We Nurture Wonderful Human Beings

In the Days of the Batembuzi

We closed the Christmas term with a musical, Isaza and the King of the Underworld. Based on local legend in the period of the Batembuzi, the script was written by a volunteer and the whole school from reception to year 6 was involved. Students produced the props and were responsible for stage management, make-up and dressing; our teachers wrote the songs, devised the music and choreography.

You can catch a glimpse of the unearthly performance :0) in the video link (after the photos), and in the images above and below. We used elephant grass reeds, spear grass, gourds, bark cloth (cloth made from the bark of the fig tree indiginous to Uganda), goat skin, wild flowers, grasses and leaves to set the atmosphere. The play was translated from English to Rutooro, our local language, in celebration of our local culture and community.

It was so much of a roaring success with our audience that the children were invited to perform it again at Toonda, our local cultural centre; but the biggest honour is that they will be performing it a third time on 28th May to a large city audience at Uganda's main theatre, The National Theatre in Kampala. What a coup and experience this is going to be for the children. At the same time we hope to use it as a fundraiser to complete our IT lab which was partially funded last year, and as a general awareness raising campaign within Uganda about Sadhguru School.

Vocational Studies

We've started vocational classes for Year 6 in carpentry, integrated organic farming, crafts (currently pottery) and tailoring. They have a 1.30hr class in each of the disciplines every week. The classes have become intensely popular; for carpentry and farming some of the kids come back in to school on Saturdays and holidays so strong is their desire to continue with their projects of making a mortice and tenon stool, and designing and planting their own integrated organic vegetable, herb, flower and tree garden.

Tell us of the Days of the Batembuzi

To finish, we thought you'd enjoy this evocative poem, written by a volunteer, sung as the opener to our Isaza musical:

Tell us of the days of the Batembuzi

Tell us of those days of old

Tell us of the days of the Batembuzi

When Isaza was king of the world …

Let us tell you of the days of the Batembuzi

Let us tell you of those days of old

Let us tell you of the days of the Batembuzi

When Isaza was king of the world…

In the days of the Batembuzi, the world was still young

The people were peaceful and sang happy songs

The food was plenty, and no one lacked milk

The people were healthy and no one fell sick …

In the days of the Batembuzi, the sun was always warm

The rain fell without hail and it would never get cold

The trees dripped with honey, the bees didn’t even sting

The rivers were full of fish, the hunters never missed

In the days of the Batembuzi, people loved to get along

The cattle keeper and his kids - kept their cows from the farmer’s fields

The wives would visit each other in the evenings…

The houses had no doors, all because there were no thieves

In the days of the Batembuzi, blacksmiths had the most power

They cut down the forests for firewood and made the best iron

Where they had cleared people came and put gardens and farms

People came together and built roads and towns

In the days of the Batembuzi – the kings were wise,

The kings didn’t start wars they didn’t like to fight

They sold salt and iron to the furthest places to make the land rich

They organized their people and knew how to keep peace

In the days of the Batembuzi there was a young king Isaza

In the days of the Batembuzi there was another king Nyamiyonga

Isaza was the king of Kitara they called him King in the World of the Sun

Nyamiyonga was King in the world of darkness, they called him the King of Ghosts

The King in the World of the Sun, had a quarrel with the King of the Ghosts

That was where the problems began,

And this is how the story goes …

Let us tell you a story from the days of the Batembuzi

Let us tell you a story from those days of old

Let us tell you the story of Isaza Nyakiooto

And the way in which he lost his throne….

Links:

• Sadhguru School performs Isaza & the King of the Underworld
• Warming up for Mahashivaratri darkest night celebration