Kampala, Uganda – May 13, 2025
Makerere University on Tuesday screened Tuko Pamoja, a documentary by Dr. Cindy Magara, as part of a wider push by humanities scholars to have creative works recognized as valid academic research output.

The screening, held at the University Main Hall, drew senior university officials, faculty, students, and representatives from national education bodies. The event highlighted growing calls to integrate creative arts into the university’s research and promotion frameworks.

Speaking on behalf of the Dean of the School of Languages, Literature and Communication, Dr. Levis Mugumya emphasized that creative works such as documentaries should be formally considered during academic staff promotions.

“Creative art should be considered as input that contributes to staff promotion,” Mugumya said. “We need to rethink what counts as academic output.”

Tuko Pamoja—Swahili for We Are One—is a docuseries exploring Uganda’s ethnic diversity and shared historical experiences prior to colonial nation-state formation. Dr. Magara, a literature scholar and filmmaker, was praised for creating a culturally significant work that transcends traditional academic formats.

“This is a great tool for promoting patriotism. It contributes to national development and deepens our understanding of ethnicity and nationhood in Uganda,” Mugumya added.

The event was officiated by Professor Mukadasi Buyinza, who represented Vice Chancellor Barnabas Nawangwe. In his speech, Buyinza reiterated Makerere’s commitment to supporting research in the creative arts.

“We cannot promote research only in the STEM disciplines. Resilient communities need a sense of humanity—and creative arts are central to that,” said Buyinza. “Film-making and research are expensive, and we must find partners to support such initiatives.”

He also called for greater collaboration among faculty and students to promote and disseminate creative research outputs like Tuko Pamoja.

Associate Professor Helen Nkabala, Principal of CHUSS, stressed the importance of storytelling in shaping national consciousness and academic relevance.

“At the College of Humanities, we are telling you that we need to unite to tell our story if we are to make meaning to our communities,” she said. “This film shows how humanities research can be innovative, relevant, and impactful.”

Dr. Magara, a former student in the department, was commended by senior colleagues for bridging academic and artistic expression. The event follows a recent management dialogue on the role of humanities in nation-building.

“We need events like this to remind us who we are,” Buyinza concluded. “Unity is not given—it is built through conscious effort and shared history.”

Dr. Cindy Magara Traces Journey from Classroom to Cinema with Launch of Tuko Pamoja Docuseries

Dr. Cindy Evelyn Magara, a literature scholar and pioneering filmmaker recounted her two-decade journey into film-making at Makerere University during the screening of her latest documentary project, Tuko Pamoja. The event was part of a broader discussion on the role of creative arts in academia.

Dr. Magara shared her evolution from a student in Uganda’s first film studies class in 2005 to becoming one of the country’s most recognized female filmmakers. She credited her start to Professor Sister Dominic Dipio, who introduced artesian cinema at Makerere University.

“If it wasn’t for Sister Dipio, possibly I wouldn’t be here. I wouldn’t be a filmmaker,” Magara said. “From the time I made my first film, I knew that was going to be my career path.”

After graduating in 2006, Magara founded Nyati Motion Pictures, a production company named after her clan totem—Mbogo (buffalo). Her first film, Fate, became a historic milestone as the first Ugandan film screened at Cineplex Cinemas and aired on Africa Magic.

She went on to direct Fair Play, an EU-funded project, and Windows of Hope, before pausing her film career to pursue advanced academic studies. “I had to juggle marriage, motherhood, and a master’s degree,” she explained. With mentorship from Professors Susan Kiguli and Dipio, she transitioned into academia and later earned a PhD.

After completing her studies, Magara returned to filmmaking with Tuko Pamoja (Swahili for We Are One), a 13-part documentary series exploring Uganda’s pre-colonial ethnic unity and shared cultural heritage. The project blends various documentary techniques—observation, exposition, interaction, and reflection.

“The documentary seeks to foster cohesion by examining our interconnected past,” she said. “If we were relating together, then we were one.”

Magara revealed that the idea for the series was inspired by the political intrigue of Game of Thrones, likening Uganda’s 19^th-century power dynamics—particularly involving historical figures like Kabalega and Mwanga—to an epic African saga.

Originally intended as a single short film to attract funding for a full-length feature, the project evolved into a full series following extensive community research. Magara interviewed historians, cultural leaders, and opinion makers across Uganda. “This became my classroom,” she noted. “I learned so much—I think the Department of History should give me an honorary PhD.”

Tuko Pamoja was premiered in the very communities where the research was conducted, receiving support from local media houses and sponsors. Magara credited UBC, NBS, and Vision Group for providing extensive free media coverage. “UBC told me, ‘We are sorry you’re doing what we should have done long ago,’” she recalled.

The series, currently accessible via nyatimotionpictures.com and the upcoming Nyatiflix app, has also generated academic interest, prompting calls to recognize such creative works as legitimate research outputs.

“We must think of film not only as an art but as research and business,” Magara emphasized. “Film is the evening class. If we fail to tell our stories, someone else will do it for us.”

Magara expressed gratitude to her mentors, students, sponsors, and family—including her husband, who helped finance the production. Plans are underway for wider distribution on local television stations and digital platforms.

As the event concluded, Magara left a message for aspiring creatives: “Film is powerful. It’s how we entertain, educate, and decolonize the screen.”

