Photo Journal Monday: Yann Gross - Kitintale
© Yann Gross
Yann Gross is passionate about skateboarding and always takes his deck on his journeys. During one of his trips to Eastern Africa, he encounters a group of skaters, known for having built the first and only half-pipe in Uganda. Located in Kitintale, in the popular suburbs of Kampala, Gross is immediately seduced by this vernacular infrastructure and the integrative function it plays among the local youth. Given the area’s contingencies, the lack of material in particular, skateboarding becomes a collective sport that produces a whole new range of styles and unprecedented tricks. Having shared its daily life for several months, Gross finally becomes a full-fledged member of the group, to the point he even co-organises the first skateboarding contest in the African Great Lakes region and expands the skatepark a few years later. In parallel to these anecdotes, his insider’s view makes him a privileged analyst of the ways this sport strengthens ties and fosters dreams among this micro-community. Kitintale goes thus beyond mere documentary narratives, trendy clichés or paternalistic discourses and offers both a humanistic and a symmetrical account of contemporary changes in Africa.
Douglas Mwesigwa is the most aerial and best skateboarder of Uganda.He had to leave school when he was 13 years old, because his father lost his job and couldn’t pay for the school fees of his children anylonger.Douglas thinks that skateboarding can change his life and trains at least 4 hours a day in order to become a professionnal skateboarder.He wins every competition and recently swapped his prize, a goat, for money in order to pay his school fee and go back to school.He went to Tanzania where he got a job as skateboard-instructor in a vocational training center and was to Germany to take part in competition. © Yann Gross
The Mandela National Stadium parking yard is almost the only place where rollerbladers and skateboarders can meet. Located outside of Kampala, there is few traffic and good concrete.Jackson Mubiru used to go there before building the skatepark. There, he met Shael Swart and Brian Lye, who helped him to develop his project. This is where the history of Uganda Skateboard Union began. © Yann Gross
Douglas Mwesigwa drops from a 1.7 Meters high eave in Sixth Street, an industrial area of Kamapala where containers are loaded on trains to Tanzania and Kenya. Exploring Kampala on a skateboard in order to discover new skate- boarding spots. © Yann Gross
Karterenga David is a very good skateboarder, but a few times after this picture, he has been chased away from Uganda Skateboard Union, because he used to sell the skateboarding gear he got and didn’t respect the younger skaters. He was banned for 3 years and could come a few month ago, because he said he changed his behaviour. © Yann Gross
