Hip-Hop Healing in Uganda

In 2006, when I spent nearly one month in the East African country of Uganda covering the presidential elections and reporting on the unending war in the north between the country’s army and crazed rebels, there wasn’t much hope to go around. The system seemed corrupt from the top down, you could almost hear international bureaucrats sucking the cents out of every nonprofit dollar donated to the country, and, with apparently rigged elections, there did not seem to be a lot of good news on the horizon. This was especially true in Northern Uganda, where most of the population lived in refugee camps due to attacks by the Lord’s Resistance Army, those crazed rebels who had become notorious for stealing children to turn them into soldiers or sex slaves.

But there were occasional flickers of joy and optimism, most poignantly during my overnight visit to the Pader Town Council, a headquarters of sorts for the various NGOs (nongovernmental organizations) working in Northern Uganda and the site of a refugee camp that was home to thousands of mostly destitute Ugandans. While walking through that camp one afternoon, I stumbled upon an impromptu jam session, where homemade instruments made from discarded World Food Programme and U.S. AID containers were being played with tremendous skill. People were singing songs that sounded like redemption, and the dancing was exuberant. My body became filled with chills, and I still listen to the sounds I recorded during that experience to this day, five years later. In a land of despair, this was a magical scene, and it was easy to sense the transformative powers that music offers, even in such down-and-out situations.

That’s the very same spirit at the heart of the new documentary Bouncing Cats, which explores how America’s hip-hop culture is being exported to Uganda and providing a positive outlet for the youth, both in the capital of Kampala and in Gulu, one of the main cities in Northern Uganda. Directed by Australian filmmaker/photographer Nabil Elderkin, narrated by the rapper Common (who was at UCSB this week, incidentally), and featuring interviews with social justice-oriented hip-hop stars Will.I.Am and K’Naan, the doc shines a bright light on Breakdance Project Uganda, which was founded by a local man named Abramz. He invites the American breakdancer Crazy Legs from the famous Rock Steady Crew to come for a visit, and the film follows that New York City-ite’s life-changing and often touching experiences throughout the country.