meet the community: Mugisha Ali Allan

Welcome to Black Yoga Society’s Meet The Community! Every Monday and Thursday, we feature a member sharing their spiritual journey and discussing all their wins and losses along the way. If you’d like to be featured, contact us.

My name is MUGISHA ALI ALLAN and I’m from Uganda.

The first day when I was introduced to yoga, I was actually paid to be apart of a yoga workshop in 2015. In a year’s time, I started getting cardiac attacks because I was working from 4 pm to 5 am and not resting enough during the day. I wished to explore the beauty of the places we worked in, as I was visiting a new district every 20 days. I didn’t give myself a chance to rest, not knowing the danger to my health. The last heart attack lasted up to 50 minutes. This got me admitted to the hospital. It was a very painful moment. Words can’t express it enough. This is where my friend, who introduced me to yoga, visited me and told me about the healing properties of yoga, nutrition, and mindfulness.

“Words are so limiting, but my life has and is still changing for the better because of yoga.”

After I was discharged, I tried the medication I got from the hospital to completion of the dosage. To be honest, it was expensive and didn’t change my condition. At this point, I resorted to committing to yoga, mindful breathing practices, nutrition, and regular practices of 3 classes a week at a community class at the Uganda National Cultural Centre. My commitment paid off. In less than a year, when I started getting my health restored, I started managing my symptoms. By the end of 2017, I was doing great and I promised myself to give this practice to at least 8 people a week if I get the right knowledge and tools.

This was when I asked my friend to help me with the idea of giving yoga to other people. This is the same friend who introduced me to Yoga earlier in 2015 Her name is AMESO TABITHA AKA BIIBO TAG YOGINI, and she agreed to mentor me and in a period of three months. She left me with her community Yoga class at the Uganda national cultural center as she went to China for 6 months. This is when I started sharing with this community 2 times a week with the Baptist Power Yoga that I was mentored in. In 2018, I was awarded a scholarship by YOGA PURA VIDA in TANZANIA. Teaming up with SATYANANDA YOGA CENTRE, I got certified with the INSTRUMENTAL HATHA YOGA FOR CHILDREN and this is when I started on my spiritual journey.

Since I made my spiritual journey a priority, my physical body has improved a lot in strength, balance, and sensational tracking. Mentally, I’m seeing my self growing every day because I’m finding many reasons to be patient, appreciative, calm, and feeling positive and negative vibrations. I feel more grateful for having control of my emotions. I learned to think positively even amidst challenging times. This journey has earned me a job as a teacher in a school, something I didn’t think about before my commitment. Words are so limiting, but my life has and is still changing for the better because of yoga.

As a Black Yoga Teacher, I find it painful to experience racism from fellow black countrymen, who make it hard for me when I volunteer in Places with white administrators. I can’t understand whether its jealousy, selfishness, or self-centeredness, but these days I prefer to volunteer in places with full Black administration. Religion is another challenge, as people from different communities say its satanic. Many tell their religious leaders about their first encounter in a yoga class and the Religious leaders always tell them it’s a cult. Here in my country, people seem not to question religious leaders.

However, many people have found Yoga an amazing practice in weight loss, flexibility, relaxation, and anger management. I’ve found a few appreciations from the communities and traction is gaining with the testimonies and word of the mouth.

I’ve worked to Establish the ENTEBBE YOGA COMMUNITY as a Community Based Organisation and founded the YOGA STUDIO ENTEBBE. I’ve volunteered with AID CHILD LEADERSHIP INSTITUE. I’m a volunteer at EMBRACE KULTURE — an NGO working with children who have Cerebral Palsy, Epilepsy, Autism, and Down Syndrome. I’m a volunteer at SHULE FOUNDATION — an NGO working on getting children off the streets, rehabilitating them, helping them to drop drugs, and taking them back to schools.

I’ve founded YOGA-UGANDA-(AYIU) — a social media platform to publicize Ugandan yoga teachers and community classes in the 7 Districts of UGANDA, as a way of creating awareness about wellness and using yoga as a tool for transformation. We use the platform to inspiring people to practice and join community classes close in their localities. I now host the INSTRUMENTAL HATHA YOGA CHILDREN TEACHER TRAINING in Entebbe at the YOGA STUDIO ENTEBBE, where up to 20 students from different parts of Africa have already been awarded scholarships to get tools and knowledge of handling and sharing yoga to children. They get certified at the end of the 14 days Teacher Training by YOGA PURA VIDA and SATYANANDAYOGA CENTRE BRAZIL.

Right now, we still need some money to reserve food and sleeping space for the scholarship participants as the scholarship doesn’t cover sleeping places. Lastly, I would need any support, as I’m working on getting tools that I can use in my children’s yoga classes to retain their full attention.

You can find me, and learn more about what I do, on my social media: