Esther Mbabazi is the filmmaker and photographer behind our Cotton Work Stories. The first pictures I saw of her were from her photo documentary This Time We Are Young – a portrait of growing up in Africa, the youngest continent in the world. 60 per cent of Africans are under 25 years old. When Esther, herself born in 1995, realised that Uganda has the youngest population in the world at 14.3 years, she wanted to show what this means for young people, how they organise their everyday lives and what they dream of. The result is a fascinating photo series about young people from Uganda, South Sudan, Kenya and South Africa.
Cotton Work Stories – Everyday work
A few months later, I’m sitting with Esther in a small single-engine plane on the way north from Entebbe via Moroto to Gulu. We want to portray families and their work who have returned to their homeland after the civil war and grow cotton for the global textile industry. During the harvest season, pictures are taken here in the sweltering heat, documenting the hard everyday life of Steve and James in the ginnery of the Gulu Agricultural Development Company (GADC) and the hard labour of Acaye and Ato in their fields.
Ein Arbeiter in der Baumwollentkörnungsanlage von GADC in Gulu. / A worker in the cotton ginnery at GADC in Gulu.
Gulu Agricultural Development Company where Kaya & Kato buys their organic cotton.
Farmer with his harvested cotton in Amuru, Uganda. / Farmer mit seiner geernteten Baumwolle in Amuru, Uganda.
Atto Evaline, eine Baumwollbäuerin in Nwoya, Uganda. Sie ist seit 2014 Mitglied des GADC. / Atto Evaline, a cotton farmer in Nwoya, Uganda. She has been a member of GADC since 2014.
Refugees in the border region
We know the story of the 880,000 refugees who have been fleeing from South Sudan to the northern border region of Uganda for years to escape the recurring clashes. In 2022, Uganda was the largest refugee-hosting country in Africa and the sixth largest in the world. With the support of Caritas Gulu, we set off to visit refugee projects in the villages of Adjumani and Palabek, just 30 kilometres from the South Sudanese border.
We meet Bungu Mohamed, who fled with his family from South Sudan to Adjumani and has made himself largely independent by growing fruit and vegetables. He is able to feed his family and pay the children’s school fees with his harvest. Together with other refugees, he founded the “Mungola Vegetable Grower Association” to market and sell the products. He proudly poses in his field and almost lovingly touches the cabbages growing there.
We meet Rhoda, a young South Sudanese girl, and her friends, who are attending Alere Secondary School in Adjumani District after their escape and will be taking their exams next year. With a mixture of shyness and determination, Rhoda smiles at the camera and holds her exercise book tightly to her with both arms.
We hear the difficult life stories, especially of young people, but – and this is what makes this region so fascinating – we also see many small success stories that become big ones – Cotton Work Stories.
Stefan Rennicke
Copyright photos Esther Mbabazi
Website: www.esthermbabazi.com