Election day in Uganda passed peacefully for the most part, with only a few scattered incidents of reported violence. This does not come as a surprise, however. The announcement of the presidential winner, due no later than Sunday evening, is what will draw the most reaction from the streets. Peaceful does not mean that the vote was without irregularities, however. As opposition leader Dr. Kizza Besigye stated in a press conference today, “it is already very clear that there have been widespread malpractices in the electoral process.” I witnessed not only voters providing names that clearly did not match the picture provided on the voting register, but also the coaching of voters in the polling queue by party officials or their hired hands. Below, poll workers and local officials in the town of Mbale argue over apparent typographical errors on the register. One colleague of mine reported and photographed the[…]
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Closing Arguments | Ugandan President Museveni Wraps Up Campaign
At a massive campaign rally that seemed at times more like a victory celebration, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni touted the achievements made under his National Resistance Movement’s leadership during the last decade. After detailing agricultural, educational, economic, and infrastructure improvements, he painted his various rivals as untested and risky choices. Throughout a slew of performances by Ugandan pop stars, “No change” became the slogan of the day. Mr. Museveni has been in power for over 25 years. However, if this crowd has anything to say about it, the recent trend of deposing long-term heads of state won’t carry over to the streets of Kampala. Ugandans go to the polls to elect their President for the next five years on Friday. Behold at last, the True Chapeau…
Read MoreStreets Heating Up | Kampala, Uganda
Uganda’s opposition parties are rallying the faithful ahead of Friday’s presidential and parliamentary voting. Today, presidential candidate Dr. Kizza Besigye campaigned in downtown Kampala to enthusiastic support. Dr. Besigye is the front runner of all the Presidential challengers to Uganda’s incumbent President Yoweri Museveni. Along with supporters of his IPC party (Interparty Cooperation), he took to the streets of Kampala today for a last-minute push of campaigning ahead of Friday’s presidential vote. The crowd was raucous, taking on almost a militant tone. One vehicle in his caravan was decorated to resemble an army tank. Many voters are frustrated that President Museveni has yet to stand down from office after more than 25 years. Dr. Besigye, speaking from the roof of an SUV, had a message for those politicians clinging to power: look to the streets of Egypt and Tunisia. There was indeed a lot of energy on the streets today.[…]
Read Moreold habits die hard – images from Kenya’s Maasai land
I’m currently on assignment with ChildFund in Kenya working on a television spot that will air in the US. The video concerns solar panels that the NGO has placed in schools and dormitories in two separate areas of the country. These photos come from remote Maasai land, north of the Tanzania border – far from any tarmacked road or mobile phone tower. The solar panels, which were of great help to me when charging camera batteries, are even more useful to the girls at Nanin’goi Girls’ Primary and Boarding School in Mosiro, Kenya. Here students can study in class and find their way around the dorms without relying on kerosene lanterns after the sun sets just after 6pm each day. ChildFund continually works with the elders of the community to ensure that the girls of the school are not subjected to early childhood marriage and female circumcision, practices still very[…]
Read Morefeatured in Marie Claire…
My photographs appear for the third time in this month’s Marie Claire. The magazine does a good job keeping its readers informed about what goes on in the lives of women throughout the world. For this article MC took a look at five different women in different countries on four continents, comparing their salaries and lifestyles. The subject of my photos, Rachel Jama, whom I shadowed for a day in Soroti, Uganda, was the most unique of all the women. Read the article and see if you don’t agree. The January 2011 issue is on stands now.
Read Morea (re)productive year
With assignments in six different countries throughout the world, PSI has filled up at least a terabyte’s worth of hard drive space in RAW and video files for me this year and has kept me busy enough to fall behind on my blogging. While Population Services International has programs in a number of areas in global health, I’ve primarily been documenting their reproductive health and HIV/AIDS prevention programs along with the lives of the women who have been helped. All of the following were taken in Mali, Cameroon, Vietnam, and Cambodia. Above, Kono Cecile receives a hormonal implant in her arm at a clinic in Yaounde, Cameroon. The implant will prevent her from having children in the next five years and allow her to concentrate on better raising the children she already has. Banconi is a crowded suburb in Mali’s capital, Bamako. Mariam Sangare, shown above at her children’s bath[…]
Read MoreZooming ’round Hanoi
It’s my first assignment outside Africa this year, and my first time ever to travel to Vietnam. I had some free time to explore the streets of Hanoi this afternoon, which were supposedly sleepy compared to a weekday. I’ll have the next few days to draw comparisons. While the word chaotic comes to mind, the roadways and motorbike taxis are actually a bit more civil than what I’m used to in Uganda. After several hours of meandering I gave up trying to find the Hanoi Hilton and Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum, instead making it my goal to reach it to the city’s waterfront.
Read MoreOne stop shopping
Take five minutes to explore Obalanga’s weekly market, the largest in NE Uganda’s Amuria District. Here people come from surrounding towns and districts to buy and trade, make repairs, catch up with friends, and hear from politicians and itinerant preachers. The predominant language heard here is Ateso.
Read More(desperate for) Water Aid
It’s been ten years since world leaders came together to form what became the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to tackle world poverty. Heads of state recently met again for a summit at UN headquarters in New York to discuss progress made in the last decade. My most recent assignment with Water Aid UK was not to document progress that the NGO has made in communities where it works. Instead I was commissioned to visit areas where there is still much work left to be done. Unfortunately, it’s not too hard to find schools, hospitals and communities that lack clean water sources or proper toilets and sanitation facilities here in NE Uganda, which is the poorest and least developed area of the country. Water Aid has used these stories for awareness campaigns that led up to the summit. They’ve also shared them with the decision makers themselves. They hope to[…]
Read MoreMourning the Loss of Grace
I honestly thought she would make it. I’m not even sure I would have started this story if I knew she wouldn’t have. Wednesday after midnight I got a call from Sarah. “Mtoto yangu amekufa,” she repeated over and over again on the phone hysterically, “My child has died.” I went immediately to the hospital where I was the only one there to mourn with Sarah. Several times I almost pulled my camera out of my bag to start shooting but it just wasn’t the time. As the sun came up, I rode in a taxi with Sarah to the village of Abia, where she returned with Grace’s body to bury her along side her late husband. Here, friends of her late husband mourn with her. Grace was the last surviving member of her father’s family, all of whom fell victim either to the AIDS virus or to LRA invasion[…]
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