The moment I walked into the pastel-colored, dimly lit room at the Renaissance Society, I was struck by the sound of gunshots. The exhibition is a maze of seven differently sized rectangular rooms, each room screening a film from Wakaliga Uganda, a film company based in Kampala.
At the center of the maze stood the largest screen. There, amid the sounds of gunfire, an upbeat melody emerged as some of the visitors to the Renaissance Society and on-screen characters sang lyrics questioning Uganda’s cultural journey: “Oh dear Uganda, where did you go?”
If Uganda Was America, the titular film, opens in a classroom of students discussing national development. The teacher calls the United States a “first-world country” while describing Uganda as “third world.” A student asks, “Was it always like this? Or were Uganda and America once the same world?” His classmates laugh, but the teacher acknowledges him: “Yes, of course.” At first, the discourse may seem irrelevant to the upcoming scenes. However, from a bird’s-eye view, the scene effectively covers the idea of “where we all started from,” a theme embedded in all stories. Throughout the film, the plot repeatedly turns to debate: Is this us? Are we transcending or losing ourselves? Are immoral behaviors justified when done for the “betterment of the country”?
The film then introduces two contrasting narratives. One features a warm family gathering where children visit their grandparents, eager for stories about Uganda’s past. Their grandfather takes them to a small forest where their crops grow, sharing traditional tales and introducing them to indigenous instruments such as the Sekitulege, made by tying coffee tree branches with an iron sheet. This wholesome, domestic scene stands in stark contrast to the second storyline, where a doctor in an immaculate white coat experiments on a patient, forcing him to run into a cement wall, causing his death.
Seemingly disconnected, both narratives address a common anxiety: the erosion of Ugandan cultural identity under external influences. Throughout the film, a recurring musical refrain ties these disparate scenes together as a commentary on cultural loss and transformation. The family scenes portray efforts to preserve heritage through storytelling and ritual, while the medical experiments represent the violent pursuit of international recognition—the doctor dreams of using her patient to win Olympic glory and elevate Uganda to “first-world country” status.
This feature, like much of Wakaliga Uganda’s work, skillfully balances humor, action, and social critique in a style both unpolished and vibrant. It is also notable that Wakaliga Uganda functions under a budget that is typically under $200. Given the ultra-low budget of their films, it is impressive that most of their films feature more than five actors, are filmed in multiple locations, and include actors who can perform technical skills such as battle scenes. This is possible because the production team creates handcrafted props and casts amateur actors who possess acting skills but are only in need of screen time. Not only does this give Wakaliga Uganda’s films their distinctive DIY aesthetic, but their high-quality films also encourage many amateur filmmakers to create films under similarly tough circumstances. For a film company, Wakaliga Uganda stands as a prototype of frugality and boldness, telling powerful and creative stories that comment on global power dynamics under a restrictive budget.
At the heart of the exhibition, If Uganda Was America stands as a powerful satire that challenges viewers to reconsider the relationship between cultural authenticity and globalization. The film ultimately suggests that Uganda’s path forward lies not in mimicking Western models of success, but in recognizing and celebrating its own unique cultural heritage and creative vision. Wakaliga Uganda demonstrates that compelling storytelling transcends budget constraints, proving that authentic voices can emerge from any corner of the world, regardless of economic limitations.
As I left the exhibition, the question from the soundtrack lingered: “Oh dear Uganda, where did you go?” Perhaps the answer lies in the very existence of these films—evidence that Uganda’s creative spirit remains vibrantly alive, even as it navigates the complex terrain of traditional values in a heavily industrialized world.
