Artist Eddie Bbira started using the barkcloth six years ago as a support material for his paintings with accrylic paint. He explores the rich texture,redish-brown colour and the holes and tears that he neatly patches up with banana fibre thread to creat two dimensional paintings.
Eddie Bbira is reaching out to homeless children and directionless youths in the slums of Kampala city, using art as a 'magnet' to attract them off the streets, restore their dignity and help them find their place in mainstream society.
He meets with different groups of children and youths every week at his art studio located in Kibuli a city suburb of Kampala, children aged between 10years to youths of 25years old come to the studio for Art Therapy sessions, apprenticeships in silk screen printing, signwritting, wood carving, clay work and other areas of commercial arts.
Majority of the children and youths come for the fun of exploring the arts, as an alternative way to spend time and for social interactions.
This project started in 2001, Eddie Bbira graduated with a Bachelor of Industrial and Fine Arts from Makerere University Kampala in 2000, he lived in a home for former homeless street children in Kampala. As a mentor/artist he realised the enormous influence he had in the transtional lives of these children.This project has now expanded to include over 30 children and youths who meet regulary for art activities at the studio.
This experience has been an opportunity for Bbira to explore the field of Art Therapy, in 2007 he attended a Foundation in Art Therapy course with the British Association of Art Therapists. He is building on this experience to offer a more professional service to these disadvantaged children.
The Barkcloth
In many parts of Uganda, especially Buganda, the barkcloth has historical, traditional and spiritual values. To the Baganda, it is a major link to the spiritual world. Traditionalists also wear it when communicating with the kabaka. Barkcloth is a must-have during ancestral worship because, as the Baganda believe, it appeases the gods to pour out their blessings. In Buganda, it is also used when initiating twins into a family.
In Buganda, a dead persons status was measured by the pieces of barkcloth he or she was wrapped in. Although almost 80% of the barkcloth today in Buganda is used for burial, barkcloth has many other uses. They use it at the coronation of princes, during these ceremonies the new king wears a barkcloth at various proceedings to observe the tradition and ritual. In many kingdoms, heirs are also enthtroned with ceremonial barkcloth. the barkcloth is worn up to the ankle, with a sash around the waist for women.
Barkcloth Making Process
The barkcloth is made from a variety of fig trees localy known as (mituba) Ficus natalensis the Baganda are particulary careful when growing mutuba due to the religious significance they attach to the barkcloth, the tree is not cut down, it is protected and wrapped to heal faster after debarking.
The skill of making barkcloth involves cutting and removing the outer bark of the tree. The bark is alternatively beaten with grooved wooden mallets to make it thin and flexible it is then put out to dry and become cloth-like. Pummering thins the bark and spreads it out by compressing the intertwined fibres. After the barkcloth has been pounded, it becomes uniformly thin-four to six times thinner than its original width and half times longer than its original length.
