Yann Gross: Christine Sawunda, from the series Kitintale, 2008

“Christine Sawunda is one of the first Ugandan skateboarders. This now-twenty-year-old girl lives in Kitintale and loves the magic feeling of riding on a skateboard. In the last two years, she has also become a famous local singer, performing almost every week at the Obama Club, next to the bus station in Kitintale. Through skateboarding, and without government help or support from any organization, the teenagers of Kitintale have managed to ward off boredom and the negative effects caused by the poverty of their daily lives. When they are on their “Fantasy Island,” which is their skate park and their pride and joy, the skateboarders are not far from paradise: they feel freedom and a sense of community that allows them to dream and have prospects for the future."—Yann Gross

Swiss photographer Yann Gross is passionate about skateboarding. In Kitintale, in the suburbs of Kampala, he encountered a group of skaters known for having built the first and only half-pipe in Uganda. Gross was immediately drawn in by the vernacular infrastructure and the integrative function it played among the local youth. He eventually became a full-fledged member of the group, to the point where he even co-organized the first skateboarding contest in the African Great Lakes region. Kitintale goes beyond mere documentary narratives, clichés, or paternalistic discourses and offers a humanistic account of contemporary Africa.

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