By Ogova Ondego
Published June 22, 2006
A Senegalese fashion designer has been awarded the Legion d’Honneur by the French government.
This award appears to confirm that Oumou Sy, who is also the recipient of other top awards from Prince Claus Fund, Radio France Internationale (RFI), Net Afrique and City of Roma’s Special Award, has not just fluked fame.
Perhaps no one appears to live up to the adage, “a prophet is without honour only in his own country” than Sy who, despite founding a school of design that trains the Senegalese in diverse areas of product and fashion designs, has not received due recognition in Senegal. Only foreigners–France, Holland, Italy–appear to recognise her with the awards they are extending to her.
Though the “Legion d’Honneur”, the highest French distinction is usually given to “people giving their life to France”, Sy lives not in Paris but Dakar. Born on the border of Mauritania and Senegal, Sy is said to have liked the feel of fabrics that she often played with in childhood before her interest veered to joining, stitching and sewing pieces of fabrics together.
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Sy has made up her own model label, Made in Africa, and expresses her versatility in the creative textile and jewelry designs she produces. She also directs theatre and designs costumes for film despite her lack of formal education. Her collections are showcased at international fashion shows in Europe, Asia, Africa and North America.
Meanwhile, an organisation to produce and promote film in Uganda has been formed.
Founded in December 2004, Uganda International Film Foundation is headed by Esther Jacum, a Nigerian woman based in Kampala.
The foundation trains actors and equips them with skills to make films.
“Our members,” says managing director Jacum, “can now handle film equipment through skills gained from workshops and seminars we have conducted since December 14, 2004 when Uganda Film Foundation was formed. Our monthly forum, the cine club, meets at Alliance Francaise in Kampala, to watch low budget, quality films and then follow up with discussions.”
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The Cine Club, Jacum says, has 300 members and forms a pool from which to draw film crew and cast.
A voluntary organisation, Jacum says her inspiration comes out of “my love for the arts, not money.”
Saying her organisation is making soap operas for television at the moment, Jacum say they will start making feature films towards the end of 2006.
“I first want to see what we can do now before starting to seriously look for funding from grant-givers,” she says, adding that her production company is known as Ringrose pictures.
Jacum was born in Umuahia, Abia State, before moving to Gombe, northern Nigeria.
“I completed school in Bauchi and then joined the Bauchi University for a year before going to Austria where I started dancing.”
Like her sojourn at Bauchi, her stay in Austria was short-lived as she was there for only a couple of months before she returned to Africa “to continue with my hair dressing business.”
She stayed in Kigali, Rwanda, for seven months while she pursued “a bit of hotel management course before I came to Kampala in 2001.”
She says she did some Public Relations course in Kampala before meeting Petna Ndaliko Katondolo and embarked on the Uganda International Film Foundation project.
Asked where she intends to move next, the philosophical Jacum simply says, “I am here to stay now that I am running this Foundation.”
