100 messages from the Posters for the Right to Education Exhibition

Between 8 December 2011 and 8 January 2012 the Institute of Heritage Conservation and Restoration; formerly Makerere Art Gallery, hosted the 100 Posters for the Right to Education Exhibition to celebrate the International Human Rights Day. It was a joint effort between Poster for Tomorrow, a non-profit organisation based in Paris, France, and the institute. Its theme was the right to education. Dr. Mayambala Kakungulu from the Faculty of Law opened it officially and all posters are now part of the institute’s permanent collection.

Many posters in the 100 posters exhibition invoked humour in the same way that the untitled painting; The news reader; 1987, by Freddie Sennoga on the same subject did.

Sennoga captured an anonymous male subject dominating a space. He used light, and a female figure entering the picture plane, to introduce life in a largely lifeless space characterised by leaf-less trees and a misty grey landscape. Translated literally the painting seems to suggest that the man before us is illiterate; he just does not know the right way to read a newspaper.

The painting elicits a deep understanding of modernist styles; it confirms the artist’s access to western visual vocabulary, materials and aesthetics through formal art education. It does not portray the injustice associated with the lack of access to education; it captures human folly inviting laughter. Thus, by relying on humour, ambiguity and multiplicity of meaning Sennoga’s painting gains its position on the trajectory of contemporary Ugandan art.

Like Sennoga’s paintings many of the posters in the 100 posters exhibition invoke humour. They demonstrate a deep understanding of the canons of aesthetics: management of space, balance, harmony and mastery of media. Emil Dodov’s handling of geometric shapes and control of chalk coupled with the balancing of colour in Jump! It’s your right can be cited as exemplary.

Unlike Sennoga’s work, however, the posters in the 100 posters exhibition have very limited ambiguity. They show simplicity of design. Other posters are bathed in a wealth of detail but still they bear clear messages.

And who gives education?

Oleksandr Parkhomovsky used his Education is vital to circulate the view that parents decide which education is best for their children; Carlos Logroño in his Clean places the obligation on the shoulders of nations; the states. The correct legal position is that both the parents and the state are responsible.

Article 30 of the 1995 Constitution of Uganda grants the right to education. Article 31(4) provides that it is the right and duty of parents to care for and bring up their children. Article 34 (2) provides that a child is entitled to basic education which shall be the responsibility of the state and the parents of the child. Consistent with these provisions of the law, but also as a matter of traditional family obligations, parents in Uganda provide for the education of their children. The government of Uganda has rolled out the Universal Primary education (UPE) and the Universal Secondary Education (USE); it invests a lot of money in tertiary and vocational education.

Does the quality of education matter?

Kristy Birtwistle used the metaphor of house-construction to suggest that the quality of education matters. She seems to contend that the material one uses to build determines the quality of his/her house. In her The strongest future she presents houses having varied degrees of strength derived from different materials and material strengths. It is inferable from her poster that straw is the weakest and most unreliable building material. It represents the poor quality of education provided at the preschool level. Tree branches are stronger than straw but unsatisfactory and untidy. Tree branches represent the education provided at the primary school level. Bricks are the strongest and most satisfactory building materials. They represent the much better education offered at the secondary and other tertiary institutions.

Birtwistle asserts that it is improper to give children poor quality education at preschool education and expect to strengthen the curriculum as children go through primary to secondary schools. Children at all levels must be given the best education in order to ‘give every child the strongest future’.

I agree with this position. Birtwistle’s critique allows us to understand why Uganda’s UPE and USE have received sharp criticism because they do not consider the quality of education. I admit that this criticism concentrates on weakness. It misses ways in which several educators in Uganda have resisted western cultural imperialism. I, however, concede that Uganda’s formal education has bred a privileged class.

This club constitutes the privileged class Carlos Perez addressed himself to in his poster titled You are so lucky you can read this. It speaks foreign languages; it has high appetite for ostentatious consumption and western values.

Put simply, the 100 posters exhibition provokes a debate on the quality of Uganda’s education: what it is, what it is not and what it should be. This debate is made possible because the designers s identified the right to education as an inherent and universal right to which Ugandans are entitled. This nexus explains the posters’ relevance to Uganda’s specific challenges.

Okay, the right to education is inherent and universal. But is it also absolute?

Article 30 of the Constitution provides for the right to education. This right is fundamental and inherent. It has to be respected by all organs of the Sate and all persons according to Article 20 of the Constitution. However in the eyes of the law this right is not absolute. It is subject to the general limitations provided under Article 43 of the Constitution. Its enjoyment cannot prejudice the fundamental rights and freedoms of others or the public interest.

To sum up, the 100 Posters Exhibition projected the view that the right to education is absolute and illimitable. This is not entirely accurate. As such the exhibition does not succeed in enforcing the right to education. This does not mean that the exhibition, and the subsequent addition of the posters to the Institute’s permanent collection, was an exercise in futility. On the contrary, the exhibition has three lessons which must be picked up.

It provided a learning experience which will motivate artists and designers to look beyond mere commentaries on breaches of fundamental rights and engage into art/design for activism.

The posters advance a very important warning that ‘until we have universal education, our world will simply be wrong’. We can only ignore this warning at our peril.

That a human rights lawyer accepted to officially open the exhibition as guest of honour means that there is a shared goal between artists, designers and the legal fraternity in Uganda. They must jointly define, and meaningfully fight for, all fundamental rights and freedoms.

An extended version of this Art review has been published online at STARTJOURNAL.ORG.

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