PORT ANGELES — Samite Mulondo grew up in an elite society in Uganda. Its message to him: You’re better than those other people, the ones who aren’t as rich.
But by the time Samite (pronounced SAH-mee-tay) became a teenager, everything changed. The rise of dictator Idi Amin plunged the country into violent turmoil. Hundreds of thousands were tortured and killed under Amin, known as the “butcher of Uganda.”
Like many of his neighbors, Samite left his homeland to go to Kenya, where he lived in a camp. That was the beginning of his life as a refugee.
Samite is a performer who uses his soft voice, flutes, kalimba and other traditional African instruments to find common ground with people around the world. He will bring his one-man play, “Resilience,” to Field Arts & Events Hall, 201 W. Front St., for performances at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday, with question-and-answer sessions after both shows.
Tickets, starting at $25 for adults and $15 for youth, are at fieldhallevents.org.
This is a return for Samite, whose first appearance at Field Hall in fall 2023 left his listeners expressing their thanks.
“We had many audience members sharing that it was their most powerful theatrical experience. Over and over we were asked to bring the show back, as audiences want to see it again and bring friends,” said Field Hall executive director Steve Raider-Ginsburg.
In an interview from Kalamazoo, Mich., where he was preparing to give a performance last weekend, Samite said responses like that renew his energy. And while he blends multiple instruments, rhythms, songs and personal stories in his play, the essence is a singular one.
“People who see the show realize we are all on the same journey … we are all people here on Earth; we’re all trying to figure it out,” Samite said.
We’re here to learn from one another, and we can do so through sharing music and stories, he added; we can also heal through dancing together.
The camp where Samite lived in Kenya upended the social hierarchies we’re all used to.
“It didn’t matter whether you were a doctor, a lawyer or a street beggar,” he recalled. “Lawyers were, like, nobody. The guy who was the king in that camp was a street beggar. The reason was he had stories to tell us. It was about listening. He would transport us out of the camp with his stories.”
After five years in the camp, Samite came to the United States as a 30-year-old refugee in 1987. He now lives in Tully, N.Y., with his wife and their two horses, Shadow and Thyme. He travels around the continent, not only to give performances but also to work with young people and with seniors with dementia.
“Music takes people to a different place,” he said.
Sound and song have a magical effect on our minds and bodies, opening us up — Samite has seen it time and again. At a juvenile detention center in Michigan, he met with kids ages 11 to 19 to share his stories and listen to theirs.
“It’s kind of heartbreaking,” he said. “Yet you see the beauty. You look in their eyes. They’re just like everybody’s children.
“I told them stories of former child soldiers [in Africa] who are now running their own businesses … and I tell them not to lose hope. They can dream of having families and of owning businesses.”
In our lives, we must find the time to talk with one another about such dreams, Samite said. Making time to let somebody tell you their problems — and their joys — makes all the difference.
In his own neighborhood, Samite added, he was one of the few who didn’t have “the big signs,” for political candidates. He seeks to transcend political and religious differences. And his neighbors care for his horses when Samite is away; they plough him out after a snowstorm.
Samite recalled something his grandfather said to him some 45 years ago.
“He told me, ‘You’re a very special person. I’ve been observing you.’”
If Samite, who was just 8 at the time, took care to cultivate his abilities, he could help make the world better, his grandfather said.
Decades on, Samite still offers his straightforward message.
“It’s important to love your neighbor and not pay attention to just yourself,” he said. “Life gets easier when you take the focus off of yourself.”
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Diane Urbani de la Paz is a freelance writer and photographer who lives in Port Townsend.
