Refugees learn carpentry at the Sipiri camp in Arua, northwestern Uganda. Refugees in Uganda are making art to earn a living. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
Mukamazina, a refugee from Burundi, makes wooden sculptures, chairs and beds.
He is passionate about art, having studied it in school in Burundi.
As a contribution to his host community, Emmanuel Mukamazina, 35, a sculptor and refugee from Burundi has been able to create jobs for Ugandans at his workshop in Nsambya, Kampala.
“Sometimes, when I get many orders, I hire Ugandans to hasten production. Besides, I love to see everyone live a good life through hard work,” Mukamazina says.
Mukamazina makes wooden sculptures, chairs and beds. He is passionate about art, having studied it in school in Burundi. He has also attended trainings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam where he improved his skills.
“I love art because it puts food on the table and I can pay my children’s school fees and for healthcare, and also take care of the general needs of my family,” he added.
“My father was a sculptor and he passed on his skills to my siblings and I. The war in Burundi forced us to run to Uganda in 2007. I first lived in Nakivale Refugee Settlement for one year before coming to Kampala,” the soft-spoken artist told The EastAfrican.
Mukamazina was part of a group of over 20 refugee artists and crafts makers who took part in the World Refugee Day art exhibition titled “Storytelling Through Art” that was held at the Design Hub in Kampala on June 20 and extended for public viewing until June 22.
Mukamazina displayed his wood carvings of undocumented refugees tied up with ropes by the police so that they could not escape. “These are usually refugees who have fled through panya routes (ungazetted crossings). They are usually tied together with their children and personal belongings,” he says.
Mukamazina’s other carvings are on social life in Burundi — people working on their farms or drinking traditional beer.
The most interesting were a group of South Sudanese refugee children living in the suburbs of Kampala, who displayed their print design and other art works that they made under the charity Faces Up Uganda. The children won the Viewer’s Choice Award.
“I love painting and I want to paint when I grow up,” said seven-year old South Sudanese refugee, Mark Mene, who attends Primary One at Wisdom Primary School in Lugala, Kampala.
Joseph Namaguru, 41, a refugee from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, displayed his recycled art, furniture, house decorations and paintings.
Namaguru, who lives in Nsambya, fled from Congo in 2014, passing through Rwanda where he left his children and mother. He started doing art in his childhood and took art courses in Zambia and Indonesia.
“Art makes me forget my problems, relieve stress and keep me from thinking about all that I have experienced,” says Namaguru. Most of art has strong underlying themes of environment and resilience.