“Lighting the Screen: A Story of Art, Identity, and Nation”

“We need to cultivate an audience. We need to teach our people that consuming art is not luxury—it is culture. It is growth.” Prof. Sr. Dipio Dominica

It was a warm afternoon, and the hall was alive with quiet anticipation. At the front sat three figures who had long walked the corridors of Uganda’s most prestigious institution—each one a torchbearer in the creative arts. Professor Abasi Kiyimba, long known for his eloquence and firm grasp of literature, stood to open the conversation. His voice, familiar and thoughtful, welcomed the audience into a dialogue not just about film, but about the soul of a nation.

“In the Department of Literature,” he began, “we’ve always believed in crossing boundaries. We have mothered other departments—film, drama, music. And now, here we are, watching Uganda retell herself through the lens of the camera.”

He turned to Professor Dominica Dipio, a former student of his who had become a pioneer in Ugandan film. With a soft smile, he asked, “At what point did you realize that film had to be added to the menu of your literary journey?”

Professor Dipio’s response was part memory, part reflection. She traced her path back to the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, where she had gone to study literature. But to her surprise, there was no African literature course. Instead, she was nudged by wise Jesuit professors toward film—a medium they described as an art form closely tied to literature.

“It made sense,” she said. “Storytelling is at the heart of both. Writing with a camera—this is what film allows us to do. It was as though I had been prepared for this all along.”

When she returned to Uganda, she found a generation of students hungry for a new kind of expression. They weren’t waiting to be told what to do. They were already calling themselves filmmakers.

“I had taught them just the basics,” she chuckled, “and they were already making films and introducing themselves as directors. I thought, ‘Please, let’s be humble.’ But inside, I was proud. They had vision.”

From there, Makerere’s halls began to echo not only with poetry and novels but with the buzz of editing software, the click of cameras, and scripts written in digital ink. Film festivals like Maisha, Amakula, and Zanzibar became essential spaces of collaboration. The National Theatre turned into a second campus.

And sitting beside Dipio was another creative soul with his own journey—Dr. Milton Wabyona, a man who had nearly disappeared from the education system.

“I’m a school dropout,” he confessed quietly. “Few people know that. I was studying physics, economics, and math. But I couldn’t pay fees.”

It was music—specifically a dance troupe—that pulled him back. A woman named Dr. Jessica Kawa recognized his talent and gave him a chance.

“I told her, ‘I don’t care what I study. I just want to go back to school.’ That’s how I entered the creative arts.”

Music, he argued, is more than melody. It teaches collaboration, humanity, and interdependence.

“No matter how gifted I am, I can’t sing harmony alone,” he said. “I need others.”

He quoted Plato, reminding the room that the arts were once central to shaping good citizens and preserving culture. The arts, he said, are not just subjects—they are the soul of education.

As the discussion deepened, Prof. Kiyimba asked a profound question: What is this film we just watched? Is it literature? History? Art?

Professor Dipio leaned back and explained that film, as the “seventh art,” gathers all other forms—literature, painting, music, theatre, sculpture—and weaves them into one cohesive experience. She invoked Aristotle to explain how literature and history are both rooted in reality, but art reshapes that reality, making us see it anew.

“Film is a representation,” she said. “It tells history not by simply stating facts, but by shaping them, giving them voice and character.”

Characters like Queen, Mwanga, Kabelega, and others in the film weren’t just historical names—they had become people with motivations, fears, and contradictions. That was the power of art.

Then Dr. Wabyona took the floor once more.

“Music speaks in ways plain words never can,” he said. “You don’t need to understand Lingala to dance to Congolese music. That’s how powerful rhythm and pitch are.”

But behind the excitement lay a persistent concern—money. Could Ugandan cinema be self-sustaining?

Dipio paused before answering. She didn’t sugarcoat it.

“We are not yet consuming enough art,” she said. “We don’t have the culture of going to the cinema like in Burkina Faso, where the whole country stops for the FESPACO film festival.”

Comedy, she admitted, was one area where Ugandans paid. But serious artistic films struggled.

“We need to cultivate an audience. We need to teach our people that consuming art is not luxury—it is culture. It is growth.”

Wabyona agreed. He shared how many Ugandan productions, like Ndere Troupe, offer free shows, yet the audiences are overwhelmingly foreign.

“When your own people don’t show up,” he said, “you begin to understand the kind of crisis we’re in.”

Then, quietly, the conversation turned to the political dangers of art.

“Have you ever censored yourself?” Kiyimba asked Dipio.

She smiled.

“So far, my films have been harmless. But make no mistake—art is political. Even saying it’s not political is a political act.”

She quoted a colleague: “Art disturbs.” And that’s what makes it powerful—and dangerous.

“Where the state seeks to unify, art challenges. It asks hard questions. It stirs the water.”

And yet, art also carries hope.

As the discussion ended, the audience was left with a simple but profound idea: A society can be judged by the art it consumes. In that sense, the future of Uganda’s creative arts isn’t just about budgets, scripts, or shows—it’s about whether its people choose to see themselves on the screen, in the music, in the dance, in the story.

And that choice, perhaps, is the most powerful act of all.

Jane Anyango is the Principal Communication Officer, CHUSS