Yesterday, Ciara Leeming over at Duckrabbit linked to an audio slideshow in the Guardian about male rape that accompanies a long written feature ont he same topic. It focuses on Congolese refugees in Uganda who were raped – some in DRC and others in Uganda. The audio includes many gruesome details, a practice all too common in journalism about rape, but I do think that photographer and writer Will Storr avoids sensationalizing the stories these men have shared with him. I felt uncomfortable watching the piece — which is certainly the point. Storr doesn’t leave us with any hopeful narratives or mutterings about how strong the Congolese are. Instead, there are just these men and their families and their tenuous futures.

Yet, the written piece begins,

Of all the secrets of war, there is one that is so well kept that it exists mostly as a rumour.

While female rape in Congo is widely covered, it is sensationalism to call rape against men a secret. The New York Times reported on this in 2009, it’s mentioned in the Mapping report, and elsewhere.

Qaddafi at the opening of his mosque in Kampala, March 2008

Howard French writes about Qaddafi’s influence in Africa in the Atlantic. Worth a read:

As a deep-pocketed and sparsely populated state ever in need of labor, it has always made sense for Qaddafi to look south. Libya is far too small and peripheral for it to ever aspire to real influence in the Arab world. By comparison, the almost equally small but far poorer countries of nearby West Africa, wracked as they are with chronic misrule and instability, loom temptingly on the horizon as fruit ripe for picking.

“We the undersigned wish to express our deep sadness at the murder of Ugandan human rights defender David Kato on 26th January 2011.  David’s activism  began in the 1980s as an Anti-Apartheid campaigner where he first expressed a strong passion and conviction for freedom and justice which continued throughout his life.   David was a founding member of Sexual Minorities Uganda where he first served as Board member and until his death as Litigation and Advocacy Officer and he was also a  member of Integrity Uganda, a faith-based advocacy organization.

David was a man of vision and courage. One of his major concerns was the growth of religious fundamentalism in Uganda and across the continent and how this would impact on the rights of ordinary citizens including lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered / Gender Non-Comforming and Intersex  [LGBTIQ] persons.   Years later his concerns were justified when the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill backed by religious fundamentalists was outlined in 2009.  David was also an extremely brave man who had been imprisoned and beaten severely because of his sexual orientation and for speaking publicly against the Anti-Homosexuality Bill.

Many African political and religious leaders in countries such as Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Zambia, Gambia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Malawi and Botswana, have publicly maligned LGBTIQ people and in some cases directly incited violence against them whilst labeling sexual minorities as “unAfrican”.

In October 2010, the Ugandan tabloid, Rolling Stone published the names and photographs of “100 Top homos” including David Kato.   David along with two other LGBTIQ activists successfully sued the magazine on the grounds of “invasion of privacy” and most importantly,  the  judge ruled that the publication would threaten and endanger the lives of LGBTIQ persons.

The court did not only rule that the publication would threaten and endanger the lives of LGBTIQ persons but it issued a permanent injunction against Rolling Stone newspaper never to publish photos of gays in Uganda, and also never to again publish their home addresses.

Justice Kibuuka Musoke ruled that,

“Gays are also entitled to their rights. This court has found that there was infringement of some people’s confidential rights. The court hereby issues an injunction restraining Rolling Stone newspaper from future publishing of identifications of homosexuals.”

Every human being is protected under the African Charter of Peoples and Human Rights and this includes the rights of LGBTIQ persons.   We ask the governments of Uganda and other African countries to stop criminalizing people on the grounds of sexual orientation  and afford LGBTIQ people the same protections, freedoms and dignity, as other citizens on the continent.”

