Newly elected and sworn in Lubaga South Member of Parliament, Kato Lubwama will be the Chief Guest as Uganda joins the rest of the World to celebrate the World Culture Day.
The local celebrations, May, 2016.
“As the custodian of Culture in Uganda, It is mandatory that we celebrate this day. This is a very important day to us as an institution,” said Francis Peter Ojede Executive Director UNCC. “We are organizing this event under the theme “Celebrating our Cultural Diversity: The role of Culture in creating peace and Unity for sustainable development”
The Public Relations Officer of UNCC, Robert Musiitwa, said choosing Hon. Kato Lubwama, one of Uganda’s leading actors as the Chief Guest for World Culture Day is a sign that UNCC recognizes artistes and supports art and culture.
“We decided to have Hon Lubwama as our Guest of Honour to demonstrate the importance of artists to us and the special role they play in our society. Currently, many upcoming artistes are looking to him as their role model,” Musiitwa said.
Activities for the day
Cultural dialogue
As part of the celebration, there will be a key note address by Prof. Dr. Mageni Patrick, Dean, School of Liberal and Performing Arts, College of Humanities and Social Sciences MUK.
The discussant will be Prof. Dr. Mercy Mirembe Ntangaare, Director MEBO theatre and Senior Lecturer MUK and Prof Okaka Opio of Kyambogo University. The moderator will be Andrew Ssebagala of House of Talets.
Workshops
Dance, drum and backcloth making workshops will be conducted as well. .
Performances
There will be performances from Galaxy International School Uganda, St, Kizito Kawempe, Royal Institute, Talanta Uganda many others.
Exhibitions
Through exhibition we believe to achieve the theme goal by having the best exhibition space ever with various exhibitors that will not only showcase but also teach and define Uganda’s culture as a whole complex of distinctive, spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features that characterize society or social groups. It includes not only the arts and letters but also modes of life, fundamental rights of human being, value systems, traditions, habits and behaviors.
Why celebrate culture day
The World Culture Day offers Ugandans, the opportunity to reflect, recognize and take stock of the contribution of culture in development and also to assert the importance of our cultures. In so doing we are able to concretize actions, to preserve and promote our culture in its broadest sense thereby paying attention to its intrinsic values so that culture can play its rightful role in the sustainable development of Uganda.
The Government of Uganda through the Ministry of Gender Labour and Social Development and through Uganda National Cultural Centre recognizes the role of culture in the lives of people and the role that culture plays in the nation’s development.
This is realised through achievements in terms of cultural development in form of the recent policy initiatives, including: the launch of Uganda’s national culture policy that UNATCOM played a great role in making this happen, the launch of the policy on the use of local languages as a medium of instruction in primary education, the development of a draft national policy on traditional and complementary medicine, the restoration of “institutions of traditional and cultural leaders”, as per the 1995 Uganda Constitution, the initial elaboration of a data base on national monuments and sites, the promotion of local languages as subjects in educational curricula, the translation of key policy documents in Uganda’s principal local languages, the draft of the national creative industries authority, the ratification of some UNESCO Conventions to mention but a few. The above achievements so far attained call for celebration and such celebrations ought to be done on the World Culture Day.
About World Culture day
During the World Decade for Cultural Development 1988 to 1997, United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) pronounced May 21 as World Culture Day. This day was observed annually worldwide up to 1997 with themes from UNESCO that were endorsed by member countries.
At the end of the Decade, Member States were urged to continue observing the day with national themes relevant to the States. In November 2001, further to the adoption of UNESCO’s Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, the General Assembly of the United Nations proclaimed 21 May as World Day for Cultural Diversity for dialogue and Development.
Uganda as a Member State started commemorating this day from 1999 up to date. The main objectives of the day are to:
- To create public awareness on the importance of culture in peace building
- Provide an opportunity to deepen understanding of the values of cultural Diversity
- Learn to “live together” better.
Uganda National Cultural Centre
Uganda National Cultural Centre (UNCC) is a statutory body that was established in 1959 by the Uganda National Cultural Centre Act 1959 (and amended in 1965).
UNCC, a semi-autonomous under the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social development is mandated to Preserve, Promote and Popularize Uganda’s cultural heritage both locally and internationally.
Our vision is “a centre that leads in nurturing culture as a primary driver of development” while our mission is: “To Preserve, Promote, Popularize and develop Uganda’s culture through setting standards, building capacity and implementing national policies”.
World Culture Day 2016 has been made possible with support from: Uganda National Commission for UNESCO, Nile Dialogue Platform and Cross Cultural Foundation of Uganda.
