Great pictures should be the ones to define and sell us

Of late my mind has been quite preoccupied with the immense power of pictures. We all know the 1,000 words cliché but I am not really interested in counting those words. Instead I am thinking about the emotions that come with the pictures we get exposed to and the stories they tell. I don’t consider myself a photographer (yet) but each time I look at a picture I try to think about the story it is telling. On Friday, I saw disturbing pictures of the grisly road accident where a heavily-loaded truck rammed into several cars, motorcycles and even pedestrians when its breaks reportedly failed in the Kicukiro suburb of Kigali city. Pictures of such tragedies are always heart-breaking and traumatising. I know it is difficult to police individuals in such cases but those in the media and other responsible people ought to know that sharing pictures of bodies lying on the tarmac is not such an ethical thing to do. We need to do all we can to preserve people’s dignity at such times. Anyone involved in such a tragedy would not love to have their photos passed around like just like that. May the souls of the departed rest in peace and may the injured ones heal fast. Still on pictures, I have loved how the pictures of the Kigali Convention Centre have been doing the rounds on social media. For some time the dominant pictures about Rwanda were related to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. Ten years later, more decent pictures about Rwanda became readily available, particularly those of the new and well maintained road, children with laptops and of course the iconic mountain gorillas. Of recent, the Kigali Convention Centre pictures are a must-see. Great picture carry a better image of our countries away from what many were used to. In Kenya, the tourism gurus are aware of the power of great pictures and have been using the #MagicalKenya or #TembeaKenya hash tags to populate the digital space with stunning images that sell the country. They have even taken things a step further and encouraged people to share pictures of the countryside using the hash tag #TwendeUshago to prove to the world that there is more to Kenya than just wildlife and Maasai warriors. In Uganda some creative people started almost similar campaigns to show off the country using hash tags like #Ondaba, #KoiKoi and #ThisIsUganda making it cool for anyone with a phone or camera to snap away at almost anything and share it online. I am sure you have also seen the pictures of Rwanda under the hash tag #RemarkableRwanda or #TemberuRwanda. I have also seen some Burundian ‘netizens’ sharing some cool pictures of their country even though it is not going through the best of times as we all know. We should not hesitate to share amazing pictures mainly because those keen on defining us as hopeless societies will also not hesitate to share the bad photos. I always feel bad when I saw shocking images taken when there are demonstrations particularly those that turn violent when police clashes with protestors. Our political actors need to think about their country’s brand during such times before giving western media pictures that fall into their template of what sells about Africa. Another thing that concerns me is the ever narrowing freedom of those willing to take a good photo and market their country for free. I often see people narrating tales of being arrested by security officials for taking a photo or warned not to take a photo. I know in some places photography is not allowed for security purposes but in many cases it is just paranoia by our uniformed officers. Ironically, in many situations where a local will be harassed for taking a photo, a white person often gets a smile from the same officers. This disturbing trend has made it look like only white tourists have the freedom to snap away while the rest of us walk a fine line of getting that great shot or annoying someone nearby and being forced to delete and apologise for taking a photo that is probably already available online. One of the challenges of marketing domestic and regional tourism is changing people’s attitudes so they can know that great pictures are not only taken where there is snow or at airports in Asia and Europe and America. If we love ourselves we should be able to show it more.

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Great pictures should be the ones to define and sell us