Women and bikes
Saturday July 13 2024
The exhibition’s favourite image of an old woman standing with the bicycle in front of her. PHOTO | POOL
Henry Robinson’s photo exhibition titled Lela Pit showing at the Afropocene Capsule Gallery in Kampala captures women and their bicycles and boda bodas as they go about their daily lives.
Curated by Tracian Meikle, the exhibition delves into the unique relationship between women and their bikes in Gulu and Lira districts in Northern Uganda.
Unlike the capital city, Kampala, where women rarely ride bikes, despite the prevalence of boda bodas for public and private transport, many women in the north use bicycles and motorbikes for transport and moving goods.
Read: Motorbikes bring liberty to Burkina women
The exhibition which has been running from June 24 to July 19, celebrates the bike as the women’s travelling companion: Wot ki lakwany lum iwangi (it’s good to have a companion, especially when travelling).
This emphasis mirrors Henry’s own practice of the Wandering Studio, a mobile photo studio he established in Kampala. His work in the north builds on this wandering, translating the world through his photographer’s eye.