| From | Uganda |
| Gender | female |
| Death |
11 February 1999 |
Rose Mbowa (January 18,1943 – February 11, 1999) was a Ugandan writer, actress, educator and feminist.
The daughter of Kasole Lwanda Mbowa, a laboratory technician, and Eva Nyinabantu Mbowa, she was born in Kabale. Mbowa was educated at Gayaza High School and went on to study English literature at Makerere University and to earn a MA in theatre arts and drama at the University of Leeds. She worked for a year as a producer at Radio Uganda. Mbowa became a lecturer in the department of music, dance and drama at Makerere University and then became head of the department when the previous head was forced to leave the country. She worked with the agricultural and arts and crafts Magere Women’s Cooperative.
She published a number of articles on theatre in Uganda and presented papers on Ugandan theatre at the annual conference on African literature at the University of Bayreuth between 1989 and 1994. She also performed with a number of different theatre companies in Uganda. She was named best actress at the National Theatre and received the Presidential Meritorious Award for Acting in 1973. She also received the National Theatre Best Production award twice: for her own play Nalumansi in 1982 and for The Marriage of Ananseuna by Efua Sutherland in 1983. She performed the title role in Bertolt Brecht’s play Mother Courage and Her Children.
Mbowa’s play Mother Uganda and her Children was first performed in 1987 and has been performed internationally.