In Kampala, politics and information rewrite Hollywood posters | EUROtoday

HAS Kampala, Nasser Road is the road of the political expression of the folks. It additionally homes the Ugandan printing business in addition to an odd phenomenon: Ebifanayi. Posters, calendars, pictures the place historic and political personalities – Bin Laden, Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein, Bobi Wine or Museveni, even Putin and Zelensky – are remodeled into warrior or Hollywood heroes.

The afternoon barely begins, however Kampala’s buzz is already deafening. At the top of the dry season of 2024, you must make your approach again from Boda Bodas (Ugandan bike taxis) to succeed in an already crowded Nasser Road. Here, two males unload the truck of a truck full of bottles of American sodas. There, a speeding guard, mendacity on a bike, rifle loaded between his legs.

Faced with him, the face of Yoweri Museveni, sheltered from his everlasting white hat, smiles as amused to passers -by. The Ugandan President – at 80, he has run the nation with an iron fist since 1986 – has not left the consolation of his state palace in Entebbe. But his head is in every single place, supervised on the partitions of retailers, like a spiritual icon, subsequent to Portraits of Pope Francis, the Trinity or Paul Ssemogerere, archbishop of Kampala.

Further on, a wall suggests a torn poster from Bobi Wine, the chief of the Ugandan opposition, additionally nicknamed “the president of the people” by his supporters. A political range ostensibly displayed on this avenue referred to as the nerve middle of the nation’s printers and which was the scene of the final anti -corruption demonstrations which notably requested the departure of Anita Among, the president of the Parliament.

The court docket of “printers miracles”

Everywhere the identical slogans, “UV print”, “large printing format”, “engraver”. At the footsteps of the retailers, an ink odor mixes with the rising of the road. High perched on a constructing, the inscription “Printer’s Miracle Center”, in large capital letters of a shiny pink, is liable for reminding you that you’re in Nasser Road and that, on this printing paradise, every part is feasible, watching just a few Ugandan {dollars} or shillings.

From the poster of a neighborhood musician to garages posters, from a college bulletin to a counterfeit diploma from the National University of Makerere (the most important college within the nation), from a false visa to a false passport, you solely should ask, place order and you can be served. “But if you are looking for the famous political posters, the street has been clean from the police passages,” breathes a saleswoman. “They are inside the buildings. »»

Also named “Ebifanayi”, they sometimes take the form of posters-centers. In an exciting work published in 2023, Nasser Road, Political Posters in Uganda*, Belgian researcher Kristof Titeca talks about a “mixture of images copied on the internet and flashy colors, showing Hollywood figures such as Robocop or Rambo, but with their faces replaced by those of national and international politicians”.

Nasser Road’s bowels

To buy them, you have to sink into the bowels of Nasser Road. In the basement of a building, near a kitchen where the scent of the dishes for workers are full of a smell of cooked fat, well oil a Heidelberg printer much older than him. “No, I do not print these posters, my machine is not efficient enough for such bright colors,” he says.

However, the young man knows them well. “There is an interesting one. Putin and Zelensky are dressed in armed men, it reminds us of a film, ”he jokes. “I think people want them for fun as well as for the political side. I will buy one and put it at home. Behind him, the rattling of the steel press do not stop. In the middle of the hubbub, he screams: “But go up a flooring larger, a store sells!” »»

The famous shop is a cramped room, lit with extremely strong light. It is full of these posters-centers. Hidden between two heaps, its owner, Mohammed Wamanga, explains, suspicious, that the posters offered for sale are not by personal political choice, “it’s above all a very good enterprise”. But, he admits, “it’s generally helps or followers of sure politicians who command them”.

National political figures …

Behind him, two posters are placed on huge batteries. One represents President in office Yoweri Museveni. By his side, his son – and favorite in his succession -, the general and leader of the Ugandan army, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, also in military trellis, again accompanied by vignettes representing a machine gun and a combat helicopter. And slogans: “For Peace” and “The Freedom Fighter”.

The other evokes Bobi Wine – singer who became the principal opponent of President Museveni -, his original name Robert Ssentamu Kyagularyi, to his ascent as “President of the People”. We see him giving food to the homeless or campaigning against corruption that plagues the country during demonstrations of its opposition movement, the National Unity Platform. “An outdated one represented him in Superman,” jokes the seller.

In his book, Kristof Titeca explains that these posters can be understood in “a construction that many understand as oppressive, heroes of motion in fight garments are introduced as being able to assault these oppressive energy buildings”. What the Belgian researcher also describes as “the odd man who fights the powers in place” or “superheroes collaborating in native political struggles”.

… International characters decried …

It is also in this sense that the Ebifanayi can be understood which give pride of place to international characters to say the least, even unanimously qualified as great bad guys in history by the West, to the rank of which: the former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi; The former leader of the Al-Qaeda terrorist group, Osama bin Laden; Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.

These three men are brought together in the same poster called “Death has no escape” (“Death has no escape”, editor’s note). With a lot of photo montages – with weapons, gold ingots, scenes from the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, tanks or the hanging of Saddam and the assassination of Osama bin Laden -, the poster is as informative as kitsch in the representation it gives of these men.

If they have as the first common characteristic of being murdered, these three great bad guys represent and form above all – through an “reversal of roles” operated in these posters which makes these men heroes -, “a criticism of Western imperialism”, as Kristof Titeca underlines in his work. Their personal political stories can testify with it with an exacerbated hatred towards the United States.

… And alternative news

In this heap, we finally find the poster-calendar of which Ben spoke. On the left, the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, is dressed as a Bodybuilded Rambo soldier, with the flag of his country tattooed on the face. It is an equally bodybuilded and armed Vladimir Putin that faces him. Between them, vignettes try to tell in their own way the conflict, its upheavals and international repercussions.

A menu with a humorous accent takes up the cause for Ukraine. “Does this appear to be Russia?” “,” Not Russia “,” This isn’t Russia “, she says on the territories of the Eastern international locations, together with Ukraine. In an unwelcome dramaturgy, the poster even explains its goal: “Understanding the causes that led to the triggering of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict to arrange for the results that may have an effect on the entire world. »»

A want to supply information alternatively, which continues on one other poster: “Israel – Hamas War”. We see terrorist fighters from Hamas, civilians fleeing a bombed hospital in Gaza, or the Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, together with the American president Joe Biden. Further on, a thumbnail questions: “Why Israel Say they are” at conflict “with Hamas? »»

To uncover



The kangaroo of the day

Answer

Again, the aesthetics are full of army representations, explosions, arms in arms, chaos and preventing scenes that Hollywood motion movies wouldn’t deny. “Of course, historical accuracy can leave something to be desired,” smiles Mohammed Wamanga, whereas placing a poster of Donald Trump grimted in Dark Vader. But for a handful of Ugandan shillings posted it, many shall be glad with it.

* Nasser Road, Political Posters in Ugandaedited by Kristof Titeca, with contributions from Yusuf Serunkuma, Katumba Badru Sultan and Zahara Abdul, Editions The Eriskay Connection, 64 pages, 2023, 25 euros.