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Film Review

Vol. 1 No. 1 (2025)

Film review: Evelyn Cindy Magara's Tuko Pamoja: the making of a nation

DOI:
https://doi.org/10.70060/vnkanh34
Submitted
23 November 2025
Published
31 October 2025

Abstract

Cindy Magara’s herculean 13-episode documentary series, Tuko Pamoja (2024), grapples with the identity questions: who are we as Africans and Ugandans, and why does understanding this matter? What do we know about our identities? The
central argument in the series is that we are all connected. The everyday reality is that we often define ourselves away from the aqueous reality of one ethnic group identity flowing into the other, making the idea of ethnic purity an absurdity. As the title – Tuko Pamoja (“We Are One”) – suggests, the series advocates for embracing a composite, “rainbow” Ugandan identity. It critically addresses the negative instrumentalisation of ethnicity, which has historically impeded national unity.