Prime
Students show coronavirus effects through photo essays
A man cleans a campaign poster of former presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi, aka Bobi Wine. PHOTO/ Courtesy/ Naibi Turihohabwe.
What you need to know:
The exhibition aimed at developing visual literacy skills, encouraging learning about the history of photography in Africa and critical and creative thinking
University students recently showcased photo essays, photo collages, video installations, and mixed media artworks in an exhibition that focused on the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on people’s lives in Uganda and Kenya, and the just concluded general election in Uganda, among others.
The closure of institutions due to Covid-19 forced a number of teachers and lecturers to resort to working from home.
Timothy Akolamazima’s photo essay ‘Covid-19 and the untold tales of a working mother’ is about Dr Eunice Sendikadiwa, a lecturer at Makerere University, who has had to adjust to new working conditions.
Being a mother, Dr Sendikadiwa finds herself jumping back and forth seeking a sense of balance between kitchen chores, including cooking, washing and mopping, and office work such as preparing notes and following up on her students’ research papers and projects through emails, social media platforms and calls.
In order to make this new world work, Dr Sendikadiwa has been left with no choice but to kill two birds with one stone. In order to maintain the balance, the kitchen has become her new office.
The photo essay by the Kenyan photographer Edwin Oblak titled ‘Louis’ explores the impact of Covid-19 on the life of 28-year-old Louis Ooko, a young man living in Kibera slums in Nairobi, Kenya. Louis is seen carrying his child, cooking and playing a video game.
Mr Oblak, who participated in the programme via Zoom, says: “For many people, social distancing is a luxury they cannot afford.
Residents in informal settlements like Kibera rely on daily incomes that often do not exceed $2 (Shs7,500) on average, and they live in very close proximity to their neighbours because space costs money.”
In normal times, Louis works as a mason but with the lockdown, he has been stuck at home with only his three-month-old daughter, Angie, for company.
While he struggles with worries relating to the lack of work, he spends time with her, or plays video games to pass the time.
“My daughter gives me happiness, and at a time like this I would be struggling with depression, but just by seeing her it gives me hope of a better tomorrow,” Louis says.
Vanessa Mulondo’s photo essay titled ‘Kids in Lockdown’ captures the effect of the Covid-19 regulations on the 12-year-old Vernon Mulondo, who has been restricted to his home in Kyengera, a suburb in Kampala, since the time when the government announced lockdown measures that included closing education institutions nearly 12 months ago.
Vernon, a Primary 7 pupil at Aga Khan Primary School in Kampala, is shown playing with the toys he has made from cardboard boxes in the photos displayed at the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Makerere University in Kampala.
“The Lockdown has been fun. I have learnt new stuff such as cooking and making things with cardboard boxes. Sometimes it has also been boring, somedays there is nothing to do and you just feel like sleeping,” Vernon says.
“I know the reason we are having this lockdown is because the coronavirus is a deadly disease and we need to stop the spread of it because many people have lost their lives due to it,” Vernon adds.
“It has made me feel anxious because I’m wondering when it will stop, and I’m tired of going through this lockdown. I am only happy because I don’t have to be so stressed about school,” she adds.
The photo essays were part of an exhibition organised by FOTEA and the Department of Journalism and Communication (DJC) at Makerere University.
The exhibition that was held under the Covid-19 standard operating procedures opened on February 4 and run up to February 28.
The exhibition is the outcome of the “Photography and Visual Literacy for Active Citizenship” programme which has been running for a year supported through Culture at Work Africa and co-funded by the European Union.
The programme was developed by FOTEA in collaboration with DJC to supplement the photography education provided to students. Participants took part in a series of in-depth workshops, lectures and talks.
The focus of the programme was to develop visual literacy skills, as well as to encourage learning about the history of photography on the African continent, critical and creative thinking, project research and idea development techniques.
It also encompassed technical skills, and encouraged participants to engage with Ugandan history and archives and work on projects documenting local communities and looking into cultural, political and social issues.
The programme was divided into three parts: Notes from Lockdown; Activate the Archives; and Documenting Democracy.
The FOTEA programme coordinator, Ms Stella Nantongo, says: “The basis of the whole project was to help students from the Bachelors Degrees in Journalism and Communication and in Fine Arts at Makerere University understand better how to read images and engage with them more critically, especially as an aspect of good journalism which encompasses both images as well as the written word.”
“The students took part in workshops in visual literacy, critical thinking and research methodologies and they critically engaged with histories of photography and varied photography practices on the African continent. This series of meetings and conversations laid the groundwork for the rest of the programme which included the product of the exhibition,” Nantongo added.
A pupil studies at home using a radio in Uganda. PHOTO/ courtesy/ PETER Mungere Mubiru
Studying during lockdown
The photo essay ‘Village radio’ by Peter Mungere Mubiru explores how children are studying at home using the radio in Uganda.
Schools have remained closed for many months a result of measures introduced by the government to curb the spread of Covid-19, and both parents and students had to adjust to a new reality for homeschooling. One such innovation was radio-based lessons, which students are expected to tune in to study.
