Rafiki Adventure Tours Uganda

Tracing the roots of cinema in Mbarara Uganda East-Africa

People watching a movie at Silver Theatre in Mbarara. This is the most renown cinema hall in the municipality. PHOTO BY COLLEB MUGUME 

In Summary

Die hard. Silver Theatre has beaten so many odds to still be the most renown cinema in Mbarara and the entire western region.0
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The lobby at Silver Theatre houses a pool table and from the roughly organised shop, which also works as the reception, people buy refreshments, airtime and other items.

Silver Theatre is the only renown cinema hall in Mbarara.
It was started in April 1986 by two men; Mr Silver Muganga, the director and Mr Deogracious Tukahirwa , the manager.

Before Silver Theatre came into existence, there were only two sub-standard movie halls; Lotus cinema, previously owned by Indians before the Asian expulsion from Uganda, and another one owned by Yusuf Masengo in the 1980s.
So many people from southwestern region flocked these two places which were in Mbarara Town to have some entertainment.

Getting inspired
“I loved to watch films with my friends and there were always very many patrons so I imagined one could make a lot of money from such a business,” Muganga explains.

“Cinema is an old time business idea where people watched music videos, live plays, and both local and international films.”
“In those days, Chaka Chaka’s song, Umukomboti was popular and so many people came to watch the video and other films like Bruce Lee and James Bond films. I remember one movie called a spy who loved me that people watched a lot,” Muganga recalls.

After realising how lucrative the cinema business was, Muganga and Tukahirwa bought appliances from Mr Masengo in 1989 and rented the same hall he had been using and took over the business.

“Prior to Museveni’s regime, we used to pay Shs50 for a session and when the currency changed, as the new owners, we charged Shs10,” Muganga explains.
Like in today’s cinema halls, people then enjoyed soda and beer which were bought at about Shs50 and Shs150 respectively although beer was scarce.
“We enjoyed beers like Bell Lager, ESB and Pilsner,” Tukahirwa said amidst laughter.

Seven years after Muganga and Tukahirwa took over the business, the audience became too big to be accommodated in the original hall the business was founded.
Coupled with the desire to do away with rent payment, the business partners decided to build a larger and of course their own cinema hall. This led to the birth of Silver Theatre House, opposite Akaanya Hotel in 1996.

At the official opening of the theatre at its current location, the late Sarah Birungi, a famous musician, entertained the audience. So many other entertainment groups like ‘The Ebonies’, ‘Mic Check’ etc have used the hall to entertain their fans.

My experience : Abbey/Abdul Kigundu (former manager, Lotus Cinema)

I started working at Lotus cinema hall in 1966 as the fee collector, earning Shs40. The cinema was owned by Indians. In 1968 I was promoted to a manager and my salary increased to Shs250 and also sent to Mombasa for projection training for three months.

I came back as a full operator. We had a very wide screen of about 50 feet; with an amplifier connected to a projector to send the picture to the screen.

We used video tapes. Lotus was a place that everyone admired. The seating was about 400 people with 216 audiences in the first class, 96 in the second class and 96 in the third class. First class was for high income earners such as doctors and other then big businessmen in town who could afford to pay Shs6.
Second class was for middle income earners who paid Shs5 and the third for common people who paid Shs4. People used to turn up in big numbers and they loved to watch ‘Road show’ termed as ‘a film of the month’.

When the late Idi Amin chased Asians from the country in 1972, my boss transferred the business into my name and also took me to Nairobi where he introduced me to dealers in Anglo-American films, Anglo films and Asian films such that I could continue running the business.

People liked films such as the James Bond, John Wyne movies, and music by Alivis Prela and many plays like Jembe rya Sesanga, obutamanya, Kura zikurabe among others.

In 1979 during the war between Uganda and Tanzania things changed. We stopped working and went into hiding.
After the war in December that year, I went back to the hall only to find that everything had been taken and I had nowhere to start from. However, I tried all I could to revamp the cinema.
We again closed the business during the NRA war. When President Museveni took over power, he allowed the expelled Asian to return in the country. The owners of the building that housed Lotus Cinema returned and threw me out. That marked the death of Lotus Cinema and the building is now used as a worshiping place. By Rafiki Adventures