As an actor and theatre-maker, Mbowa performer 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 Anansewa by
Efua Sutherland in 1983. She performed the title role in
Bertolt Brecht's play
Mother Courage and Her Children, in the first authorised production of any of his plays in an African language. It was created with Makerere students through a collaborative devising process, and is, according to theatre scholar Eckhard Breitinger, a highly political ‘play of conscientisation’ which ‘emphasises the richness of diverse ethnic cultural traditions, [...] encourages a self-confident practice of this wide variety of cultures, but [...] also warns against the abuses resulting from an only inward looking ethno-centricity and rigid traditionalism.' Her mentor was playwright Byron Kawadwa, who was killed by
Idi Amin's forces in 1977. She was also a key figure in the African
Theatre for Development movement. In the 1980s, she worked with the rural Magere Women's Cooperative, and encouraged the women to use their culture and to market their agricultural produce. She also worked for a year as a producer at
Radio Uganda. == Academic career ==