By Dominic Muwanguzi
IF you collected a group of school-going children in Kampala and asked them about their totems, you would not get an answer. This could also be the case for many young adults who have never set foot in their villages.

To this end, Taga Nuwagaba has organised an exhibition called- Totems of Uganda at the Uganda Museum starting this evening. It will have over 50 totems on display in water colour — a medium he is well-known for.

Taga hatched his idea through a personal experience which he says literally shocked him. “I was travelling upcountry in a taxi and the driver run over something he first thought was a cat.

When he was told he had just killed a civet cat (Ffumbe), he shuddered with fear because that was his totem.” After this experience, he researched on the subject and noticed that few people know their totems and those who did, had a vague imagination of how they really looked.

Taga has been doing this for over eight years, first with an exhibition he staged at the Sheraton in 2002. However, he regrets that all his art work was bought by a collector and he had to go back to square one.

Right now, he is not selling any of his works because he believes they are priceless. At this evening’s exhibition, Taga, however, has limited editions which can be bought by guests.

The money from these limited editions is going to be used to fund this project and take it to other communities in Uganda. The artist is using this exhibition
to advocate animal rights. He points out that if people know their totems, they will not kill them.

Taga has also created a website: www. Mytotem.co.ug which can be visited if you want to know about your Totem. The website has ten languages in which the totems are interpreted and more information about their origins.