, social workers and orphanages to scout out potential performers and new recruits for the program, who are awarded scholarships for their education. A year of secondary education typically costs $300 to $1,500 a year — a high price when you consider the average Ugandan lives on about $300 a year.

“We have a criteria of what we’re looking for,” Hefley says. “It could be a young person who’s lost one or both parents to AIDS. Or a young person who lost their parents to the rebels of northern Uganda. Or maybe they have both parents, but they’re subsistence farmers and there’s no money to go to school.”

One of the youngest members of the troupe, 11-year-old Donatina Nakimuli, joined when she was 7 years old and started touring by the time she was 9. She comes from Rakai, the most AIDS-ravaged district in Uganda, and was recommended to Hefley by an orphanage. Now she attends a private boarding school outside Kampala, speaks English fluently and “she’s one of the highlights of the show.”

One of the oldest members, 21-year-old Moses Mudiope, was living on the streets of Kampala only a few years ago, scrounging for food and sleeping in the market after the vendors went home for the night.

“The 11th of 12 children, he comes from a family that could not provide for him. He became a street boy with nowhere to stay,” says artistic director Peter Kasule, who grew up as a member of the troupe. “I had heard about Moses, a boy who could play the flute very well, and I eventually met him at a gas station.”

After several auditions and meetings, Mudiope joined the “Spirit of Uganda” production and learned to tell traditional stories through song and dance, weaving tales of fallen kings, odes to beauty and homages to snakes and cows. It’s a far cry from the hip-hop Mudiope grew up listening to. His favorite is Akon, the Senegalese-American rapper.

Before he joined “Spirit of Uganda,” Mudiope played the flute, but didn’t know too much about traditional African music.

“As I moved around and slept on the streets, I always kept my flute with me,” he says. “I used to know it as my only brother. At one point I used to think that maybe I was nothing on my own. I was of no use to this world. But I learned I have talent and I have a lot to give.”

Bay Area freelancer John Beck writes about entertainment for The Press Democrat. You can reach him at 280-8014, john@sideshowvideo.com and follow on Twitter @becksay.