Visual narratives of traditional royal dances in Uganda: a case of clay mated Amaggunju dance

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to visually narrate the “Amaggunju” traditional royal dance of Buganda central Uganda through Claymation. An exploratory study design and adopted more of the qualitative than the quantitative approach in this study. The objectives of the study were to; examine the visual forms of the Amaggunju traditional royal dance of central Buganda, Develop a story line of the Amaggunju traditional royal dance of central Buganda and Claymate Amaggunju traditional royal dance of central Buganda. This study was grounded largely on the qualitative method approach. The Study Population and Samples were the Visual forms of the Amaggunju royal dance regalia in Buganda these included videos, photographs, Illustrations and drawings, Story lines were also used for claymated films and these were; The Chicken run, Early Man, Shauna the Ship Movie, Para Norman, Claymated films’ production process of The Chicken run, Early Man, Shauna the Ship Movie and Para Norm. Based on the nature of the study, the research questions it presented and the defined parameters of the required population reflected above, stratified random selection was employed and through this valuable information pertaining to this study was collected. Findings indicated that claymated Amaggunju traditional dance is one form that can be used to communicate and preserve the Baganda Royal practices. With a highlight of the advantages of using Claymation over the other forms of animation, the study recommended that animators to explore and use Claymation for communicating various aspects of human needs.