Naibi Turihohabwe’s photo essay ‘Vote Me When You See Me’ is about how Ugandans relate with electoral posters. Some are treated with reverence, like shrines to be tended, while others are found glued to walls, alongside their rivals and stuck on any surface in any public place where passers-by might easily notice them.
In his photo essay ‘The Politics of a Scientific Campaign’ Blair Davis Mugume trailed Brain Atuheire Batenda, an Opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) candidate for Kinkizi West, Kanungu District.
In this project Mugume attempts to understand the intricacies and challenges involved in running an election campaign under Covid-19 pandemic restrictions.
Jackson Sewanyana’s photo essay project focuses on the special trees of Buganda and their history, norms, beliefs and values.
The trees include Muvule, Jjirikiti, Musambya, Kabakanjagala, Mutuba, Mwoloola, Mugavu and Mango.
For example, the Baganda believe the Muvule tree hosts ghosts and spirits. No one is allowed to cut it down, so as not to upset the ghosts and spirits. Accordingly, the observation of these norms enables this tree to grow to full maturity and harvesting for good strong timber.
The Baganda also believe that the Jjirikiti tree is a grave yard for dogs. They believe that when dead dogs are dumped under this tree, they do not stink.
Sewanyana says he looked at the special trees in Buganda alongside the norms and values attached to them in the interest of their preservation.
“It has been discovered that traditionally, the Baganda conserved the environment through frightening and non-frightening norms, which they attached to trees and other forms of nature.”
“Unlike now days, where the Ugandan government is at war with its citizens over respecting environmental rules and regulations, elderly people say, their traditional norms, and beliefs were strictly observed by everyone,” Sewanyana adds.
Philip Peter Kairu’s artwork titled ‘Obote Deconstructed and Golden Silhouettes’, explores the unlikely situations in history based on archival materials related to politics, health, freedom, and education.
These political topics are highlighted by the former presidents of Uganda Milton Obote (1962-1966, 1980-1985) and Idi Amin (1971-1979), and their histories are intertwined and bound by their mutual desire for power.
Obote and Amin’s figures are used as motifs all through the artwork, with the deconstruction of Obote’s face as the general mood and inspiration of the entire artwork.
“My desire was to propagate archives of text and imagery to represent different scenarios of themes and personalities surfacing in the artwork as one, interacting, supporting, and silently conversing with perfect representations of their actual selves from the past,” Kairu says.
Felix Bongonyinge’s photo essay ‘Wood carving by Langi People’ is about the wood carver Tonny Ebii, a resident of Agnu ‘A’ Village, Apac District .
Despite the growing prevalence of electric machines which can grind simsim much faster, Ebii still practices traditional mortar wood carving, a craft he inherited from his father.
‘Time: A Photo As A Ghost’ by Claire Zerida Balungi is a poetic expression of static stories in photographs brought to life. In this project she uses her own photo archives to explain how time tempers with the life of a photograph.
“I use a timeline of my ghosts…from childhood to the present to activate the lives of these forgotten things that tell a story of who I am. With this, I seek to encourage the view to store and remember to bring their stories to life through the artistic expression of photos; whether vernacular or professional, photography remains an art of expression,” Balungi says.
Kairu’s other mixed media artworks ‘Life I’ and ‘Life II’ focus on issues of women, faith, religion and inclusion. They were inspired by articles on the role of women in the Uganda Martyr’s story and the use of his family archives to fill the gaps on care, motherly love, and nurturing from childhood to adulthood.
Buganda royals
Venessa Mulondo’s photo essay ‘Transcend Through Time in Style’ is about the evolution of how Buganda’s royals appeared in imagery throughout the years, with a focus on their dress style, and the accessories and objects placed to accentuate their photos.
Naibi Turihohabwe compiled some of the available footage of Uganda’s past politicians, both presidents and popular opposition politicians in his video installation ‘Political Travel.’
Louis Ooko with his daughter in Kibera slums in Nairobi, Kenya.PHOTO/courtesy/ Edwin Oblak
The video compilation tells a story of serious matters in the history of Uganda with a little bit of satire.
Some of the issues include elections, foreign relations, tribalism and other topics. They remain as relevant today as when they were recorded, he says.
Among the other students were: Saidat Atidekki with his photo collage titled ‘The Freedom Fighter of Luweero;’ Anna Nyisomeh’s photo essay ‘Hand washing systems in Kampala’ is a typology of the different hand washing systems around Kampala to fight Covid-19.
Elvis Lubaga uses visual archival materials to tell the story of the former rebel group the National Resistance Army (NRM) has evolved into the Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF) in his project titled “Transition From NRA To UPDF.”
Badru Katumba’s photo essay ‘Pangs of Change’ captures the campaigns and career of musician-cum-politician Kyagulanyi Ssentamu Robert, aka Bobi Wine.
History
Philip Peter Kairu’s artwork titled ‘Obote Deconstructed and Golden Silhouettes’ explores the unlikely situations in history based on archival materials related to politics, health, freedom, and education.
These political topics are highlighted by the former presidents of Uganda Milton Obote (1962-1966, 1980-1985) and Idi Amin (1971-1979), and their histories are intertwined and bound by their mutual desire for power.
