Portraits | Jjumba Martin

Vanessa Nakate, a Ugandan climate justice activist. 01/08/2022

2014, Uganda - Portrait of a young South Sudanese girl in Kiryandongo Refugee settlement. Around this time were my initial years as a commissioned photographer and I was assigned a week-long job to accompany a local NGO to the refugee settlement. This settlement, originally established in 1990 had been re-opened because of the South Sudan emergency, and the NGO I was working with was providing psycho-social support to the individuals who were dealing with the traumatic events that happened in their homeland. At that time, the country was engulfed in a civil war between forces of the government and opposition forces. The president (Kiir) accused his former deputy Riek Machar and ten others of attempting a coup détat. Like most of the fleeing families, parents are looking for a safer place for their children during such chaotic times. Between October 2014 and June 2018, the UN found that 6,500 children were recruited by both sides of the war and were subjected to many forms of abuse. © Jjumba Martin 2014

In the words of 40 year old Nyakat Chatim (2014), I rushed from Sudan with nothing, but my 5 children. The war had intensified more than we expected. Life is not very easy here, but we are trying our best to make it happen. I met Nyakat in 2014, in Kiryandongo refugee settlement, following the Civil War in South Sudan that broke up the previous year, following a political struggle between Kiir and Machar that led to Machar's removal as vice president. On July 9, 2011, South Sudan gained its long-fought independence from Sudan. Since then, the new country descended into a bloody civil war, and while a peace deal was inked by warring parties in 2018, human rights abuses, fighting between communities, as well as government rages on. (as of 2022)

Joss Mugisa at his home in Buliisa. Mugisa was detained for about two months because he disagreed with Total's oil and gas activities in Uganda. He is the chairman of the Oil and Gas Human Rights Defenders Association, a neighbourhood non-profit organisation that works to have the multinational recompense the expropriated residents fairly. The majority of them are peasants who reside on land that they are no longer permitted to exploit. The NGO's offices were shut down by the authorities in October 2021, and Joss Mugisa was taken into custody a short time later. He was formally charged with threatening members of his family, a charge he has consistently denied. He spent fifty-eight days in prison. "The conditions were very harsh, I was in isolation, in the dark. Not the right to go out at all, he says. That's why now, I have vision problems. Prison food gave me diarrhoea and the water was not drinkable. Since then, I have developed sicknesses." 27/08/2023

Dr. Priscilla Busingye, a consecrated nun with the Catholic Banyatereza Sisters of Uganda, is the first woman and first African physician to win the Gerson L’Chaim Prize. Dr. Priscilla was born and raised in an impoverished Ugandan village with no attending nurse or doctor, no medical equipment, and no electricity. The training and support she later received from the Banyatereza Sisters inspired her to devote her life to serving the poor. Sister Priscilla is now one of only a handful of such specialists in all of Uganda, and a rare resource for the rural communities she serves. Her motivation comes from the joy of preventing maternal deaths and birth injuries through the excellent care she and her team provide. She is also an accomplished fistula (birth injury) surgeon, serves as the head of the Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Uganda. (2022)

Village Chief Naaba Gbang Laar tamal, Bawku East Ghana (2018)

Korr, in the Marsabit County of Kenya, April 2025. © Jjumba Martin

I have been to Sudan only once and most remarkable for me is the skin color of the people there and how much they embrace the beauty in it, especially the women. “Sudan”, the country, is literally named after the skin colour of its people. “Sudan” comes from the word sud,” “sud” in Arabic is the basis for the word “aswad”, which means black. (2014)

Korr, in the Marsabit County of Kenya, April 2025. I am always in awe when I get the opportunity to shoot amongst Indigenous communities. In the drylands of Korr, there stood tall and proud women. I saw them as symbols of strength, wrapped in vibrant clothes Their skin toned in earthy hues, their eyes felt like they held secrets of ancestors. © Jjumba Martin 2025

Rango in Back cloth/ orage and Hakram in blue. They are a fighting duo with Soft Ground Wrestling in Mukono, Uganda. 2024

Bawku East Ghana (2018)

Purity - Ugandan Model © Jjumba Martin 2025

From the collection "Looks of wisdom" 2019

Retired Archbishop Stanley Ntagali , former Bishop of Masindi-Kitara from 2004 to 2012. Ntagali served as 8th Archbishop of the Church of Uganda until March 1, 2020 when he clocked the mandatory retirement age of 65. (August 2023.)

