By: Lindsay Rosenfeld
06/05/2011
Well, here we are… the morning of day one of our sixty-eight day adventure in Uganda. It’s a little strange to think that in less than forty-eight hours Hannah and I will be arriving in Jinja, the main destination and focus of our work. Despite the countless hours of preparation, research, and attempts at packing, the reality and depth of what we’re attempting to do or even where we’re trying to go has hardly sunk in.
When the word Africa comes to mind, I think of the Dark Continent, civil war, poverty, genocide, and often savagery, “the heart of darkness.” I envision the images of orphaned children and families destroyed by AIDS, water impurity and malnourishment flooding the television, beckoning viewers to donate a mere 15 cents a day to help eradicate the poverty and destruction. I remember from my “Religion and Colonialism” course last fall that Africa’s nation states were formed by foreigners, etched by Europeans on maps of places many had never visited. Ethnic groups were divided, territories chopped up, and societies of which few had any idea were irreversibly tortured. To someone who has never been south of Cairo, these mainstream images and descriptions have played an undeniable role in fashioning my naïve perception of Africa. And yet, Billy… Billy from Boone, North Carolina… Billy the Footsloggers employee who patiently endured my ignorant questions as to which backpack to purchase… Billy, who I met oh-so serendipitously, just so happens to have traveled to Jinja, Uganda multiple times… well, Billy’s brush paints Africa quite differently. His sweeps and swirls a gentle blue with the Nile’s current; an intense red for the dirt that inevitably coated his face by each day’s end; a dense, dripping black for the musical notes and rhythmic dances; and a bright, radiating white for the smiles of all the gentle, friendly, phenomenally generous, and infinitely polite locals he felt blessed to befriend.
Africa has many realities… this I am slowly realizing. While one continent, its diversity is immense, its beauty sweeping. Just as it would be foolish to consider North Carolina and New York one and the same, I hope to refrain from ever conceptualizing Uganda and it neighbors as interchangeable. Through our partnership with Silent Images, Hannah and I embark on our attempt to visually represent (through photographs and film) both the work of MANA and the current reality of Jinja, Uganda (and, perhaps some surrounding areas). I hope we can do so graciously. The stories of war and disaster cannot be dismissed, but they are but one slice of reality, incomplete.
I expect to be surprised by Jinja’s welcome, entranced rather than frightened. I am looking forward to listening and watching and, with a bit of luck and a lot of time, capturing some of the more memorable moments. I hope to be able to expand my mental images of Uganda through my experience… because at the current moment, I have very few that do not contain disaster and war… It’s interesting because when I saw floods ripping through Japan’s northeastern coast two months ago, I did not think that all of Asia is suffering or under water. I know from other images and stories that this is not so… and yet, I honestly have no sense of “ordinary” Uganda… whatever that means. Images of starving children and men with guns are all I have. I hope to gain a greater, truer understanding of Jinja and its people, its difference, its beauty. Fingers crossed.
Read on…
In hopefulness,
Lindsay
