Rose Mbowa

Rose Mbowa was born on 18 January 1943 in the town of Kabale, in the Western Region of Uganda, to Eva Nyinabantu Mbowa, a homemaker, and Kasole Lwanda Mbowa, a laboratory technician. After attending local schools, she was admitted to Gayaza High School, a prestigious boarding school about 19 kilometres (12 mi), outside of Uganda's capital city, Kampala.[2][3] Following high school at Gayaza, she went on to study English literature at Makerere University. Whilst there, she was a member of the Makerere Free Travelling Theatre.[4] In 1969 she was admitted to the University of Leeds, graduating with a Master of Arts (MA) degree in Theatre Arts and Drama.[3]

She worked for a year as a producer at Radio Uganda. Mbowa became a lecturer in the department of music, dance and drama at Makerere University and then became head of the department when the previous head was forced to leave the country. Her mentor was playwright Byron Kawadwa, who was killed by Idi Amin's forces in 1977. Later in the 1980s, she worked with the rural "Magere Women's Cooperative", and encouraged the women to use their culture and to market their agricultural produce.[3][5]

She published a number of articles on theatre in Uganda and presented papers on Ugandan theatre at the annual conference on African literature at the University of Bayreuth between 1989 and 1994. She also performed with a number of different theatre companies in Uganda. She was named best actress at the National Theatre and received the Presidential Meritorious Award for Acting in 1973. She also received the National Theatre Best Production award twice: for her own play Nalumansi in 1982 and for The Marriage of Anansewa by Efua Sutherland in 1983.[5] She performed the title role in Bertolt Brecht's play Mother Courage and Her Children.[3]

Mbowa's play Mother Uganda and her Children was first performed in 1987 and has been performed internationally.[3] A play Kiwajja, was staged in Uganda in 2005 by Bakayimbira Dramactors, in celebration of Rose Mbowa's contribution to Uganda's theatre.[1]