Kemiyondo Coutinho is dedicated to creative new art platforms

For a young artiste balancing time between Los Angeles and Kampala, Kemiyondo Coutinho has engraved her name on the local scene.
For some, she is an acting coach while for others, an actress. There is even an audience that learnt about the artiste when she hosted an episode of a well thought yet shortlived travel show Discover Uganda in 2014.
And of late, she is known as one of the brains behind the unconventional musical showcase A ka Dope.

Birth of an artiste
Born to Ugandan parents Sheilah and Alex Coutinho in Kampala and later raised in Swaziland, she describes herself as the purest form of storyteller; “I just find new ways to tell a story. I experiment with any and everything that I feel can tell a story. Sometimes this looks like directing, acting or writing and other times its running around to make sure A Ka Dope happens and other times it is writing silly tweets and on another day, it is uploading funny videos on instagram. It is all a story.”

Known to many in the arts circles as Kemi, she wrote and acted in her first production Jabulile which she performed at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown in South Africa.
The production was later produced and performed in New York and Chicago. The play addressed the lack of opportunity open to Swazi women traders.

Yet in Uganda, theatre learnt about Coutinho with her 2012 production, Kawuna, You’re It. Centred on women inequality in regard with HIV, the production was one of those that showcased at the Kampala International Theatre Festival in 2016 and later at the annual Writivism Festival in 2017. At that time, her live musical performances platform A Ka Dope was gaining momentum. The serialised shows are aimed at creating a platform for artistes that may not easily get mainstream airplay because of their unconventional art.
“I felt like within East Africa, we have fallen into a trap of celebrating old art; the mainstream artiste; the four artistes we see over and over again,” she says.

Driven to promote art
Coutinho’s desire to see new art and develop a new audience to appreciate what they did not already know was the reason A Ka Dope came to be.
“For a long time, I believed that Ugandans were not as talented musically as the rest of the continent. Then I heard MoRoots and could not believe my ears. It was then I realised that I was simply not exposed to the talent.”

Maureen Rutabingwa alias MoRoots became one of the first artistes to grace the A Ka Dope stage - to date, at least 17 episodes of the shows have been produced and more than 150 artistes such as Ann Nassanga alias Afrie, Apio Moro, Sandra Suubi, Kenneth Mugabi, Shifa Musisi and Sandra Nankoma among others have performed on the stage.

Much as many of the artistes that were originally first seen on A Ka Dope have gone on to get bookings at Bayimba International Festival, Milege World Music Festival, Nyege Nyege Music Festival and Blankets and Wine among others, Coutinho says that the biggest achievements are always when someone asks her about the artiste who performed.
“It shows we have pencilled ourselves in for the quality that is being presented. But also it makes me happy seeing artistes get on bigger stages because of this bouncing board. Or when I hear someone say “I never heard of this artiste before A Ka Dope.”

No easy road
None of this has happened without challenges. “I wish I could pay artistes more, I wish I could do so much more with this platform but it is limited by funds and also my desire to keep the ticket price at Shs20,000,” she says adding that she hopes her work in the states will help relieve some of the financial strains on this project.

The film maker
On the already full plate, last year Coutinho piled more when she nosedived into film making with Kyenvu, a film she wrote, directed and starred in.
For a person that knew less than two people on the local film scene, she says the film says a lot about her character of always believing she can do anything until she falls flat.

The film follows an independent young woman who lives through the taunts of using public transport on a daily basis. As she struggles to find her footing in a patriarchal society that entitles men to women’s bodies, she finds love in a bitter sweet moment.
The film is inspired by the 2014 Anti-Pornography bill that blamed pornography for the sexual crimes against women, engraved in the bill, was a clause that intended to prohibit women from wearing miniskirts. This was the force behind Kyenvu.

Being a woman producing a film, the nature of the topic her film tackles - patriarchy still came into play during production; “I think in some ways because this project was self-produced and no one was hiring me I did not have to deal with the gender equity issues but there were times on set that someone on my crew would talk to my Head of Sound instead of me (who was directing it) when discussing an idea. Small things like that reminded me that because I am a woman and my head of sound was a man he was believed to hold status.”

Accolades and plans for the future
Since its release, Kyenvu has been showcased at the Pan African Film Festival (PAFF), Women’s International Film Festival and is already selected for more festivals across the globe.
At PAFF, the film won a grand jury prize for Best Live Action Short Film, this being an Oscar qualifying award, she is optimistic to submit Kyenvu for the Academy awards come October later this year.
“I am excited about this possibility. I got this far on a dream I may as well continue dreaming big,” she says while weighing in on her future plans that involve shooting another short film in Los Angeles and her first feature film in Uganda, in December.

“My goal is to shoot a film in Uganda once a year.”
For A Ka Dope, her musical banner, she is still figuring out what works; “In many ways, we are still young and I want to find its true rhythm before I shake things up. I did that last year and the market was not ready. So I am watching A Ka Dope rise to be great before I re-imagine it.”
Based in the US, Coutinho is the recipient of the prestigious E11 Green Card awarded to individuals of extraordinary ability at the top of their field in their home country.

About Kemiyondo
Kemiyondo Coutinho has been writing and acting for the African woman since age 17. She is the founder of
Kemistry Klass, a content company geared at producing content for film and TV content that changes the narrative of stories about The Continent.