2021 DAILY LIFE CATEGORY WINNERS
Joseph Muhumuza
1st Place, Daily Life
Winnowers of Hope
A group of women sieve leftover rice husks outside a mill in Mbale, Eastern Uganda, in search of overlooked grains which have not been gathered. By re-sieving the mill’s chaff, the women gather enough rice to feed their families. Rice, a delicacy which is only eaten on special occasions in some rural areas, costs a little more than most other foodstuffs on the market.
Andrew Kartende
2nd Place, Daily Life
No Herb
Amid rising fears of infection resulting from the second wave of the pandemic, many Ugandans resorted to steam inhalation as a preventative therapy against COVID-19. Evelyn, a 37 year old charcoal retailer in Kikaaya, Kampala, steams at her workplace every morning. "Herbs are hard to find- it's just water", she explains. Opinions are divided about the effectiveness of steam as a prevention or treatment of COVID-19. According to experts, inhaling steam is indeed good and it is advocated as part of COVID-19 therapy too, but suggested that its indiscriminate use must be avoided.
Zahara Abdul
3rd Place, Daily Life
Calendar Custodian
A date with the calendar custodian. Customers leaf through a range of political calendars at a wholesaler’s store along Nasser Road, Kampala, a month after 2021’s presidential elections that saw President Yoweri Kaguta win a sixth term in office. Nasser Road is a hotspot for all printing requirements in Uganda, where graphic designers profit during presidential campaigns and back-to-school campaigns through merchandising. However, following the closure of schools in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, few sales were made. Vendors faced arrests and bans for selling opposition calendars on the basis that they were 'inciting violence', so the printing business suffered instead of profiting.
Nicholas Bamulanzeki
Honorable Mention, Daily Life
Kampala Floods
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. Over 500 manholes across the city are supposed to direct stormwater into the Nakivubo Channel but they are frequently blocked by silt. The channel is also often overwhelmed because rampant development has meant that land which previously would have absorbed water is now tarmacked or concreted over as green spaces disappear from large areas of the city centre.