Bigambo bibebitono tukole bukozi
Exhibition Title: Bigambo bibebitono tukole bukozi (Let us talk less and work more, Covid Season 19)
Exhibition Type: Solo Documentary Exhibition & Public Health Humanities Showcase
Organising Institution: University of Global Health Equity (UGHE), Kigali, Rwanda
Venue: University of Global Health Equity Campus / Exhibition Space, Kigali, Rwanda
Year: 2021
Context: Developed during the 42-day partial COVID-19 lockdown in Uganda (instituted June 18, 2021)
Medium: Street & Documentary Photography
Bigambo bibebitono tukole bukozi" (translated from Luganda to English as "Let us talk less and work more") is an intimate, research-driven documentary photo series organized by the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE) in Kigali, Rwanda. The project title and its narrative spark were inspired by a hand-painted caption on the windscreen of a cargo truck traversing downtown Kampala.
The project traces the exact 42-day timeline starting June 18, 2021, when the government of Uganda instituted a strict partial lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19. Under these mandates, private and public vehicles were banned, shopping malls shuttered, and public gatherings frozen. Only essential workforces, including medical institutions, construction crews, market vendors, and media houses, were granted clearance to move.
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Using solitary street walks across Kampala as a method of visual mapping, this practice captures how ordinary citizens creatively subverted restrictions to sustain their livelihoods. Because people were technically forbidden from moving about unless going to a food market or out exercising, the street itself transformed into a space of alternative economies and silent resilience. Hosted by UGHE to foster a cross-regional dialogue on health humanities and East African pandemic experiences, the series stands as a living archive of community care, spatial improvisation, and the sheer endurance of the informal working class in the face of unprecedented state limitations.
