The other day, I arrived home only to find my children laughing profusely, I was perturbed as to the cause! One of my kids pulled out asmall photo Album (dating over 20 years in age) containing all sorts ofphotos, it had several Black & White photos, a few coloured ones andsome that were neither coloured nor Black & White because, they had lost their original colour and were now brownish! What was remarkable in most of the photos is the fact that, the Mfashumwana in the photos and that of today were perfect strangers! The former was so skinny that one would have wondered if he had suffered from a form of malnutrition, where as the latter was so plump with a bulging tummy (beer stomach), a thinning hair line coupled with some wrinkles here and there! In fact, the latter looked more or less like the father of the former! Before the “computer” became famous, we used to pose for photographs under the sun; there was a short supply of flashlights for the cameramen to use and so, only the mighty ones enjoyed such a luxury. It was a must for a Secondary School student to take photographs while at school, how else would you show off your eventful stay to the less fortunate in the home villages? Those of you who attended the likes of Nyakasura School (there were only two Schools Ntare and Nyakasura) and we who attended St. Leo’s College Kyegobe (only two Colleges, St Mary’s College Kisubi and St. Leo’s College Kyegobe) and St Leo’s College, Kyebambe Girls and of course not forgetting the numerous Secondary Schools like Mpanga (no offence intended); we had the privilege of having one of the best photographers in the whole of Western Uganda, this was none other than Mr. Babinyaga. He had two sets of Cameras; one was for taking the Black & White photographs and the other for the coloured ones. As you cannot imagine, it took a whole week to have your Black & White photos processed and a whole month for the coloured ones! As you may have been wondering, why were they taking so long? The only coloured photo processing Laboratory was located in Nairobi; all photos taken in East Africa had to be sent there for processing! It was customary for the photographer to arrive on Sunday afternoon and remain at the campus until the evening, by that time; he would have captured several hundreds of images, safely tucked on a number of TUDOR, AGFA and KODAK films, awaiting the “washing” of the pictures. As the space became a bit liberalised, there came in a one John, this guy had a studio and a mini lab in the centre of Fort Portal town, unlike Babinyaga, he did not have to send the Black & White photos to Kampala. Since we relied on the mercy of the Sun to have our photos taken, on any Sunday afternoon, there was no time to waste, we had our lunch very fast or even forewent it altogether! Since the availability of items like neckties, suits, sunglasses, watches and sometimes good shoes, were the preserve of children from middle and upper class families, many of us had to line up to borrow those items (after the owners had used them). If one looked at the photos, they always spotted people donning on the same clothes. Behold, the digital camera had not yet been invented and maybe, its inventors were still sucking their thumbs and so, owning one was more than impossible! These days, we do not need specialised Cameras; all forms of devices that go for mobile phones come with a form of digital camera. While in Senior One, we had to pose for photos, these would be taken by a photographer covering his head (to shelter from the sun so as to get a clearer view of the subject) and when the sunlight decreased, the photographer would suspend taking photos. mfashumwana@fastmail.fm
