Ahmed Didaati
MAAS’AWO (NEXT STOP): KANUGE TURNS KAMPALA’S DAILY JOURNEYS INTO ART.
Every morning, Kampala begins to move.
Boda-boda riders weave through traffic, taxi passengers wait at busy stages, vendors set up along the streets, pedestrians hurry to work and traffic officers try to keep the city’s roads moving.
For Ugandan artist John Bosco Kanuge, these familiar scenes are more than the routine of an expanding city. They are stories about work, opportunity, pressure, survival and belonging.
Those stories form the centre of “MAAS’AWO (Next Stop)”, a solo printmaking exhibition by Kanuge J.B., a veteran Ugandan artist and lecturer at Makerere University.
The exhibition takes its title from maas’awo, a phrase commonly heard in Kampala’s public transport system, referring to the next stop.
But in Kanuge’s hands, the phrase becomes a broader question: Where are we going, where have we come from, and what does the journey reveal about the society around us?
KAMPALA IN MOTION
The works explore the everyday movement of people through Kampala.
Among the titles featured are “Ready to Go”, “Get Set”, “Embarking”, “Rush Hour” and “City Errands” works that evoke the anticipation, urgency and repetition of urban journeys.
Others, including “My Destination” and “Home Bound”, shift the focus towards what happens beyond the journey itself: where people are going, where they return to and what those destinations mean.
The exhibition statement says Kanuge’s work draws attention to pedestrians, boda-boda riders, taxi drivers, passengers, vendors and traffic officers whose labour and presence help shape the character of Kampala.
It is a portrait of a city in constant motion but also a city where movement can come with congestion, delays and unequal access.
WHEN EVERYDAY LIFE BECOMES ART
Kanuge’s approach is rooted in observation.
Rather than looking for distant or extraordinary subjects, he turns towards experiences that Kampala residents encounter almost every day.
A taxi journey can connect someone to employment. A boda boda can shorten a difficult trip. A street vendor depends on passing crowds. A pedestrian’s journey may determine whether they reach work on time.
Movement therefore becomes connected to livelihood and opportunity.
The exhibition asks viewers to consider how transport and mobility shape the way people experience the city.
That makes Maas’awo more than a collection of prints. It becomes a visual conversation about urban life and the people who keep Kampala functioning.
A VETERAN OF UGANDAN PRINTMAKING
Kanuge brings decades of experience to the exhibition.
Makerere University describes John Bosco Kanuge, widely known as J.B. Kanuge, as a Ugandan painter, printmaker and academic. Born in 1968, he studied at the Margaret Trowell School of Industrial and Fine Arts at Makerere and later became a lecturer there. His research interests include printmaking, painting, visual arts education and the role of art in national development.
His work has also received international recognition. The World Bank art collection holds several of his prints, while his work has been exhibited in Uganda and internationally.
Kanuge has also contributed to research on visual arts education in Uganda, reflecting a career that has combined artistic practice with teaching and mentorship.
Earlier this year, he was among the artists featured in “Bold & Precise”, a Ugandan printmaking exhibition that brought together established practitioners and explored the continuing relevance of printmaking in contemporary society.
THE REPETITION OF THE CITY
Printmaking is particularly suited to Kanuge’s exploration of Kampala.
The medium relies on processes of transfer and repetition.
So does urban life.
The same roads fill every morning. The same traffic builds up. The same taxi stages receive passengers. The same vendors return to familiar spaces.
Yet no two journeys are exactly alike.
For Kanuge, that tension between repetition and difference provides a way of understanding Kampala a city where ordinary routines can produce very different experiences depending on a person’s circumstances.
BEYOND THE NEXT STOP
The exhibition also represents an important point in Kanuge’s artistic career.
According to the exhibition statement, although he has taught and maintained his own artistic practice since 1995, Maas’awo provides an opportunity to encounter his printmaking practice more fully through a solo exhibition.
A social-media post about the exhibition also describes it as a solo printmaking exhibition by Kanuge J.B., a lecturer at Makerere University.
At the heart of the exhibition is a challenge to look beyond the destination.
What does it mean to move through Kampala?
Who gets access to work and opportunity?
Who spends hours travelling?
Who makes a living from the movement of others?
And what do our daily journeys tell us about the society we have built?
A CITY ASKED TO STOP AND LOOK
Maas’awo (Next Stop) turns the language of Kampala’s streets into the language of art.
Its subjects are familiar: the passenger, the rider, the vendor, the pedestrian, the traffic officer.
But by placing these everyday experiences within a gallery, Kanuge encourages viewers to see them differently.
The exhibition suggests that a journey is never simply about leaving one place and arriving at another.
It can reveal how people work, struggle, adapt, hope and belong.
In a city that rarely seems to stop moving, Kanuge’s “MAAS’AWO (Next Stop)” offers Kampala a moment to pause and look at itself.
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