Nasser Road is nicknamed ‘Uganda’s Silicon Valley’. Strategically located near Kampala’s commercial and political centres, this narrow street crammed with bustling arcades forms the heart of the city’s printing trade. It is also a byword for creative and fraudulent paperwork; from identity cards to university degrees, a convincing replica of just about any official document can be acquired in Nasser Road.
This publication pays tribute to one of the street’s most commercially successful products, a constantly-updated series of posters depicting politicians and well-known personalities as superheroes. These locally-created icons feature images of prominent figures such as Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden or Muammar Gaddafi , each transformed into RoboCop-like figures, ready for combat. The artworks are both decorative and political, telling the story of the common man’s struggle against the might of Western imperialism, with international villains celebrated as anti-heroes.
Nasser Road is a collage of works presenting these posters, together with photographs of Nasser Road and the poster ecosystem, by Kristof Titeca, Badru Katumba Sultan, and Zahara Abdul. This is accompanied by an analysis from Titeca, and a number of columns from playwright and essayist Yusuf Serunkuma.
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