On a Saturday afternoon in an informal settlement in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, dozens of young men sat on benches in a dark shack to watch a bootlegged version of the Hollywood comedy-horror film, The Monkey.
As the English-language action unfolded on the screen, a voiceover translation in the Bantu language Luganda by VJ Junior, one of Uganda’s top video jockeys, boomed into the room.
VJs, who liberally translate movies and TV shows for local audiences, especially those that do not speak or understand English, have become an integral part of TV and film culture in the East African country. Almost every community has a kibanda (makeshift video hall), where patrons stream in throughout the day to watch live football, favourite TV shows and blockbuster movies.
Part-interpreters, part-comedians, VJs often simplify scripts and frame them in a familiar context – for instance by changing characters’ names to those of local people or replacing Western concepts with Ugandan examples.
In one scene in The Monkey, a father explains his absence from his son’s life. “That’s why I stay away, because I come with all sorts of weird baggage and I don’t want you to have to deal with that,” the character says. “Like bad stuff … like evil stuff … stuff that I got from my dad and I don’t wanna pass it on to you.”
In VJ Junior’s retelling, his Luganda version translates as: “The reason I didn’t want to be with you is because I carry a heavy burden – spiritual afflictions, demonic forces, curses and other things I inherited from my father.”
VJs also deploy humour, exaggeration and their own sound effects, occasionally veering off-script entirely – talents that have made some of them among the country’s most sought-after entertainers.
Growing up in Kampala in the 1990s, VJ Junior, whose real name is Marysmarts Matovu, was a film buff who loved watching Hollywood movies translated by VJs. VJ Junior got into the trade in 2006, inheriting a recording studio from his elder brother VJ Ronnie when the latter relocated to the USA to pursue filmmaking.
In his own words, his VJ debut, Rambo III, “lacked a bit of skill”, but he went on to master his craft by studying the works of pioneers such as KK the Best and VJ Jjingo. VJ Junior’s breakthrough came in 2009 when he translated The Promise, a Filipino soap opera, for the local station Bukedde TV.
“It was a big hit and it made a big brand for me,” the 40-year-old said. “People started believing in my work.” He would memorably say whenever the credits started to roll at the end of an episode of The Promise: “Awo Kabaka n’asembera okukaggalawo” which loosely translated to “and the king stepped up to close the show”, playing into his Luganda-speaking audience’s reverence for the Buganda king, Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II.
Where many had been locked out of TV and big-screen entertainment for years due to a language barrier, VJs like Junior helped them enjoy film and television in a more fulfilling way. Not that the VJs always fully comprehend the films themselves.
For example, in a film where an actress spat out: “No way!” as a form of interjection or strong disagreement, a video jokey was heard directly translating that as, “Tewali kkubo!” which means ‘there is no way through’.
Ronnie’s Entertainment, a video store in Katwe neighbourhood, was a beehive of activity when this writer visited; shoppers perused shelves stacked with thousands of VJ DVDs, while employees sat in front of computers copying movies to waiting customers’ flash disks.
DVDs sell for Shs 2,000 (£0.41), and titles copied to flash disks go for 1,000 shillings. The shop’s proprietor, Ronald Ssentongo, said he sold hundreds of films and TV shows every day, and that some of the most popular titles included Marvel movies and the TV thrillers Prison Break and 24.
“These titles are already available in their original English versions, but people don’t watch them,” he said. “They’re waiting for VJ Junior’s translation.”
Video jockey culture in Uganda evolved from the colonial-era practice of evangelists giving a person a microphone to translate Christian messages for local people. As foreign movies on VHS became more available in the 1980s, video halls started popping up.
To overcome the language barrier, video hall proprietors hired VJs to translate them to local languages in real time. As technology advanced, VJs moved to distributing their work on VHS tapes, VCDs, and now DVDs and flash disks.
Many have created websites for viewers to stream and download their material upon subscription. The industry is growing in other ways too. Some VJs are increasingly dubbing Ugandan movies and TV shows, and new VJs have emerged to translate to languages other than Luganda, the most widely spoken language in the country.
By localising foreign films and TV shows and helping Ugandans make sense of them, VJs make audiences feel valued, said John-Baptist Imokola, a lecturer at Makerere University who has researched the work of VJs.
“They feel appreciated, they feel recognised and they feel known,” he said, though he also warned of the risk of oversimplified translations that deny audiences an understanding of the themes and messages the original films intended to convey.
Adapted from The Guardian, UK. Read their full story here
