Workshop and Q&A with Love Ssega

Love Ssega (Ssegawa-Ssekintu Kiwanuka) is a musician, performing artist and storyteller of Ugandan heritage. He has toured globally and had site-specific works commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company, National Gallery, Hayward Gallery, Serpentine Pavilion and Whitechapel Gallery in the UK. Positive climate futures, love of community and indigenous Bantu culture weaves through his work and has led to his debut children’s fiction book, The Elementals: Wanzu Sets Sail, the first of a four book series.

Love Ssega is the founder of the arts and community-led clean air nonprofit LIVE + BREATHE. He was the founding songwriter and singer of Clean Bandit, performing at Glastonbury with a full BBC orchestra and is currently Southbank Centre Associate Artist 2024–2027.

Adventure-hungry Wanzu lives with his grandma Jjajja on the island of Sealand, where inhabitants possess magical powers linked to an element: either air, fire, water or earth. But, unlike his group of friends who have found their elements, Wanzu has not yet discovered his powers – he is perfectly content to sing and play his mini-harp. 

Then, when a storm threatens the island, Wanzu and his friends must venture over land and sea to gain the wisdom of animals and to use it to save their home. They learn about reefs and their protective role for coasts; meet an albatross to learn about building nests; and visit the Beaver Queen to understand the role of dams. Can the adventurers pool all their knowledge and powers to save Sealand from the floods?