From untold LGBT+ stories to water everywhere: photos from East Africa

Last year, a deathly virus stopped the world in its tracks. Things may be moving a little (cautiously) now, but the pandemic is still with us. Complicating that concern are the effects of climate change: flooding in one end of the world, desertification in the other, sometimes both in the same country. Sometimes concerns are more intimate and close to home: violence between partners. Sometimes there is no immediate cause for wringing hands or furrowing the brow.
For the tenth year in a row, the Uganda Press Photo Awards recognises the image-makers documenting, archiving this rich breadth of our lives from the egregious to the ordinary.
Below is a special selection of African Arguments’ favourite photographs from the shortlisted entries, followed by the three winners of the Uganda Press Photo Award, East African Photography Award, and Young Photographers Award.
Single-shot selections:
Aging by the Water – Stuart Tibaweswa
Vincent Sentamu, 58, tests a mukene (silverfish) trap that he has prepared. He started working as a fisherman at Nakaziba landing site, Mpigi, in 1981. Now the owner of a boat and fishing nets, he employs younger fishermen to do the work for him while he remains on dry land.
Nalubaale Takes Over – Edgar Kanyike
The remains of Mulungu beach are pictured after rising water levels on Lake Nalubaale, also known as Lake Victoria, submerged large areas of shoreline, including this beach and its village. The community in Mulungu was previously a very vibrant space of houses and businesses and was home to a lifestyle that had existed on the shores for years. The heavy rains of 2020 caused water levels in the lake to rise, slowly eating away at the land until Nalubaale had completely taken over the community of Mulungu.
Kampala Floods – Nicholas Bamulanzeki
A man carries a police officer through a flooded street near the Clock Tower roundabout in downtown Kampala after a heavy downpour on the 11th of September 2020. The cost of a trip across the water is 5,000 UGX ($1.25) and business is brisk.
Flag Off – Abubaker Lubowa
Denis Ssenono is dragged by riot police to Nalufenya police station in Jinja district for protesting the arrest of Kyagulanyi Robert, popularly known as Bobi Wine, on November 18th 2020. Mr. Kyagulanyi was arrested in Luuka district in Eastern Uganda by security officials for allegedly flouting the ministry of Health SOPs on COVID-19. After two days in detention Mr. Ssenono, one of the candidate’s entourage, was charged alongside many other opposition supporters arrested the same day.
Photo series:
Powering the ‘Ghost Town’ of Rusinga Island – Anthony Ochieng Onyango

A fisherman selling his catch after a whole night fishing

The floating solar-powered lamp in position to attract the silver fisher. The lamps are placed just after sunset to provide the light that attracts the silverfish to the surface. Later, the fishermen spread their nets below the light to catch the fish.
Growing up on Rusinga Island, Kenya, my family and I enjoyed the majestic views of the enormous lake. When the sun sets, the lake comes to life in a whole new form, with small yellow lights appearing all over the water’s surface like a town that disappears with the new day. This is why we call it the ‘Ghost Town’. This sea of lights is actually a trap, deployed by fishermen to attract and catch the delicious silverfish locally known as ‘Omena’…But impacts of climate change, such as increased water levels of the lake, increases in temperature, and changes in rainfall patterns – combined with overfishing and ongoing pollution of the lake – significantly affect the fish species.
Kampala’s Nudes Leak – Katumba Badru

This makeshift photo studio in Ggaba was a source of income to six brothers who kept it well decorated and sparkling clean. But with the lockdown in place, the studio was abandoned and left with dirty covers.

An aerial view of the new taxi park, usually home to a legendary sea of chaotic humanity, now empty and silent.
In June 2021, the boisterous Mama “Kampala” was deprived of her identity, stripped naked of her people. Kampala’s normal day is defined by two things: urgency and trade. Ordinarily, the streets are crammed with hustlers and pedestrians; employees running late to work or trying to catch a taxi home, street vendors hawking bananas, limes gum, or pirated music CDs. All this stalled when COVID-19 reached in and took hold, triggering a harsh and total lockdown.
Heroes of the Ghost War – Amanuel Sileshi

“My name is Zinash Taye. I was assigned to the intensive care ward at St.Paul’s Hospital two months ago to treat patients who were infected by COVID-19. It’s a really hard task and also wearing PPE everyday is really challenging but the motivation I get is from patients. The love they have is very heartwarming and that keeps me in a good mood to treat them to my full capacity.”

