The opinions expressed in this essay are the author’s own.
by Andrea Stultiens
What does it take for the multiplicity of truth to be given to work with, rather than a problematic observation leading to the actually much more problematic and nihilistic idea of post-truth as a present-day condition of the photograph? Perhaps this account of the social biography of the earliest known photograph (ekifananyi) of a Kabaka (king) of Buganda, can help to make the case.
Should the name Buganda, the kingdom situated in south-central Uganda, reminds you of the fictional kingdom of Wakanda, then please take that as part of the complex and fascinating layering of appropriations at work.
The picture of Kabaka Muteesa I (1837-1884) is the subject of an open-ended investigation initiated and led by me, that up till now resulted in several exhibitions, a book, and a short film.
In 2012 several friends, who were aware of my interest in historical photographs produced in Uganda, simultaneously brought a rather unsharp black and white photograph to my attention. The picture was retrieved from the website of the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren. Its relevance to Belgium is that explorer H.M. Stanley, who it is attributed to, would map the Congo colony for King Leopold II, over a decade after its production.
I had seen a detail of the picture depicting only the Kabaka that is widely distributed in Uganda and recognized the scene at large from an engraving that included in the, at the time, only available ‘Picture History’. I repeatedly met suspicion when showing the 1875 photograph to friends. None of them had seen it before.
The engraving based on the photograph appears to first have been published in Stanley’s 1878 travelogue Through the Dark Continent. The illustrators and engravers brought an incredible amount of detail to the scene while adapting the photograph into a mechanically reproducible picture. As part of this adaptation the appearance of the men in the photograph changed. They no longer look like Baganda. The adaptation of Arab dress and custom at Muteesa’s court, as described by Stanley in letters, found their way into the depiction.
Should the name Buganda, the kingdom situated in south-central Uganda, reminds you of the fictional kingdom of Wakanda, then please take that as part of the complex and fascinating layering of appropriations at work.
The picture of Kabaka Muteesa I (1837-1884) is the subject of an open-ended investigation initiated and led by me, that up till now resulted in several exhibitions, a book, and a short film.
In 2012 several friends, who were aware of my interest in historical photographs produced in Uganda, simultaneously brought a rather unsharp black and white photograph to my attention. The picture was retrieved from the website of the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren. Its relevance to Belgium is that explorer H.M. Stanley, who it is attributed to, would map the Congo colony for King Leopold II, over a decade after its production.
I had seen a detail of the picture depicting only the Kabaka that is widely distributed in Uganda and recognized the scene at large from an engraving that included in the, at the time, only available ‘Picture History’. I repeatedly met suspicion when showing the 1875 photograph to friends. None of them had seen it before.
The engraving based on the photograph appears to first have been published in Stanley’s 1878 travelogue Through the Dark Continent. The illustrators and engravers brought an incredible amount of detail to the scene while adapting the photograph into a mechanically reproducible picture. As part of this adaptation the appearance of the men in the photograph changed. They no longer look like Baganda. The adaptation of Arab dress and custom at Muteesa’s court, as described by Stanley in letters, found their way into the depiction.
The transformation of the scene did not end here. Over the following decades elements of the encounter between Muteesa and Stanley were described and depicted time and again by European authors and illustrators. Depending on the intentions of the authors the Kabaka was presented as either a respectable or a cruel ruler, the scene as highly organized and staged or the capture of a particular instant.
Latest addition to the collection of interpretations of the 1875 photograph, encountered in a Dutch publication of travelogues dated 1879.
Between 2015 and 2017 twenty-five Ugandan artists responded to my call to make their own interpretations of the photograph. Each of them counters the historical misinterpretations in their own way. Each one of them offers the possibility to look again at Kabaka Muteesa, not in the Simple Past Tense but as a Present Continuous.
Interpretation, made for the research project by Jacob Odama, 2016.
Interpretation, made for the research project by Papa Shabani, 2017.
Interpretation, made for the research project by Fred Ndaula, 2017.
Interpretation, made for the research project by Eva Ddembe, 2017.
Interpretation, made for the research project in a collaboration between Nathan Omiel (costumes), Piloya Irene (masks), Timothy Erau (light painting and photograph), 2017.
Interpretation, made for the research project by Matt Kayem. Photograph in Idi Amin's torture chambers at The Lubiri (the King's grounds, Mengo), 2017.
Interpretation, made for the research project by Eria Nsubuga, 2017.
Interpretation, made for the research project by Mukiza, 2017.
Interpretation, made for the research project by Migisha Boyd, 2017.
A likeness of Kabaka Muteesa I and some of his descendants, photographed by Andrea Stultiens in 2009 at the Kasubi Tombs, the royal tombs that burned down in 2010.
