Uganda: two sides to life

Uganda, the “Pearl of Africa.”

When we envision the interior of this mystified country, we often reduce it to images of exotic jungles, complete with long-lost tribes and “Tarzan swinging through the air,” according to the flyer of the new photo exhibition in the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture. The photos in the exhibition seek to get rid of these faulty notions.

The prints are fairly small for an exhibition, and the quality is not entirely up to par—several of the photos seem to have lost a significant amount of detail in the enlargement process.

According to Newsome's written artist's statement, the photos remain “real, unedited, ‘unphotoshopped,’ raw, naked, honest, vulnerable, true, ordinary and beautifully black and white.”

Although it seems Newsome may have gotten a little too happy with the thesaurus, his pictures do have a certain quality I found refreshing.

This quality lies in the fact that these photos clearly diverge from the romanticized visions of Africa characteristic of so many other photographers and those images made popular by publications like National Geographic. The images also evoke a “deeper diasporic connection” for Newsome as an African-American as he tries to capture a land where his ancestors once lived.

Duke senior Ubong Akpaninyie helped bring the exhibition to the Mary Lou. He said in an email that he also appreciated the photos for their holistic representation of Uganda.

“[The photos do] not depict the remains of the previously war ravaged country or malnourished children," he said. "[They] showed the diversity that is Uganda and beautiful and realistic scenes…Additionally, this art helps show the diversity within Blackness and provide a space for black students to engage in their history and people. Although many students have no relation to Uganda, it shows the diversity of the Diasporic Black community and initiates dialogue to re-conceptualize Blackness.”