Against the Odds

Through resilience and determination street artist Deogratius Masembe courts both local and foreign audiences to tell his story of triumph and failure

ART | DOMINIC MUWANGUZI | Under the mid-day scorching sun in Kazo- Bwaise, a busy suburb in Kampala city, a young man expertly cuts and bends small wires into a miniature animal skeleton on his lap. He obviously looks engrossed in this craft that even the busy traffic on the nearby highway, doesn’t seem to distract him. Once in a while, he holds up the figurine and peers at it the way a skilled sculptor will carefully observe their molding to determine its accuracy in proportionality and size. When he’s finished, he reverts to polishing up the grey areas in the artwork and then embarks on the next stage of creating a body for it which may take several days. In between this period, he will be working on other sculptures he produces from concrete and wire meshes. On other occasions, he produces flower troughs used to decorate homes and recreational facilities, all of which, he displays on a small plot of land located on the road side.

Deogratius Masembe, is a street artist and like several of his contemporaries who work in and around the now fast transforming city landscape, he’s a victim of the erratic city council laws which marginalize many informal businesses in the city. Similarly, the lack of government support to the arts in Uganda further exacerbates the situation for artists like Masembe who work with small capital and cannot afford decent working space. “I had a container I used to operate in. It was big enough for both my studio space and display but one day law enforcers from Kampala City Council Authority (KCCA) came and pulled it down. They said it was in a road reserve,” he says in a disheartened tone. With that particular incident, the artist was forced to look for another space and luckily he was able to rent a small space from the church. “Where I am working now, the land is owned by the church and I pay Ushs.150, 000 every month as rent. It is a small plot but good enough I no longer get harassed by KCCA because this is private property,” he says with a sigh of relief. Though his work is no longer interrupted by the city authority, he now faces the challenge of working in an open space which exposes him to disruptions especially during the rainy season. “When it rains I can hardly do anything since my studio is outside. Equally, I have had several occurrences where this small kiosk I store in my finished artworks and other material has been broken into,” he narrates.

The resilience and determination of this artist is the most fascinating aspect of his practice that in spite the hardships he routinely encounters, he’s still doing what he loves the most. “I always wanted to be an artist from an early age. The start was difficult because I did not have money but I found my way around it,” he says. Like many children who grow up in modest families in Uganda, Masembe was unable to finish school and dropped out in senior four. “My parents had no money to finance my education and after senior four, I stopped going to school. During this period I resorted to pursuing my childhood dream and visited several artists’ studios. I saw they were making heavy sculptures and I thought to myself that I should create something different. I decided to make light sculptures produced out of wires, saw- dust, paper and paint because these materials are inexpensive and light,” he says. In his early days, he would hawk the statues in different places and people would buy them because of their decorative nature and the fact they were small in size and could be displayed anywhere. In the present, his financial woes have not disappeared yet, but he’s not deterred by this shortcoming. “I consider myself successful even when I don’t have money because art has enabled me to meet people I never thought I would meet. I am also able to take care of myself and siblings,” he says. But even with this confession, one can see that Masembe is not satisfied with these achievements but he’s setting his eyes on a bigger prize. “I have life goals and I am confident I will realize them through making art,” he asserts.

The lack of support to the creative sector by the government casts a dark shadow on the practice of many artists in Uganda. Several artists who fail to contend with this reality often are forced to channel their creative energies to more profitable ventures in search of a quick fix to their problems. Few like Masembe are able to resist this temptation and resolutely remain dedicated to their vocation. This determination to keep on wading through the adversities of life as a street artist is what makes their art exceptional. The art is intricately layered with the artist’s personal stories of triumph and failure which make it desirable to a more discerning eye. As such, the real success of many such artists is not to attain that elusive economic independence but to connect with diverse audiences through their wide-raging stories depicted in their art. It through such stories that the outsider appreciates the world they live in and become part of their everyday struggle.