Four days in and I hopped on a plane to work on a pitch with a Ugandan team for one of their clients. What an experience. It's difficult to describe a place like Uganda. It was surreal. Being the first African country that I've visited (other than Mozambique and I was so close to the S.A. border it doesn't count), it opened my eyes. We, in South Africa, do not live in Africa. To put it in perspective: driving towards the capital city Kampala, we passed UN camps, set up because of the genocides happening in the rural areas. A hotel has a resident flock of vultures. Why? Because it used to be used as a "prison" except no one ever received parole or freedom. The ever-present giant Maribou storks (which have a striking resemblance to pterodactyls when flying) circle the city in tornado-like towers along with crows and hawks.
Beyond the obvious, it also taught me a lot about advertising in different cultures: Assume nothing. You have to go in with a clean slate; no paradigms or frames-of-references or whatever it is they teach in the marketing class at college. Whatever you think you know, you don't. There may be some universal truths when it comes to people, but how these are expressed in each culture is different. The importance of the truths in one's life, is different. I, honestly, do not know how people can do advertising for a market they have never had a direct experience with.
Tracey out.
P.S. I apologise for the unedited pics - I don't have access to the awesomeness of Adobe at the moment.
Welcome to Uganda! A couple of small corrections/observations, though: Actually, the genocides are NOT happening in "the rural areas" - there are conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo (neighbouring Uganda to the West) that have necessitated the establishment of a UN mission there (MONUC - the abbreviation in French) whose main base is at Entebbe, in Uganda, for the usual reasons of logistical ease.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the 'vultures' are actually scavengers - Marabou storks, though, do tend to eat with vultures when possible, but their prevalence in Kampala is due more to the garbage than the carrion available (but perhaps they showed up during those days 30-40 years ago when Idi Amin and Milton Obote were in power and running slaughter houses out of hotels...)
Still, I need to give you a tour of the city when you're back...and I want to see the edited photos when they're ready.
Hi Skaheru!
ReplyDeleteThank you for so gracefully chastising me with your erudite comment and for so beautifully illustrating my point (even if I was the tit guilty of it): Assume nothing. I heard these stories from people there and did not verify them (hence, I work in the creative field and not journalism). Though, it's interesting to see both the beauty and horror of our storytelling nature coming to the fore - everyone adds a little drama to the story as it works its way through the broken telephone line. In the end, you're left with a nugget of truth and something belonging in a novel.
Thanks. I would love a tour and to visit Uganda again, even if it's just to eat some more of that delicious Tilapia at Mama Shantis (the best fish I've ever had. Nom nom nom).