Wycliffe Kiyingi’s biography, fact, career, awards, net worth and life story

Intro Ugandan playwright
Was Writer
Playwright
From Uganda
Type Film, TV, Stage & Radio
Literature
Gender male
Birth

1929, Uganda

Death

15 November 2014
(aged 85 years)

Wycliffe Kiyingi was a Ugandan playwright, whose plays influenced the free travelling theatre at Makerere University in the mid 1960s. Kiyingi was the first Ugandan to stage a play at the National Theatre in 1953, with his play “Pio Mbereenge Kamulaali”. The play was the first in a local language to be staged at the National Theatre. Kiyingi formed the country’s first theatre group to comprise native Ugandans; the African Artistes Association.The group adopted the mode of a travelling theatre, taking its productions to different parts of the central region. It is from there that other theatre groups (such as the Makerere Free Travelling Theatre of the 1960s) got inspiration, leading to the development of a fully-fledged local theatre movement in the country. Kiyingi was also the pioneer native writer of radio and TV drama in Uganda, in the late 1950s.

Early life and education

Kiyingi was born to Ernest Kaggwe in 1929. He went to King’s College Budo. During pre-independence Uganda, colonial governor Andrew Cohen granted him a scholarship to study drama at Bristol University from where he further polished his skills at Oxford University in London.

Writing

He wrote more than ten books that have been widely translated and many directed into admirable plays and others adopted into both the secondary and university syllabi. Some of his great Luganda plays include; Gwosussa Emmwanyi, Lozio Bba Ssesiriya, Olugendo lw’e Gologoosa, Muduuma Kwe Kwaffe, Ssempala bba mukyala Ssempala and the Radio play Wókulira which ran on the then Radio Uganda for close to two decades.

Published works

  • Gwosussa emmwanyi. Macmillan. 1966. 

Plays

  • Sempala Bba Mukyala Sempala
  • W’okulira
  • Gw’osussa Emmwanyi
  • Olugendo lw’e Gologoosa
  • Omwana w’Omuntu, 1969
  • Muduuma Kwe Kwaffe
  • Pio Mberenge Kaamulali

Awards and recognition

  • Recognized with a Golden Artiste (1954-2009) award by Uganda National Cultural Centre, 2009
  • Golden Drama Award for the most Prolific Multimedia Playwright, from the Golden Drama Foundation, 2007
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