Alix Mukonambi,  Molisa Nyakale

Anengiyefa Alagoa,  Things I Feel Strongly About

Anthony Hebblethwaite,  African Activist

Barbra Jolie, Me I Think

Ben Amunwa, Remember Ken Saro-Wiwa

Bunmi Oloruntoba, A Bombastic Element

Chris Ogunlowo, Aloofaa

Eccentric Yoruba,  Eccentric Yoruba

Exiled Soul,  ExiledSoul

Francisca Bagulho and Marta Lança,  Buala

Funmilayo Akinosi, Finding My Path

Funmi Feyide, Nigerian Curiosity

Gay Uganda, Gay Uganda

Glenna Gordon, Scarlett Lion

Godwyns Onwuchekwa, My Person

Jeremy Weate, Naija Blog

Kayode Ogundamisi. Canary Bird

Kadija Patel, Thoughtleader

Keguro Macharia, Gukira

Kenne Mwikya,  Kenne’s Blog

Kinsi Abdullah, Kudu Arts

Laura Seay,  Texas in Africa

Llanor Alleyne, Llanor Alleyne

Mark Jordahl,  Wild Thoughts from Uganda

Matt Temple, Matsuli Music

Mia Nikasimo, MiaScript

Minna Salami, MsAfropolitan

Mshairi,   Mshairi

Ndesanjo Macha, Global Voices

Nyokabi Musila,  Sci-Cultura.

Nzesylva, Nzesylva’s Blog

Olumide Abimbola, Loomnie

Ory Okolloh, Kenyan Pundit

Pamela Braide,   pdbraide

Peter Alegi, Football is Coming Home

Rethabile Masilo, Poefrika

Saratu Abiola, Method to Madness

Sean Jacobs, Africa is a Country

Sokari Ekine, Black Looks

Sonja Uwimana, Africa is a Country

Spectre Speaks, Spectre Speaks

TMS Ruge, Project Diaspora

Toyin Ajao, StandTall

Tosin Otitoju, Lifelib

Val Kalende, Val Kalende

Zackie Achmat,  Writing Rights

Zion Moyo,  Sky, Soil and Everything in Between

For the past couple of months I’ve been in the USA, and thanks to the wonders of fast interent, a bit of distance and time for thinking, as well as a great editor, I’ve given my portfolio site an overhaul. Here are some highlights, and I hope you’ll head over there and take a look.

 

Aging Alone

 

 

Harper

 

 

Secret Lives of Uganda’s Gay Community

 

 

Liberia’s Amputee Soccer Team

 

Delicate Balance: A Rainforest Threatened

 

Miss Liberia 2009

 

Baby Borning Business

 

Diplomatic

 

Hybrid Agriculture in Ghana

 

Organic Coffee Farming

 

No Space for Learning

 

Women’s Sewing Project

 

Singles

Last night at dinner with a couple of friends including a great Ugandan journalist now studying at Columbia, we discussed just how hilarious President Museveni of Uganda is when rapping. Hilarious enough to post here?? YES SEVO!

Here’s a translation of the lyrics from the New Vision, via the Reuters blog:

The stick I cut strayed into Igara where Ntambiko reigns / Ntambiko gave me a knife which I gave to millet harvesters / who gave me millet that I gave to a hen / which gave me an egg that I gave to children / who gave me a monkey that I gave to the king / who gave me a cow that I used to marry my wife / She gave me a child I called Mugarura who raided back what belonged to me and my fathers.

As most of you probably already know, on Sunday night a series of bombs went off in Kampala at crowded locations where people were watching the World Cup. Over 70 people are already dead and a similar number are injured. Many are pointing fingers at the al-Shabaab.

My heart and thoughts are with everyone who lost someone, and with everyone in Kampala and elsewhere who no longer feels quite as safe.

Last week, I got an email from Benjamin Chesterton of duckrabbit asking my opinion of a post he’d written on the ethics involved in a series of photos by Italian photographer Marco Vernaschi of child sacrifice in Uganda supported by the Pulitzer Center.

(Full disclosure: I was the recipent of funding from the Pultizer Center along with Jina Moore in 2009.)

Before I even clicked on the link, I knew which photos he was talking about. I’d seen them, months earlier, and they struck me as somewhat off. I couldn’t put my finger on it exactly, but the dark and eerie photos didn’t look anything like the country I’d lived in for two years. I was in Uganda in January when I saw them and put up this tweet:

The blogosphere has plenty of opinions and posts about the controversy. See here, or here, or here, or here, or any of a dozen other places, including responses from the Pulitzer Center director Jon Sawyer and the photographer himself.

A quick summary of the controversy: photographer exhumes small girl murdered for sacrificial purposes to take photos of her body, then gives her family money, then clearly changes his story more than once and makes people suspect every “fact” in the situation may not be so “factual.”

