Juliana, the Musical, tells the story of a particularly tumultuous time in Tanzania when Uganda’s brutal dictator, Idi Amin Dada, attacked neighboring Kagera Region in 1978, igniting a multinational war. Tanzania emerged victorious but the war all but destroyed the nation’s economy and socio order, creating an environment in which a Newly Virulent disease, HIV/AIDS, flourished into a pandemic infecting some 10% of the population.

The drama also looks at the terrible rifts within families and communities that came with HIV/AIDS, reaching into every part of Tanzanian society. Fear gripped the country and ignorance left the public believing the cause was everything from the illicit cross border trade to witchcraft.  Among the smuggled goods by these young Kagera people was a certain material which was also made into shirts and because it was relatively expensive, it was donned mostly by the smugglers themselves.  The shirts were named “Juliana” When the Juliana wearers started getting sick and died rather fast, people speculated that the reason was because they were being punished for carrying on the illicit trade.  The disease was now named Juliana.

Using a storyteller or griot plus traditional wind, string and rhythmic drumming, Juliana’s narrative is joined with song and dance, both old and bongo flava-inspired. The story is personal to the playwright.  She was a teenager growing up in Kagera Province in those terrible years and after losing a dear family member to AIDS, she was determined to bring this tale of death and resurrection to life on stage so that it would never be forgotten.