THE WOMEN IN WEST NILE

‘THE WOMEN IN WEST NILE’ is a documentation of the women in West Nile region of Uganda, which share borders with South Sudan. I went for the first time a yearago on a project I did with my sister in Uganda. Through her work with refugees in the West Nile, I learned about the area and the local communities. Because of my previous experience working with refugees and displaced communities, the German Cooperation invited me to work alongside a film crew, documenting refugees and host communities in the West Nile area.

Uganda is the third largest refugee-hosting state in the world with more than 1.2 million refugees and widely praised as the most refugee-friendly country. Most of its refugees are women and children from South Sudan. In addition to hosting more refugees than any other country in Africa, it provides refugees with the right to work as well as significant freedom of move-ment.

‘Women of West Nile’ focuses on refugee settlements and small villages, which were only accessible thanks to the government organization I partnered with. Most women I documented left South Sudan alone, while the men were either killed or fled from the Civil War in their country. As a result, the women were left alone to raise their children, most of them working in the fields to survive. The ones I met shared incredible sto-ries about their past. Attached is a series of portraits from women living in the West-Nile communities, I decided on a subtle color for the portrait series, because of the significant role it plays in Uganda’s culture. Especially the textile called Kitenge, which underlines the personality of the women wearing it.

The timing for this project is critical, given that the world is currently facing its largest refugee crises since the Second World War and the dire outlook of an increasing number of climate refugees. Uganda’s concept of integration and the “Self-Reliance Strategy”, which my project will highlight, show that a good policy is beneficial to both the host and the refugees.