By Alfred Ochwo
In Uganda, life and culture are celebrated with colorful festivals and ceremonies that bring together people from different parts of the country to celebrate the cultural diversity.
Traditional clothing and food reflect the cultural identity of the community. It varies according to region and ethnicity and is often colorful and elaborately designed.
Some traditional clothing is the “gomesi,” long dresses worn by women, “Kanzu”, a long robe worn by men. These dresses often have eye-catching patterns and are made of cotton or silk fabrics.
The Jopadhola community on Saturday 2, gathered at the Kyambongo Peace Park grounds in a festival that not only connected them with their roots but also offered outsiders a foretaste into their rich cultural tapestry.
The festival had a diversity of local foods, fabric, symbolizing abundance and unity, a booth for traditional materials and tools displayed for people to witness, dishes such as millet, sorghum, cassava, sweet potatoes, and many others were shared during the 3rd festival in Kampala.
Music captivated both participants and spectators dressed in resplendent traditional attire adorned with symbolic motifs, people moved in graceful synchrony to the booth to beat of drums, winnow, play adungu (stringed musical instrument) and others.
According to the chairman of the Jopadhola community Jerome Osuna, as transformation continues to reshape landscapes, the festival is there to help people recognize the importance of safeguarding their traditions for posterity.
“Our objective of celebrating the Jopadhola culture is to preserve the culture, customs, lifestyle and heritage through events to showcase these customs, through literature, poems and engaging the young population to learn and speak our language,” he said.
Jopadhola founder member Lazarus Oketch, told New Vision that one of the main objectives of the Jopadhola festival was to bring together Jopadhola from different places to promote unity, inclusiveness, and diversity.
“Through this we promote local businesses to sell and showcase our products thus enhancing our incomes, our young people are also beginning to forget their roots and origin, so with this festival, young people learn and get to know tribes right from costumes, food, entertainment, and many others,” he said.
However, Alfred Onyango Oyuma vice publicity secretary Adhola community said all the Budama mouthpieces were invited for the festival but none of them turned up for the event.
“I would like to inform this gathering that we, as the organizing committee of the festival, made all possible ways to invite many of jopadhola leaders but to our dismay, none of them showed up leaving a vacuum how shall we develop our community,” he said.
Music performances came from Kizito, Toxic, young sharp Ug, Gamix music, Princess Nora, Olunga, Japsam, Governor, Felicity, Queen Labonita, Lucky Caro, OMC among others.
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