When the interviewer becomes the interviewed
Perhaps that is the strange thing about interviews: you spend a career making sure other people’s stories are recorded, only to discover that some of your own most memorable encounters are the ones that left no record at all.
Screen-shot from KK’s podcast interview. (Courtesy)
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WHAT’S UP!
About two weeks ago, I was interviewed by Bonny Kibuuka for his Ugandan Boy podcast. To say it was a weird experience would be an understatement. It was weird because I’d rather interview than be interviewed. First of all, there was a time when a podcast meant audio only. Now they are full-fledged TV shows, even if they never actually appear on television.
I have interviewed hundreds, if not thousands, of people throughout my career as a journalist. Apart from this column, almost every article I have written has been the result of a conversation with someone else. It had never occurred to me that interviewees might be less than thrilled about having someone fire all kinds of questions at them.
And it is different when there is a TV camera involved.
The first time I was interviewed on television was after winning the M-Net Africa Photographer of the Year Award. I travelled with a television crew to New York to cover the Face of Africa winner as she began her modelling career.
On the last day, after all the filming was done and every photograph had been taken, the cameras turned towards me. There is nothing quite as terrifying as that happening to a photographer. One moment you are completely in control of the situation; the next, someone else is calling the shots, literally.
Anyway, there I was, in the middle of New York, and these guys wanted to know about my journey. I have no idea what I said, but it was aired on M-Net’s Front Row programme (now DStv). I never got to watch it, but some years later, some guy in Kenya walked up to me and said he had seen me on TV and wanted my autograph. I tried to get a copy from M-Net, but after the many changes the company went through, it had unfortunately never been archived. Sad, right?
Like when African American religious leader Louis Farrakhan, on a visit to Uganda, walked out in the middle of our interview. The previous night, during a meeting with various leaders, he had urged Africans to unite with Arabs against American imperialism.
During our interview, I put it to him that Arabs had never truly been friends of Africans; that they had taken millions of East Africans into slavery, that the world’s largest slave market had operated in Zanzibar and that Arab governments were even then supporting Joseph Kony’s insurgency in northern Uganda. I asked him for his response.
Farrakhan looked at me silently for a few moments, then abruptly stood up and left. It happened so quickly that the photographer, Charles Opolot, did not even manage to take a single picture. Once again, no record.
Another interview that never happened was much more recent. The Old Budonians Club, established in 1914, recently elected its first female president, Susan Muhoza. Naturally, the then Editor-in-Chief, Barbara Kaija, thought it would be quite a scoop if we secured an interview with her.
Susan agreed, and I sent her a list of questions in advance as a guide. I arrived on time, set up my recorder and was ready to begin.
Then the club’s general secretary arrived. She assured me that she was there to protect Susan, and that they did not like the questions I had sent. She (the general secretary) then produced a new set of questions she had prepared, and said they were willing to answer those instead.
But, they were not joking. The moment I realised they were serious, I packed up my recorder, thanked them for the coffee and left. That was the scoop that never was.
Then, there was the 16-year old girl in Ntusi who claimed she had died and been resurrected after three days by the Bachwezi. It had taken me two days of travelling in taxis that never filled up, bodabodas that kept breaking down and a ride on a pickup truck loaded with fish, just to reach her village. Only to find a teenager trying to play God.
She announced that she would first have to ask the Bachwezi whether they would permit her to give me an interview.
Fortunately, her parents persuaded her to speak to me. I honestly felt like picking her up and giving her a proper shake. In fact, the journey back to Kampala was more interesting than the interview itself. But, that’s another story.
During another assignment, I interviewed the custodians of Walumbe’s Tanda pits near Mityana. They offered me a guided tour, but walking into a forest full of pits with two men who literally worshipped death was not my idea of an afternoon well spent, so I politely declined.
Over the years, I have interviewed dozens of celebrities and musicians, including UB40 when they came to Uganda in 2008. The main man, Ali Campbell, did not show up, though. And after the concert that night, he quit the band.
Other memorable conversations included one with Congolese music legend Tshala Muana, who explained why she danced the way she did. I also had the privilege of interviewing Miriam Makeba before what would become her final public concert.
But perhaps my most delightful interview was with Kerry Washington when she came to Uganda to film The Last King of Scotland in 2005. Unfortunately, I never thought to take a photograph with her... Silly me!