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Uganda’s Homegrown Skate Park, Photography by Yann Gross

“During a vacation in Uganda in 2008, Swiss photographer Yann Gross heard rumors that a skateboarding half-pipe had been built in a suburb of Kampala. A passionate skateboarder, Gross grabbed his deck and the made the trip to Kitintale, where he met up with Jackson Mubiru, who built the skate park in a lot he inherited from his father.”

Top: The first and only skate park in Uganda is in the middle of a working-class suburb of Kitintale, near Kampala. The park is surrounded by simple brick homes, women washing clothes, men selling flatbread, children carrying cans of water or playing, and a number of goats, chicken and dogs. The youngsters of Kitintale built the skate park themselves.

Bottom Left: Sabine Sawunda,18, “I skate to open my mind, and it would be great if more girls would come and join our union, because I feel a bit alone sometimes. Unfortunately I don’t have a lot of time to skate. I work at the YMCA to pay for university fees, because I want to become a lawyer. When I come back from work, it’s already dark. I like to skate on the streets, more than in the park, which is overcrowded now.”

Bottom Right: Moreen Angeyango,18, practices her balancing skills on a Sunday afternoon in the center of Kampala. “A few years ago, my father lost his job and took the rest of the family to the village, in the northern part of Uganda, and I’m now staying here with my brother Bosco. I didn’t know anything about skateboarding before seeing it in Kitintale, but I joined the skateboarders because I thought it could help to make me more busy. I want to motivate other girls to join the Uganda Skateboard Union. This game isn’t for boys only.”

Read more: http://lightbox.time.com/2011/08/17/yann-gross-ugandas-homegrown-skate-park/#ixzz1W7NuELoN