12-year-old Mayanja tells his stories through art

Tuesday September 10 2019

Rovans Mayanja shows off some of his art work.

Rovans Mayanja shows off some of his art work. PHOTO | KELVIN ATUHAIRE 

By Kelvin Atuhaire

The beginning
“During my childhood, I used to have many imaginations in my mind. Whenever I watched television and I liked someone, images of that person would keep reoccurring on my mind,” says Mayanja.
Mayanja’s journey to being an artist started by imaginations crowding his mind. Since he is an introvert that is he likes to keep to himself , he would narrate the imaginations through drawing.
“During baby class, they used to tell us to sleep in the afternoon but instead of sleeping I would instead sit down, get my book and just start drawing what I was thinking about,” he recalls. Mayanja says since then, the love for art was birthed and he has been telling stories in his mind this way.

The joy of telling stories through art
Mayanja, describes art as a mirror of what is in the artist’s mind such as what is happening in the community and everything that surrounds it.
“Art helps me to tell what I am thinking about. You can look at a certain art piece and it will speak volumes of words in regard to what I love about it. I do not have to explain much about my pictures,” he explains.

Mayanja derives his inspiration from a curious mind. Pictures help someone to see someone else’s mind and understand the message that person is trying to pass on.

His kind of art
A close observation of Mayanja’s work reveals that his workload leans heavily towards culture, nature.
He says that he is proud to be able to tell the story of his culture through art.

Favourite art piece
His favourite art piece is that of “different culture, one people.”
He drew a map of the world with different people holding hands together rotating on the map depicting his message of “one love”

Away from drawing pictures
When he is not drawing, Mayanja listens to music and cracks jokes.
He has a sense of humour so he is always making people laugh. He loves dancing too.


Mayanja has exhibited his work on many art events with the most recent one the Art in Me Festival, where art in children was celebrated.

Making money out of art
Mayanja believes that one day, he will start commercialising his work and start making money.
He also wants to start a comic animation like the Katoto version.