A renowned Ugandan art director, Abdul Kinyenya, went missing during a dance festival in Butaleja. His disappearance has raised high concern levels over the safety of cultural practitioners and the rising wave of hostility towards arts activists and performers from the LGBTQI+ community in Uganda.
After two virtual years occasioned by the pandemic, the Batalo Dance Festival returned to physical form to re-engage with the local community.
The free expression festival came under attack on a local WhatsApp group in which community leaders and security personnel expressed fears that the event was pushing LGBTQI+ ideologies.
Kinyenya and his team had braved the odds to forge ahead with preparations and secured police clearance. Kinyenya arrived in Butaleja on December 12 and continued with the artistic direction of the festival accompanied by the festival programs director Albert Mubiru.
The event that attracted over 3,000 revellers was disrupted following an uproar from some traditional cultural chiefs over a contemporary dance piece and an outcry for the performance to be stopped but the young people supported the show to go on. Later during the festival on 16th December 2023, around 10 PM, an unknown group of youth suspect to be uniformed police found Kinyenya at the artist camp and attacked and kidnapped him.
He was whisked to an unknown place where he was accused of propagating Western culture and LGBTQI+ values. A mock ritual ensued with physical assault after which he managed to escape from them and survived what would end his life, given that the anti-homosexuality bill was signed into law earlier in May 2023, which restricts freedom of speech on LGBT topics. When we reached the other organizers on a phone call they could not comment on the issue. We believe he ran to a nearby home for refuge with Mubiru assisted by Mr Oscar Ssenyonga of the Tuzine festival who is a fellow advocate.
His disappearance to an unknown place stunned both Uganda’s artistic and LGBTQI+ community. Some speculate he might be hiding in western Uganda. This underlines how deep the fears and traumas were.
This incident brings into focus the direct need to protect and support artists and marginalized groups in Uganda better. Clearly, threats to their lives are not yet done.