Looks of wisdom 2017

From the collection "Looks of wisdom"

A portrait of Lula, student at Morneau Shepell Secondary School for Girls (MSSSG) in Kakuma refugee camp, nothern Kenya. The school enrolls studious, hardworking girls while also helping the most vulnerable girls in the camp. Girls who are orphaned or only have one parent, or those who lack family support and protection, are at a disadvantage. They have no means of earning money and they risk being pulled from school to care for siblings, do tasks such as collect firewood, or get married. If they go to MSSSG they can stay in school, be safe, and focus on their education. Taken on assignment for the GAS. Company. (2015)

Shot on assignment with Fenix International, now ENGIE Energy Access. Fenix International is an energy and financial services company with a mission to transform customers’ lives through access to clean power and inclusive financing. Fenix’s flagship product, ReadyPay Power, is an expandable, lease-to-own home solar system, financed through affordable installments over Mobile Money. Customers put down a small deposit, then pay less than they would spend on kerosene and candles to access bright clean lights, phone charging, radios, and other appliances. (2016)

Photograph of my little brother shot oncomission for Wakisha Matches for promotion purpose. Wakisha is a matchbox manufacturer. (2016)

Dr. Priscilla Busingye, a consecrated nun with the Catholic Banyatereza Sisters of Uganda, is the first woman and first African physician to win the Gerson L’Chaim Prize. Dr. Priscilla was born and raised in an impoverished Ugandan village with no attending nurse or doctor, no medical equipment, and no electricity. The training and support she later received from the Banyatereza Sisters inspired her to devote her life to serving the poor. Sister Priscilla is now one of only a handful of such specialists in all of Uganda, and a rare resource for the rural communities she serves. Her motivation comes from the joy of preventing maternal deaths and birth injuries through the excellent care she and her team provide. She is also an accomplished fistula (birth injury) surgeon, serves as the head of the Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Uganda. (2022)

Leni Shida - Ugandan olympic athlete

David Kyagulanyi, Independent Mining & Metals Professional (2018)

Francis Karuhanga, Chief executive, Stanbic Uganda Holdings. (2024)

Ivan Matthias Mulumba, a Ugandan writer and valuation surveyor. © Jjumba Martin 2025

In 1992, the Turkana in Kakuma area were faced with a situation of having to live side by side with huge numbers of complete strangers. UNHCR set up a refugee camp in Kakuma, in order to accommodate refugees from Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia and other countries and by August 2001, the camp had more than 80,000 people. Previously, and even currently, there has been word of how old customs of tribalism are prevalent in Africa, and that people cannot overcome cultural frictions to create an orderly world spontaneously. Looking at these beautifully endowed women co-exist with refugees during my visit to Kakuma in 2015 only proves that people can find ways of coexisting with cultural “others.” (2015)

Lady in red, Bugolobi market 2019

Cathy Adengo, Head of Sustainability, Stanbic Bank Uganda

Fafan Zone in the Somali region of Ethiopia

Christopher Brown Nambago lived a life of hard work and adventure. He was the first black traffic Police officer in the colonial era, goalkeeper of the national team and at the same time, a member of the national cricket team. He was also a fine musician. At 94, when he died, he had been playing the same violin for 76 years. In 1938, while studying at Busoga College Mwiri, Nambago ordered the violin from Lenard’s Company in Britain, through his teacher, Rev. F.G. Coates. Till death, he had kept the same violin. ©Jjumba Martin 2016

Random portrait with a lady in Naguru, Kampala 2015

I had the pleasure of photographing Sister Charity Musiimire with a group of other catholic nuns who are working to improve health care servces provided in the western region of Uganda. While working on a Fistula story with another nun, Sister Priscilla Busingye, the 2020 L’Chaim prize winner, sister Charity was my main go-to person and she effortlessly did the translations for our one-week long stay at the hospital. Catholic sisters around the world do phenomenal work, especially with the poor and in these times when the Catholic Church is repeatedly called into question, these sisters seem to represent a purer version of religion and it's reason for being. Here, Sister Charity looking at pre-maturely born babies in a nursery at Karooli Lwanga hospital in Rukungiri, Western Uganda. (2022)

Random Portrait of Apio from Eastern Uganda (2017)

A portrait session with Adrian. He was the second black person I met with blue eyes. (2022)

Purity - Ugandan Model © Jjumba Martin 2025

A wood worker at Mayondo Engineering works, Uganda 2024.

Leni Shida - Ugandan olympic athlete

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