African Leaders of the World

We were in Kisoro, a small town in darkest Africa in 2010, we had the kids with us, and we went to eat occasionally at the only restaurant in town, and this town was poor and there were no tourists to speak of so the food was basic.  There was a lot of boiled goat.  In the restaurant on the wall next to where they fried the potatoes in a huge vat of oil was a most remarkable poster titled “African Leaders of the World” and it was like a page in a school year book with a framed picture of every African leader, and top centre of the poster, six times the size of all the other photos – the school principle if you like – was a picture of a young, smiling Barak Obama.  I tried to find it in the local market where they sold posters and fliers but it was not to be had.  Marion suggested I photograph it so on our last day in Kisoro I got on my bike with my camera and returned to the restaurant and asked if I could photograph that poster. The owner looked me up and down and said slyly that I could take it away for 5000 Ugandan shillings*. The restaurant fell silent. ‘OK’, I said. There was a murmuring and a scraping of chairs the meaning of which I could not immediately decipher but the owner gave the order and two cooks came out of the kitchen with spatulas and started scraping the poster off the wall to which it had been glued.  It came off easily enough without damage probably because it was coated in chip fat.  I handed over the money and the patrons of the room started clapping and hooting.  I smiled politely and nervously as I got on my bike with the poster under my arm and cycled off.  I could still hear the laughter when I turned the corner about 400 yards away.

 *A little more than 1 dollar