First, kudos to Benjamin for bringing all of this to light. Second, I’m glad to see photographers and others who have opinions on something other than photoshop manipulation, which has always seemed beside the point to me.

Third, it’s clear that regardless of the specifics, Marco has made some dubious decisions. I think that’s something you can see in his photos, and perhaps why I felt some much discomfort when I first viewed them – not because he was uncovering something shocking, but because something was wrong. I’ve always said that how you take a photo affects how the photo looks.

Finally, I don’t like Marco’s photos because they don’t tell me anything I don’t know. They only make me think about him, and what he did to get into the particular situation that resulted in the photo.

Here’s the photo on the homepage of his website. It doesn’t tell me anything about the world or the people in the image, it just makes me think why on earth did that dude and those two women let him stand above him while they were having a sexual encounter? And what did Marco say to get them to agree to this? It’s voyeurism - nothing more.

Marco’s actions were clearly unethical. But enough has been said about that already that I don’t feel the need to say more here. Instead, I’d like to end with a word about a photographer’s approach. Did he have the best of intentions? Perhaps. But did he have his subjects’ best interests as his primary priority? No. He says he exhumed the body so that he could expose a wide spread problem. But had he instead respected the needs of the people with whom he was interacting, that respect would show in the photograph and ultimately it would do far more to promote discussion on the issue of child sacrifice than his sensationalist photographs manage to do. All his photographs manage to do is promote discussions about him.

I ask a lot of people. I ask for their stories, their past and present, their secrets, their fears. Most people give generously of themselves. They offer me a seat or invite me into their homes.

I’m always amazed by how much people share with me when all I’ve done is ask. But when I went to Uganda a month ago, I was especially astounded. At a time when an anti-homosexuality bill threatens to criminalize loving and living, several gay friends nonetheless invited me to their homes and allowed me to take their photos, to write down their names, to risk further exposure. They could have just said no. Many people I asked did. But a few didn’t. And I’m glad for it, and glad to share their stories here.

Read my article in Time, see a story a colleague wrote that uses one of my photos, and see more images on glennagordon.com.

Riots broke out yesterday in Kampala. At least ten people are dead, there’s rioting all over town and as far out as Mukono, and it seems like things are getting a bit worse than yesterday rather than cooling off.

Keep up to the moment with what’s happening by searching the hashtag #kampala or following these folks on Twitter:

@UgandaTalks, @Nnfrank, @UgInsomniac, @SolomonKing, @CamaraAfrica

Also, check Uganda Witness, which looks like it’s rolling out an Ushahidi type platform. BlogSpirit aggregates most blogs about Uganda. The Independent is timing out on my connection right now, but will hopefully be back up and running soon.

Here’s some background and analysis from AFP:

Protesters from the Baganda tribe, which is the majority in central Uganda, have been angered by government efforts to stop their ruler Ronald Muwenda Mutebi visiting Kayunga county, north of Kampala, where violence was feared.

Yoweri said his government would not back down on keeping Mutebi out of Kayunga. “I told him (the ruler) that the meeting in Kayunga will not take place until some conditions that will be communicated to him by the minister of internal affairs are met.”

Medard Ssegona, deputy information minister for the Buganda Kingdom, also refused to back down.
“We are not going to be intimidated by the government into giving up our demands,” he said, while adding that the group was ready for talks with the government.

Ethnic Baganda MPs walked out of parliament in protest over the issue Wednesday.

The traditional king holds a ceremonial position but also wields political influence.

The government shut down a radio station owned by the Baganda kingdom accusing it of engaging in “sectarian acts”. The king of the Baganda is expected to travel to Kayunga on Saturday, heightening fears of more violence.

Daniel Kalinaki, managing editor of the Monitor newspaper, said in an editorial the riots are the most serious test so far for Museveni, am ethnic Munyankole, as they have destroyed his relationship with the Baganda people.

“Among the debris in the blood-splattered streets lies something else: the broken shards of what was left of President Museveni?s relationship with Buganda.”

The Baganda are in the majority in central Uganda and the loss of this voter base would weaken Museveni’s position at the next elections.

And, to all my friends and everyone else in Uganda, stay safe. Journalists, don’t get too close.