David Vieira Lopez and Moses Bwayo’s “Masaka Kids, A Rhythm Within” Chronicles The Transformative Potential of Music and Dance

From accidents and wars to natural disasters, disease outbreaks, abuse and abject poverty, the causes of orphanhood are many and complex. In Sub-Saharan Africa, 49.4 million children from age 0-17 are estimated to have lost either one or both parents due to different factors, with Uganda believed to have at least  1.9 million orphans, which places the country among the highest orphan populations on the continent. Several programmes and initiatives have been created and developed to cater to the welfare of these orphans. One of such, Masaka Kids Africana, is the subject of Masaka Kids, A Rhythm Within, a documentary produced by Channel Pysnik and directed by David Vieira Lopez and Moses Bwayo.

Masaka Kids Africana was founded by a Ugandan couple, Sunna and Madinah, in the Masaka region of Uganda, with the vision of providing care and hope for homeless children on the streets, most of whom are victims of ugly circumstances. Sometimes, the children have lost one or both parents to a civil crisis or to diseases such as  HIV/AIDS which is common to the region. Other times, the children have been neglected by parents that are either irresponsible or financially incapacitated. The orphanage provides food, shelter and educational opportunities for the children, even making efforts to find available scholarship schemes for the kids. And yet beyond these basics, Masaka Kids Africana uniquely empowers and engages the children with music and dance, a means through which it exposes the children to international  opportunities.

As a children musical group, Masaka Kids Africana has a YouTube channel with 4.47 million subscribers where they regularly share videos of the children dancing to different hit songs and rhythms. So far,  661 videos have been shared on the platform, with the most popular video having over 152 million views. The group’s social media presence has brought about significant recognition, exposing the children and their talents to the rest of the world and inviting public appeal and generous contributions to their causes. As the documentary rightly shows, the children have travelled to and performed in Dubai in United Arab Emirates, Barcelona in Spain, among others, and have also been nominated for the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards.

Through the directorial vision of  Lopez and Bwayo, Masaka Kids, A Rhythm Within traces the rise of Masaka Kids Africana from being a local gathering that provided dance and music lessons for  street kids to a fairly structured group with media visibility and international recognition. The documentary mostly stems from interviews with the founders, a dance tutor, and a few orphaned children, and also includes relevant images that reflect the history and growth of the orphanage.

And yet the story of the group does not exist in isolation. This story is intertwined with the heartfelt personal life and experiences of the featured cast. Sunna recalls losing his mother, leaving home at a young age to live on the streets and fend for himself, and selling scraps to generate capital with which he was able to open a barber’s shop. Madinah also talks about falling in love with the young man, intrigued by his love for children and lively spirits, and eventually convincing her parents of her choice to be with him. The partnership is obviously not one borne out of material or superficial convenience. It is rather  rooted in shared values and genuine purpose. Merging personal accounts with a collective visionary quest, the documentary presents a narrative that breathes optimism and life into nearly hopeless situations.

An important revelation in Masaka Kids, A Rhythm Within is the power of entertainment and sports in shaping the futures of young people from slums and disadvantaged backgrounds. This is slightly similar to the dimension of Neil Sandoz’s Open Your Eyes, a documentary about basketball as a life-changing sporting activity for the people of Kibera, Kenya. In Africa where poverty is rife, documentaries of these kinds provide inspiration for the impoverished and beleaguered, making people  see beyond their immediate miseries, and thinking bold yet fun ways in which they can change rewrite their stories.

Masaka Kids, A Rhythm Within is currently showing on Netflix.