Africa-Press – Uganda. Zubedah Byantalo is the name that identifies her given her role in popular digital skits, Kitonsa. There is, however, much more to this professional journalist who literally stumbled into acting and is currently the face of Ugandan theatre.
Also known as Shamim Mayanja, Zubedah is an incredible character who can draw you to visualise John Jones, a famed comic who reigned supreme in Uganda’s theatre back in the 1980s. In fact, Zubedah’s seriousness would easily be reduced to the theatrics that most of her clips have enjoyed, especially on TikTok.
Abasajja twabavaako, loosely translated to mean letting men be, is her latest viral voice in which she pokes fun at men for neglecting their husband duties. This was in reaction to a speech by Education minister Janet Museveni in which she urged women to let their husbands be. While it has won her acclaim, the 32-year-old insists there is more to theatrical performances than entertainment.
But by taking art beyond the walls of auditoriums, the face of Uganda theatre should, perhaps, brace herself for another burden—one of fashioning a new generation of theatregoers.
Zubedah the actress
In 2012, while still a student of journalism at Crane Media, Zubedah chanced upon a group of actors who were conducting auditions in the Kampala suburb of Wandegeya. Zubedah was so intrigued that she suddenly developed an urge to pick up forms to take part.
Luckily for Zubedah, the play director was short by one person. Even better was that Zubedah was a perfect fit for the role of a performer. That is how she ended up on the books of Streamline Entertainment, a theatre outfit which used to perform at Royal Theatre every Thursday.
Zubedah fitted like a glove during her formative years at Streamline Entertainment. The work she undertook was also without charge.
“I was clearly told that if my intention was money, I was not welcome but if my intention was to learn talent, doors were open for me and that is the most consistent message even in other theatre groups around Kampala,” she explains.
Zubedah shares that much as the weekly shows were paid for by the audience, the director was clear that money was meant for designing a new stage, costumes, makeup and printing tickets for shows.
“People would pay Shs1,000 to watch our shows and we often sold out, but the cast had no share of the money since it had to be re-invested,” Zubedah told, adding that she would take a group of actors to her mother, a food vendor in Katanga-Makerere, to eat food free of charge.
Turning to journalism
Zubedah’s mother fed the entire cast as often as she “stopped me from continuing with acting because she saw no future in a venture that was not paying me.”
It was not until 2018 that Zubedah hung up her costumes to try a hand at practising journalism. She tried out her luck in a couple of newsrooms where she was not just underpaid but undervalued despite doing her job and doing it well.
“There is a silent purge against journalists in Uganda. Most of them are not paid, others are underpaid and suddenly they do not speak out,” she said, adding, “Walking out was the best way for me to speak out.”
In a sense, Zubedah is still actively involved in media work. She created her own online TV channel dubbed Executive Media, which runs on YouTube and TikTok. The channel counts 140,000 subscribers and millions of streams.
Theatre finally pays
In 2019, theatre legend John Ssegawa looked for Zubedah, whom he had identified previously at one of the shows at Royal Theatre. Ssegawa wanted Zubedah to take part in a theatre play called Zansanze. She offered an affirmative answer.
Zubedah disclosed that it was the first time in her acting career for someone to invite her for a role and discuss payment. It was indeed amazing.
“Uncle John, as we often call him, offered me transport–Shs50,000 on a daily basis and Shs100,000 for each day of acting. It might seem to be little, but, for those who understand Uganda’s theatre system, it felt like being paid in dollars,” she noted, adding that Ssegawa offered her more than just money but a lifetime opportunity to learn a lot of things in art and her personal life.
She proceeded to reveal thus: “Uncle John can fire you at any time if you fail to live up to his standards and he does not tolerate indiscipline and that became part of me.”
Since returning to theatre, Zubedah has written plays like Enkwe za Ssembuusi, Entengereze and Namukwakula—a project on domestic violence that sold out in March at Theatre La Bonita.
Corporate crowd
After staging a successful show at Theatre La Bonita, Zubedah says she thought it relevant to stage another show for the corporate class. She will cast the dice on this gamble when her play—Namukwakula—is staged at Serena Hotel in Kampala on November 18.
She shares that domestic violence, the theme for her play, resonates with everyone, especially those in the corporate world.
Its constituents, she adds, never get the opportunity to speak out when faced with domestic violence.
Besides having a dream to take the play to Uganda’s diaspora community in the Middle East, Europe and the US, Zubedah will soon embark on organising similar shows in schools.
She intends to do all this despite Uganda theatre grappling with various financial bottlenecks.
Much as Zubedah believes that there are people struggling to make sure theatre shines in Uganda, the sector—in her book—still has a long way to be revived. She says even some existing influential figures in theatre are using it as bait to earn money from politicians.
Zubedah also calls out creatives for writing poor content and using music to overshadow the image of theatre.
“Theatre and music work together, but it is sad that some creatives fail to pull off proper plays and they end up feeding the audience with mainstream musicians, which is not right,” she concluded.
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