Will Boase rides along with Norbert Mao as he tries to unseat Museveni in the 2011 Ugandan elections.
I WAS IN UGANDA on the tail of Norbert Mao — leader of Uganda’s opposition Democratic Party — in the run-up to the 2011 elections. Contesting President Museveni for the presidency were Kizza Besigye of the Forum for Democratic Change, Olara Otunnu of the Ugandan People’s Congress, and Mao. When I joined, he was running in third place behind Museveni and Besigye.
I’d met Mao by chance at a work function in July 2010 when I was based in Gulu. We’d shaken hands and exchanged pleasantries and then went our separate ways. But in January of 2011, with the elections fast approaching and a job in Poland finished sooner than expected, I wrangled his email address from a colleague and sent him a one-line email:
“Dear Norbert,
We met in Gulu a few months back. Could I join your campaign as a photographer?
Will”
He said yes.
1
Mao for president
A member of Mao's poster team sticks a campaign poster to a door in a village.
2
Hopes and dreams
Women grasp at the candidate during a speech near Atiak, where he has family links.
3
On the (wrong) road
Mao signs the guestbook at a prison he accidentally ended up at after the convoy took a wrong turn.
True support. A man waits beside the road with a chalkboard bearing his thoughts about Mao being the second coming of Obama. The campaign was running very late, so he must have been there a while.
5
A marketing exercise
A boy stands in front of posters advertising Coke and NRM.
6
Welcome party
Cheering women greet the candidate at a village somewhere in the north of Uganda.
7
Mao is watching you
A poster bearing the face of Mao is waved on a stick above a crowd who are listening to him speak.
An NRM official looks on disapprovingly at the photographer, having been warned by security that I was invited. The local candidate for the NRM party in Patongo had decided that he needed the town square despite a prior reservation by the Democratic Party, but his bluff was called eventually.
9
Dinner on the go
Mao and a local DP politician eat a late supper at 3am in a service station in Bobi, near Gulu.
10
Hard work
A campaign driver sleeps during a speech.
11
Welcome to Gulu
Young men on motorbikes waving placards greet Mao as he arrives in Gulu.
