The Ttabo : if you’re not in here no one will know you’re out there.

The Ttabo both adds to and corrects ‘The Kaddu Wasswa Archive, a visual biography’. While Kaddu Wasswa was initially very happy with that book it became over time more and more obvious that the 2010 publication was problematic in a couple of ways. The focus of the documents in the book was on his failures to such an extent that it was rather hard to get to his ideas. And the fancy production, done in the Netherlands, made it beyond the reach of too many.

Meanwhile Kaddu Wasswa and I met whenever possible and had a significant influence on each other’s lives. This resulted, for instance, in Kaddu earning a university degree and traveling to the Netherlands and Rwanda, while working with his ‘archive’ led to the platform ‘History In Progress Uganda’, which makes previously inaccessible historical photographs available online, in exhibitions as well as publications, and to my PhD research on photographs in Uganda.

The Ttabo consists of a book and a film. Both present aspects from Kaddu Wasswa’s recent past as well as his current efforts to contribute to the wellbeing and future presence of his peers, the elders in his community.

This book is made up of selected texts by Kaddu Wasswa, reproduced documents from his manuscripts, and photographic documentation made by R. Canon Griffin (planets and panoramas) and myself.

‘The Ttabo – If you’re not in here no one will know you’re out there’ was designed by me and is fully produced in small batches on Nasser Road in Kampala. Here you see excerpts from the book while in Kaddu Wasswa’s hands at the Uganda Society in Kampala. Source : www.andreastultiens.nl