Yan Gross, the Swiss photographer and skateboarder–in an interview with South African journalist, Sean O’Toole, in Frieze (January/February 2011)–mocking the reaction of journalists, photographers and filmmakers, who flocked to Kampala, Uganda, after his self-published photoseries of a small group of local skateboarders, gained attention outside Uganda. “It was hard to deal with all these people. The suburb wasn’t meant to become a touristic place or a zoo.”
The Uganda Skateboard Union has (deservedly) been getting a lot of love lately. We’ve written about them a couple of times (here and here), and they’ve been featured in the UK Independent, GOOD, and now in the current issue of Guernica. Much of that has been facilitated by Swiss photographer Yann Gross. By all accounts, this is the first, and only, half-pipe in East Africa, built entirely by the youth from the Kampala suburb of Kitintale. Now, with some assistance from Birdhouse Skateboards and the Tony Hawk Foundation—who are both sponsoring the park on an ongoing basis—they’ll be skating for a while. Needless to say, I like this.
Sean wrote this piece about the great Uganda Skateboarding Union earlier this year. They’ve blown up as of late, and this video shows you why.
The sounds provided by the East African Bashment Crew aren’t a bad way to help you ease into your weekend either.
Great series of images by photojournalist Marc Hofer of a small group of skateboarders in the Ugandan capital Kampala who built their own skate park complete with ramps after one of them got introduced to skateboarding by a visiting European tourist. (Not all foreign visitors to Uganda, by the way, go there with bad intentions).
The Fader interviews the Ugandan musician Bobi Wine (whose pronouncements on the shortcomings of the country’s political leadership has earned him the title “Mr President”).
More, including links to two of Bobi Wine’s dancehall-inflected songs, see here.
