His tough ways of dealing with enemies and prisoners.
I’ve heard stories of beheadings or, you know, some horrible stuff.
He was charming to me. It doesn’t erase out all his crimes.
[Developing News]
I’m Sumy Sadurni. I’m a photographer based in Uganda,
and I mostly focus on photojournalism
documentary photography,
especially to do with gender issues and society.
The South Sudanese civil war broke out in 2013
as a result of a political crisis,
which then turned into tribalism with the two main tribes in the country,
the Nuer and the Dinka.
So we have the SPLA who is the South Sudanese government,
and they're mostly representing the Dinka tribes.
And then you have the SPLA-IO, so SPLA-in-Opposition,
which was the defecting soldiers from the main army,
and those were representing mostly Nuer tribe,
which is the largest tribe in South Sudan.
When I was there, I was with the rebels.
There had been no journalists that had been able to cross with SPLA-IO—
until we did.
So this photo, it was in Panyume base camp,
where there was a parade of soldiers getting ready for the front line.
You know, everybody was kind of showing off their guns.
There was no coordination in uniform
because, again, it’s a rebel base, right?
So you’ve got some guys in flip flops.
You’ve got some guys in shorts.
But I think everybody-- it was such an intense atmosphere
in the way that everybody was really happy
and everybody was dancing, and there was a lot of power.
They really wanted to show their strength and, you know,
what they're fighting for.
So it was it was quite... yeah, it was very overwhelming.
This is Rose Knight. So, she was amazing.
She was a cook in one of the base camps.
I’m taking photos of the generals, and she just comes,
she taps me on the shoulder,
and she’s like, “Come, come, come, I’ve got a gun.”
So she took me to her kitchen—
as you can see, there’s pots, a stove, the greens—
and just poses with her gun, actually.
So, she’s also a soldier.
So it was really cool to see women fighters as well.
This conflict has been so bloody.
The Civil War has been very well known for its brutality
and its bloodshed and its war crimes against women and children
or, you know, everyone.
So, of course, that was in the back of our heads,
thinking of the worst scenario that could happen.
When we met Moses Lokujo,
who is a well known SPLA-IO general
who is known for his tough ways of dealing with...
enemies and prisoners.
I’ve heard stories of beheadings or, you know, some horrible stuff.
But of course, when we arrived, he was very happy to host us.
And, you know, we met with him, and he was very receptive to us.
It’s a very testosterone-filled environment.
I think a lot of photojournalists and photographers
and journalists in general
have this impression of someone they’re going to meet.
And then you meet them, no matter what they’ve done,
and they’re a total different person,
maybe for the worse, maybe for the better.
He was charming to me.
It doesn’t erase out all his crimes.
I’ve always been aware of acid attacks on women, right?
Especially in other countries.
It just happened one day that I opened the newspaper,
and there had been an acid attack in Kampala.
I didn’t really know that happened a lot here.
Then the more I sort of look into it,
the more I saw that it’s actually quite a common thing that happens,
and it’s actually on the rise.
This is a photo of Linette Kirungi.
She was attacked by her boyfriend around ten years ago
because she just didn’t want to marry him,
and she wanted to be independent.
And she turned out to be this amazing, funny,
just vibrant, bright woman.
And we just clicked, you know?
We became really good friends.
You see here....
oh, this beautiful woman.
Oh, I love her, Jennifer Mutesi.
She’s also part of the support group for these victims.
And, you know, she was almost purely blinded.
Her arms, her hands, she can’t really move them.
But she still puts makeup on.
She still goes out and dances.
And... yeah.
You know, one thing that Linnete told me was
the only people that can really help acid victims
are acid victims themselves
because only they will understand the pain.
There’s so many issues with acid attacks in Uganda.
There's no accountability.
I don’t think anyone is in jail for these attacks right now.
It’s actually pretty disgusting.
What these acid victims are doing
is trying to get a law passed that would really punish acid attackers,
that would bring up the price of acid,
because right now you can buy acid for 50 cents, so easy to get.
They’re also trying to support the victims financially
because the hospital bills are just insanely through the roof, you know?
A lot of the time the judge and the prosecution
and the defense lawyers
actually ask the victims to leave the room
because they're really horrible to look at.
A lot of them said, “I’d rather be killed.
I’d rather you would have shot me dead than done this to me,”
because it is the cruelest form of violence I’ve ever...
all of us have ever witnessed.
Last year, when we started lockdown in Uganda,
it was quite a strict lockdown and a lot of people were out of work,
including sex workers.
Then the government started distributing food to people.
However, local leaders in each of these sex workers’ communities
would kick them out of the distribution list.
So sex workers were not allowed to get any of the aid, any of the soap,
any of the food, anything that the government was providing.
It was just discrimination against what they do.
So what? It’s their f***ing job, just like we have other jobs.
Why should they be discriminated against?
They’re just women trying to make a living to support their families.
I believe this category of women are targeted because sex work
and anything really to do with sex is very taboo in Uganda.
I think they’re also targeted because
a lot of their clients are politicians.
So the way to shut them down or to shut them up
is to stigmatize their work and make them look like criminals.
Apart from the sex stigma, they’re also just threatened by men,
just greedy men.
So, their brothels were closed in the first place,
so many of them couldn’t actually go to their “safest place,” if you wish,
in order to work.
So many of them then resorted to
less safe ways to look for clients,
going in the dark on the streets after lockdown.
What I want to do is hold people accountable,
so I want to hold governments accountable,
I want to hold wrongdoers accountable.
If somebody can look at my photos
and say, “I’ve been through something similar,”
or, “Thank you so much for raising this issue,
why don’t we have a chat?”
If I can encourage conversation, that’s already good enough for me.