Cleaning staff in personal protective equipment (PPE) carry lidded trash boxes in a line to minimize contamination after collecting PPEs used by doctors who treated patients infected with COVID-19, in the intensive care unit (ICU) at Saint Petros Hospital.
This body of work sheds light on the brave medical teams combating COVID-19 pandemic round the clock, in Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia. It documents the constant work by medical personnel in a fight that is beyond the ability, capacity, or expertise of any one individual.
The Winners
East African Photography Award: Through the Cracks – DeLovie Kwagala
“While many structures have formed to counter the constant barrage of violence directed towards the LGBTIQ community from the outside, Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is an internal subject that is left largely unaddressed within the community. The frequent rejection of gender identity, gender expression or sexual orientation by families and broader society results in victims suffering in silence within these relationships, while public health campaigns by government and non-governmental organizations targeting intimate partner violence are often directed at cis-gendered heterosexual persons. LGBTIQ individuals fall through the cracks due to their exclusion from the messaging.
This means that members of the community do not always accurately identify their experiences as being abusive or requiring intervention. The possibility of access to services for support and shelter is further limited due to fears of secondary victimization by the same service providers that are meant to safeguard groups vulnerable to violence. Victims who do not fit the norm struggle in isolation, sometimes because the perpetrator doesn’t fit society’s imagined profile of a domestic abuser.
The global coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdown brought about an increase in incidences of domestic violence, including within queer domestic spaces, while the limitations brought about by the pandemic in terms of commercial enterprise and movement meant that many people did not have much of a choice, being compelled to stay with their abusers to wait the lockdown out.
These images speak their owners’ truths without them being shamed, erased, silenced, invalidated, or cancelled because a human that they love(d) and trusted became a site of violence, leaving them scrambling through the cracks.”
– DeLovie Kwagala

“I feel like with heterosexuals, there is no hiding so it’s easier to talk to family about what you’re going through. I don’t have that privilege. And he uses it to his advantage. I can’t go the police either because they will end throwing me to the police. I often think about leaving, but then to who? We are a very small illegal community”. STEVE*

“The person who I’m dating thinks he is doing me a favour. And maybe he is right. Being single is tough and as a trans person, no one really cares about us. He will remind me how he feeds and houses me daily. I don’t have a voice around him. But he is also very big and muscular so I have learnt to just do what he wants so I don’t get beat up”. CYRUS*

“I think at this point I have internalized violence to be apart of my love life. I have not been with anyone who has not abused me. It sucks but I can’t fight back because I know I can’t win. It has gotten worse in the pandemic but there is no one to talk to. I have heard about therapy but its really expensive. I have accepted my fate”. LARYN*

“My story is a painful one to talk about as it takes me back to a dark place and I’m honestly not ready. I was blinded by love that I lost a lot of friends, went into a state of depression from all the self body hate that he inflicted on me from comments like I’m too fat or I’m not beautiful enough. My only hope is if we had support and a way to hold them accountable because in the end, we are human too. No one deserves to be treated as less. If the government could let us be, these men won’t feel as much powerful as they feel now. MALAIKA*

“My dad kicked me out once he found out that I was Trans. I ended up at a shelter which I then left I for various reasons. I moved in with my then boyfriend. Things were going well until he started to abuse me constantly. On the last straw, he assumed I was cheating on him and attacked me with a knife and sliced my face. Sad thing is, I couldn’t report him to the police because of the limitations that us as transgenders face in this country”. MISSY*
Names have been changed because of the stigma and shame around the topic.
Uganda Press Photo Award: Winnowers of Hope – Joseph Muhumuza
“A group of women sieve leftover rice husks outside a mill in Mbale, Eastern Uganda, in search of overlooked grains that have not been gathered. By re-sieving the mill’s chaff, the women gather enough rice to feed their families. Rice, a delicacy that is only eaten on special occasions in some rural areas, costs a little more than most other foodstuffs on the market.”
– Joseph Muhumuza
Young Photographer Award – Timothy Akolamazima
This award is geared towards passionate photographers in the early stages of their careers and working within documentary photography, who would benefit from the tools and support to realise their vision as storytellers. Timothy is a graduate and holder of a BSc. in Population Studies. He will have the opportunity to develop his project further and exhibit his work during UPPA 2022.