Heart of the Yields celebrates heritage and African women

Muwonge Kyazze borrows from his experience of working with stained glass for many years to create a body of work that explores themes of co-existence, custodianship, collective memory and nourishment using banana fruit and cultural objects as metaphors.

ARTS | DOMINIC MUWANGUZI | There is a certain level of radiance that sweeps through the exhibition space at Umoja Art Gallery when you walk through its doors to see the show, Hearts of the Yields, by Muwonge Kyazze Mathias. The paintings hanging on the white-washed wall, many in mural sizes, are composed of a green palette with a mix of sunshine yellow and deep blue that emits a feeling of vibrancy but also serenity that one can almost touch with their bare hands.

On the other hand, the composition of women figures in surrealistic poses, coupled with recurring motifs like banana fruits (matooke) and vegetation, and traditional artefacts like mats, drums and huts, denote African cultural heritage, specifically Buganda, where the artist originates. As such, the exhibition anchors itself on the theme of heritage conservation and preservation, human co-existence with nature and vice versa, and survival and African women as a medium for nourishment.

The artist’s artistic process on canvas is grounded in his background as a stained-glass artist, academic researcher and cultural conservationist, and as such, his choice of media, technique and subject matter are as a result of these diverse experiences.

Muwonge’s style on canvas is surrealistic, evoking his extensive knowledge of European modern art as an art academic who once taught at the Margaret Trowell School of Industrial and Fine Arts, Makerere. Incidentally, this surrealistic approach on canvas correlates with his experience working with stained glass because of the shared qualities in both techniques, like the luminous illusions, transformative light and unconventional juxtaposition of images that lure the viewers’ attention to the subject matter. On the other hand, the artist’s choice of motifs, including mats, huts and drums, illustrates his deep passion to archive his cultural heritage of Buganda, where these objects feature dominantly. Muwonge’s canvases are decorated with banana fruits and vegetation, and women symbolise the figurative connection between the two living organisms. Just like bananas nourish humans by being a source of food, women also nourish nature through their ability to reproduce and by being providers of their households.

Such themes can be traced in Echoes of Green Ancestors 2026, which is a mural-sized painting interrogating the subject of co-existence between nature and humans and the shared quality of nourishment between nature (banana fruit) and women as mothers. The painting has the composition of three women performing the duty of preparing food, as is the norm in many African society settings. This composition is largely contextualised within Buganda cultural heritage, where women prepare food while kneeling down symbolizing virtues of respect and humility that are central in the social fabric of the cultural grouping. The matooke being prepared in the foreground of the painting is a staple food across the Kingdom but also is a source of economic mobility for many households in contemporary society, especially when grown on a large scale.

The central role performed by bananas as a source of human survival and continuity of a specific society’s cultural heritage in contemporary society is further explored in The Green Covenant 2026 and Kyengera: Yields of Memory and Resilience 2026. In the two paintings the Matooke is presented as a major subject to underscore its function beyond being a foodstuff but as a symbol of cultural heritage and facilitating continuity within both traditional and contemporary society. In particular, The Green Covenant 2026, illustrates the critical role of Ugandan women in sustaining Uganda’s food basket from soil to table through their gendered role of taking care of households both in the past and present. The artist illustrates this function by depicting an image of two hands harvesting the banana fruit while another pair of hands eagerly waits to receive the bountiful harvest. The image reverberates the quality of shared roles and the act of custodianship that delicately permeates this body of work.

Muwonge’s paintings presented in this exhibition, Heart of the Yields, emerges as a classic example of a well- researched body of work that fits seamlessly in contemporary society where conversations on food security and cultural heritage dominate several platforms. Therefore, this exhibition offers opportunities for reflection but also appreciation of what lies in our midst in order to counter challenges of the contemporary world. It is very much likely that the artist is fully conscious of where he is coming from and therefore can clearly chart his path into the future. This is explicitly demonstrated in this work that is grounded in his cultural identity but also is richly skilled to provide inspiration to the young generation of artists and his contemporaries.

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The exhibition is showing now at Umoja Art Gallery, located on  Plot 1800, on Mukalazi Road behind Princess Kevina Apartments, Bukoto-Kampala. Images are courtesy of Umoja Art Gallery.

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