The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
ALEX MUKULU EXITED THE STAGE -THE BALL IS STILL ON THE PENALTY SPOT.
COMMENT | PATRICK OYULU | I am Patrick Oyulu, and you? “My name is Tony Kasule,” he replied.
That was my introduction to my new roommate in B1-6, Lumumba Hall, Makerere University, in 1992. I was a freshly minted fresher; Tony had arrived earlier, made his bed and established territorial superiority with a shiny silver Dolby Surround cassette player. Philly Bongoley Lutaaya’s ‘Sirimba’ was playing. Firm handshake. Easy smile. Something about the fellow suggested he had seen some of the world.
Classes began, but Tony kept disappearing. I concluded my roommate was somehow studying and working simultaneously.
I was half right. Turns out Tony was rehearsing.
One day Tony handed me a ticket. He was acting in a new production at the National Theatre: Alex Mukulu’s 30 Years of Bananas. Woah, the benefits of a great roommate, huh?
I went as a theatrical layman and came out converted. My roommate, it turned out, was a serious actor. Soon Tony and company were touring America. Through him I got to know Bernard – aka Bennior – another prominent actor, and began following the man behind this glorious theatrical mischief: Alex Mukulu.
Ugandan theatre already had formidable local entertainers -Abbey Kakande, Agnes Nalubega, and Christopher Mukiibi’s Black Pearls; Aloysius Matovu, Andrew Benon Kibuuka, and Charles Senkubuge’s Bakayimbira Dramactors; Abby Mukiibi, Mariam Ndagire, and John Segawa’s AfriTalent; Kato Lubwama’s (RIP) Diamond Ensemble, guitar storytellers like Peterson Mutebi and The Tames Band; and others. Alex Mukulu, however, appeared determined not merely to perform within the theatre but to quarrel with its furniture.
He particularly disliked the conventional “picture-frame” stage. Actors had entered it from above, below, left and right for decades until, as he joked, surely even the stage was fed up with them.
His solution was pure Mukulu: Change the stage. And the framing.
ALEX MUKULU HAS EXITED THE STAGE. BUT, THE BALL REMAINS ON THE PENALTY SPOT – UNKICKED! https://t.co/vKC9PmxxVi #Uganda #Theatre #UgandanLegends pic.twitter.com/9dvWopK79z
— Patrick Oyulu (@patrickoyulu) August 17, 2026
And that was bigger than architecture. Mukulu changed the mental frames.
In ’30 Years of Bananas’, Kaleekeezi, a Rwandese refugee, became the neutral eye through which Uganda examined its first turbulent thirty years. Mukulu’s argument was brutal in its simplicity: what Uganda had taken thirty years to accomplish, a peaceful, sober country might have managed in five.
Then came his magnificent final metaphor. Uganda became a football match.
Past governments had conceded their goals. Eventually a penalty was awarded against a Museveni cut-out standing in goal.
The kicker approached—but delayed. Adjusted the ball. Complained. Yellow card. Another run-up. Then, incredibly, stopped to tie his shoelaces.
Red card!
The exasperated referee ordered the ball to kick itself. He blew multiple times; the ball could not kick itself. Curtains closed. The play was over.
Museveni of the times remained untested.
Mukulu later explained why. It was the NRA/NRM honeymoon. In 1992, the goalkeeper had simply not been between the posts long enough to be judged.
Which leaves us with one deliciously Ugandan question.
Forty years later, arguably, some followers of Ugandan politics are still waiting for a resumption of the penalty kicks. Same pitch. Same goalkeeper. Same penalty spot. VAR technology at the ready. This time perhaps – they expect somebody would actually kick the damned ball. After all, the Keeper is tried and tested, like 40-year-old Comoros goalkeeper Salimo Velonjara.
We waited for Mukulu to give us the theatrical Fabrizio Romano:
HERE WE GO! New spot kicker identified. NB: There have been a few prospects, but they stood no chance at Kicking. Penalty taking is a sport in itself.
Instead, last Saturday, 15 August 2026, came another type of final whistle.
Alex Mukulu exited without returning us to that penalty spot.
Some time recently, Tony met Alex again. They danced together. My old roommate is dancing with the man whose theatre he introduced me to more than three decades ago.
Mukulu believed that when the stage becomes exhausted, you change the stage. When the frame stops explaining society, you change the frame.
He changed Ugandan theatre. For the better.
Now the curtain has fallen on one of Uganda’s great theatrical disruptors.
Alex Mukulu has exited the stage. He joins Rev. Fr Damian Grimes, former Headmaster of Namasagali College, another one of those legends who immensely contributed to Ugandan theatre.
The ball, however, is still on the penalty spot.
Unkicked!
*****
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