American-Ugandan actor and playwright, Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine says losing his last surviving parent – his mom – does not mean his connection with Uganda is broken.
The American-based actor said this on Friday during the burial of his mom, Patience Peace Sabiti in Mbarara district.
She died at age 82 after struggling with Schizophrenia for eighteen years. In 2004, the actor’s mom was diagnosed with Schizophrenia, a disorder that affects a person’s ability to think, feel and behave clearly.
It is characterized by thoughts or experiences that seem out of touch with reality, disorganized speech or behavior and decreased participation in daily activities. Treatment is usually lifelong and often involves a combination of medications, psychotherapy and coordinated specialty care services.
In his speech during the burial, Ntare who appeared in the 2006 American political war action thriller film, Blood Diamonds, said his first memory he has is of his mom singing to him Oyonkye Nkusherekye, the old Runyankole lullaby.
He revealed how her mom struggled with a mental condition.
“I knew something was wrong but I couldn’t put my finger on what it was. She came back to Uganda and there were still some struggles. But it took the death of a family member who had committed suicide, to discover this member had been struggling with mental illness issues,” Ntare told mourners.
“That is what precipitated my mom getting help. I said to my mom ‘Why don’t we go see a doctor? We went to the psychiatrist and for the first time, she shared how she was hearing voices in her head and that they were telling her to do things she didn’t want to do.”
This was shocking to him, he said, recollecting how he cried during that session.
“I couldn’t believe that she was going through all that by herself.”
ALSO READ: Ntare Guma Mwine recognized as cultural icon by Silicon Valley African film festival
She later again disclosed the same during a session with a psychiatrist in the U.S., saying she had been experiencing paranoia and hallucinations.
In 2019, she deteriorated. At that point, the same voices were telling her not to eat, causing her to lose significant weight.
At the burial, the actor mentioned that the footage he had filmed with his mom on different occasions over the years had helped him appreciate some moments most of which he had forgotten about. In one of the videos, her mom shares about her first and last time she featured in a play while at Gayaza.
It would seem Ntare derives his acting genes from her. When Ntare staged his play Biro (about an HIV-positive Ugandan former rebel soldier who enters the United States illegally for treatment) in the U.S., his mom attended.
The actor, 55, broke down in the middle of his speech, while explaining her mom’s attributes as being loving and forgiving. Despite having separated with her husband (Ntare’s dad), her death wish was that she is buried right next to him.
His parents separated when he was 7.
“My mother divorced my father. They were not still together. But the bond between the family was still stronger. No matter what happened, we were still connected. Even after they split, they still reunited for this photo,” Ntare told mourners, while holding a family portrait taken in 1982 in Nairobi while the family was in exile.
“She wrote a will explicitly and said ‘I want to be laid to rest in Rutoma’. And that speaks to her heart and the journey she went on from a person who met my father and then chose to break off from him but then in the end said ‘I want to be laid right beside him’,” he added.
This, Ntare who stars as Detective Raymond Griggs in Netflix’s legal drama series The Lincoln Lawyer, said “speaks to the power of love, the power of forgiveness and reconciliation” adding “these are things my mother embodied and carried with her”.
Commenting on whether he will be able to return to Uganda now that both his parents are deceased, he said “I am bound here, there is no question”.
Apart from local projects relating to tourism and film, Ntare has regularly visited his Mbarara home to attend key family events including the baptism of his kid.
During the funeral, Ntare also hinted at his latest project – a documentary film that focuses on the works of deceased Ugandan studio photographer Kibaate Aloysius Ssalongo.
The documentary seeks to preserve and exhibit Kibaate’s work, an account of the lives of people from the rural town of Mbirizi in Lwengo district.
Ntare came across Kibaate’s studio by chance in 1999. His car had broken down in Mbirizi and he had some time to kill. He was invited inside a room where Kibaate kepts his archive and in the darkroom, Kibaate pulled out one of several sacks full of hundreds of deteriorating negatives.
This was a visual archive of the local residents dating back to the 1960s.
According to Ntare, the film will come out next year.
“Kibaate is a photographer I met, whose work I fell in love with and in December of last year, I came and mounted a big exhibit of his work – over 5,000 images. I’m working on a documentary film of his work and I want to pledge to you today that I want to finish this fil so that in 2023 we all meet together to watch this film,” he said on Friday.
About Ntare’s mom
Patience Peace Sabiti was daughter to Erica Sabiti, the first African Archbishop of Uganda, Rwanda and Boga Zaire. She was the 5th of eight children.
She attended Bweranyangi Girls Primary School and later Gayaza Girls School. After graduating from university in 1963, she received a scholarship at Boston University in Massachusetts (U.S.) where she completed her degree in 1966.
She proceeded to Howard University where she attained a Master’s Degree in psychology. She lived in the U.S. Until 1980 when she returned to Uganda. From 1982, she was a professor of psychology at the university of Nairobi.
In 1997 on return to Uganda, she worked in Kyambogo University’s psychology department as a volunteer, rehabilitating people with mental illness.
With Dr. Frank Alfred Mwine, Patience had three children – Ntare, Wamara Komuhangi Mwine and Kasasira Eric Mwine.
