Wakaliwood: The Cinematic Dream of a Uganda Slum
Wakaliga, a slum in Kampala with about 2,000 inhabitants, is home to a young booming Ugandan cinema industry known as "Wakaliwood", the Ugandan Hollywood. Here, low-budget films are produced by using everyday household items, such as frying pans, and PVC pipes as mock rocket launchers, and condoms filled with red dye for exploding squibs. Wakaliwood was started in 2005 by idea Isaac Nabwana, a young man who had grown up during the brutal regime of Idi Amin, who, from 1971 to 1979, presided over the killing of 100,000 to 500,000 Ugandans. Nabwana always felt strongly attracted to Western films, which he had never actually watched but only knew by his brother's passionate descriptions. Wakaliwood compound is in one of the lowest and most flood-prone areas of Wakaliga. Nabwana built the main home himself, using bricks he baked by hand. Nabwana and his wife, Harriet, share the bedroom with their three young children, and in-laws and tenants dwell in the remai...