In the busy lounge of Serena hotel, Kampala, I met Cissy Nalumansi, scrolling on her phone, following up on the pending work of her film company, Mpologoma Media.
Nalumansi is one of the brains that wrote the 830-episode popular TV drama series, Sanyu, which featured stars such as Catherine Namugenyi, Eleanor Nabwiso and Housen Mushema, and kept audiences glued to their TV sets from 2020 to 2024.
Nalumansi recalls that initially, when she wrote the play with Arnold Mwaita, Kwezi Kaganda, Kosse Sandra, Kizza Richard Lugobwa and James Mundrugo, she thought Sanyu would not become that big a show; she was shocked by the reception and loud noise that surrounded the show.
The screenwriter wears many hats, ranging from being a production fixer, movie director, to producer. Coming from a “chaotic” childhood defined by her parents separating, life growing up was hard.
“I was in between homes, and when my mother left my father’s home in Entebbe and moved to Kampala, living in different rented places; my father left all the financial responsibilities of raising and educating me and my siblings to my mum,” she says.
Nalumansi says God was faithful, with her mother ensuring they got an education and also had plenty to eat through the small restaurant business she curated. Unusual for a girl, the local film house commonly known as kibanda became her go-to place, which later aroused her love for film after watching Winners and Sinners, Shanghai Express, Terminator, and Enter the Dragon.
“I started wanting to be on screen, actually. I wanted to be like those girls, those ninjas that I was seeing on screen. They just spoke to me. I loved it so much. And I said, when I grow up, when I’m in a better space, I want to be like them. So, when I joined university, I went on hiding in bibanda for a long time,” she says.
From her humble roots at Bwaise Parents School, MK Academy Nabweru, Caltec Academy and Makerere University for a bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, who knew this simple girl would one day be part of big things!
Along the way, her mother’s restaurant was demolished to give way to a government project, and Nalumansi had to apply for a dead year at university for lack of funds.
“I was able to get a scholarship through TEST (Tertiary Education Scholarship Trust), an NGO founded by Dr Fred Babweteera, the former dean of Forestry at Makerere University, which helps university students going through financial difficulties to complete school.”
Although she had limited access to a computer, she used her time in class when attending computer coding lessons to learn how to write scripts for her first movie, Rosa, which showed that her path was not in coding but rather, writing scripts for TV dramas and movies that would entertain people.
JOURNEY TO THE WORLD OF FILM
It is Nalumansi’s mother that connected her to a screenwriter and producer she knew downtown called Dan Kiggundu, who mentored her in film.
“During the time I spent working with Kiggundu, I was able to write and film my first movie, The Village Champion. It wasn’t the best, but it was a good start. As I was working on finishing The Village Champion, an opportunity arose from MultiChoice Talent Factory for a nine-month course that was teaching young filmmakers about how to write, direct, and make films.
At first, she was hesitant to apply for the study opportunity in 2018, but Kiggundu encouraged her to try her luck. She joined the Talent Factory in Kenya from October 2018, to September 2019, and that changed her life.
“I finally learnt how to write a film script.”
Interestingly, the time she spent in Kenya helped her market her first film, The Village Champion, which was showcased at the National theatre, with all the proceeds from the movie going to TEST for Uganda to help more university students like she once was.
“I had a full house; my pastor Wilson Bugembe attended the screening, and I even remember people had no place to sit, with some sitting on the floor. This turnover for my first movie made me realize the power of advertisement,” she says.
With the success of that first film, Nalumansi did a short documentary called TEST for Uganda which highlights the financial struggles bright students go through at the university.
The documentary won Nalumansi her first film award at the London Film Festival. Besides Sanyu, Test for Uganda and Village champion, Nalumansi has also worked on shows such as Nigerian TV drama Tinsel, Mama and Me, Kela, Ensulo, a story of an African nation invaded by a foreign power due to its fresh waters, and Promises, a story of a single father which won her an award at the Africa Magic Viewers awards.
“I remember I sat with judges to select the winning films, but I didn’t know that the judges had also chosen my film among the many to be awarded!”
CHALLENGES FACED
Despite the success in her work as a screenwriter, Nalumansi lost her first company, Jungle Rains, due to tax issues at the time she was working on Sanyu.
She picked herself up to start a new company in 2023 called Mpologoma Media, which is thriving and has turned her into a film fixer and producer. Speaking about her future plans, Nalumansi hopes to build a big studio modeled on what she has seen in places like Hollywood that will be able to host game shows and have sets where people can act out films on prepared movie sets.
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