Children in the village try to squeeze into the picture. (Photo by Christian Doll, © 2009)

Angeline: Where does the name “Oyat” come from?
Christian: In Uganda, I lived with people from the Acholi tribe, who gave me this Acholi name. Most African names, particularly in Uganda, come from the condition of one’s birth, like their birth order or if they are born after twins or during a rainstorm, or if they have a birthmark. “Oyat” is usually given to people born under unusual circumstances. Few people aside from elders know the meanings of all the names, though. So, the student who gave it to me (a former child soldier who was also an amazing dancer and “footballer”) thought that it meant “an unusual person.” This was kind of a joke because there I was, the only white person for miles and miles living in the middle of a Ugandan village, living like the people there, trying to help and trying to learn the language. Pretty damn unusual. Being an atheist named “Christian” can get cumbersome, so I’ve been using the name Oyat more and more and have been publishing everything online under it.

A: How well-prepared do you think were for living and working in Uganda?
C: Well, I was a refugee case manager for a few months in Chicago right before I left and I made several African friends who I talked to extensively, so I think that prepared me a little bit for some of the cultural aspects, though not many. Since I didn’t know what country I was going to until a few months before, I didn’t get to read up all that much on Uganda and knew just what most people think of: Idi Amin. Plus, I read all that I could about the Peace Corps and talked to a bunch of RPCVs (Returned Peace Corps Volunteers). Honestly, though, nothing could have possibly prepared me for living in a developing country and working in a developing country.

Christian with one of the Rwots (Acholi chiefs) and his wife at their house in Gulu. (Photo by Christian Doll, © 2009)

A: How has this experience affected your perspective as a documentary filmmaker?
C: It has made me more committed than ever for having any film project I work on from now on arise organically from the people I’m working with. There are so many documentaries about the developing world that force a western or even a local but privileged perspective upon the material. There was a terrible documentary made about the organization I worked with that was narrated by a British woman and showed the people who were served by my organization doing things but only interviewed one of them. It was all from the frame of reference of the filmmakers. In documentary, perspective is everything, and after living there and seeing so many media projects imposed on people, I would never work on something that wasn’t mostly or entirely shot and planned by the people it was about. I didn’t get a chance to make my film there because I ran out of time and had so many more pressing needs, but my plan was to have a few of the kids I worked with decide how they wanted to document their lives and then train them and work with them to do it. They would dictate what to film, how, and who to interview. I’m still planning on going back and doing it at some point, but we’ll see when I can find the time to sit down and write the grant.

Jarrod sticks his tongue out at Christian. (Photo by Christian Doll, © 2009)

A: In what forms of cultural exchange did you engage while in Uganda? How do you propose to continue the dialogue back here in Chicago?
C: Everything was a cultural exchange. I mean, there were more big ticket cultural events I attended like wedding preparations and these things they call “introduction ceremonies.” And I learned some of the dances a little and I learned the language of the people I lived with. But every hour of every day was a cultural exchange, where I was sharing myself and continuing to gain a deeper understanding of everyone I lived with. After a while, you start to lose yourself in the place around you. When it becomes your way of life too, it stops being so foreign.

A: What was it like killing a chicken with your bare hands?
C: Hahaha. Well, I used a knife, so it wasn’t really with my bare hands. The first thing I killed was a duck, and I felt a little weird about it afterward, especially since it was much harder to kill than a chicken and it took a lot longer. Every time I thought about it, I felt horrible, but that only lasted a few days. Then, I was ready to do it again. Then, I killed my first chicken, which was a lot easier, but it slipped out from under my feet and started hopping around. You always hear about chickens running around with no heads, but no one tells you that they still squawk from the body with no head and that the head moves around on its own. That’s what’s really freaky. By the time I got to the one I killed on the YouTube video, I was pretty much showing off for everyone that it didn’t bother me at all. Honestly, I felt like if I wasn’t able to go through with killing things when that was the only way to have fresh meat in Africa, I should go vegan. The animals I ate in Uganda, though, are raised and killed a lot more humanely than the ones we raise in the United States. I think they have a different way of considering animals there because they are all around you, the farm animals at least, and they’re the way people sustain their livelihood. One of my neighbors stopped asking me for money at one point and would instead offer to sell me one of her chickens which she would raise until I was ready to eat it. It was like making an investment, in her and her children and in my next time hosting people at my hut.

A: What is the single most important thing you learned while in Uganda?
C: Corruption is real, poverty is real, the problems in Africa are vast and the wars have been devastating, and while outsiders can help a lot, anyone who does not aim every ounce of their work into empowering the people they are working with and working themselves out of a job is either ignorant of the situation around them or simply feeding their own ego.

Christian Doll is an ethnographer, documentary film maker, and essayist. He has worked supporting and developing organizations serving refugees, internally displaced people (IDPs), and the homeless. He hopes to continue to educate and move people to action on issues of social justice and human rights and empower the powerless through his work and documentary films. You can read his writing at oyatdoll.wordpress.com.