Odoch Pido and Donna Pido

Abstract

This article arose from a series o accidental and unrelated events in the preparation and for  conference on AI and ….. at the Technical University of Kenya in November 2024.  The original focus on Visual Culture was diminished by the arrival of Artificial Intelligence as an overwhelming new factor in all academic disciplines.  In addition, the massive retirement of academic staff at all Kenyan public universities has left a lot of curious people asking for more information on AI that no one seems to have.  Our concentration on VisCult and AI have been modified to include the hot topics in the Development Field today.  These are sustainability of any and all development efforts and a general, urgent concern with the development of livelihoods for an ever-growing, perhaps out of control human population. 

Here we try to grapple with the concepts of AI, sustainability, livelihoods and development in general in relation to our professional discipline, Design, focusing on Visual Culture. We approach this complex and dynamic mix of subjects from the perspectives of two very experienced designers, one, an experienced educator/administrator and the other a research Anthropologist.  One is an East African from both Uganda and Kenya and the other a New Yorker of many years’ residence in Kenya . Our conference presentation drew from our lived experience, along with academic learning, reference to associates and existing literature.  

We coauthors bring on board the diverse views of East Africans of many cultural backgrounds plus our own. We write in American with extensive reverence to the languages and concepts of several other cultures, notably Acholi.

If this article has an objective, it must be to make sense of an ever-changing professional and personal environment in which the old goes out while the new grapples for coherence and clarity.  Artificial Intelligence is coming into its own and we humans must learn how to use it constructively and sustainably

Rationale of Study – Mwoch is an Acholi term for various poetic pronouncements. Depending on the frequency of use and popular reaction, such pronouncements can define individual identity or become community nicknames that work like national anthems. In general, mwoch are folkloric, metaphoric or panegyric statements of opinion on life; in this article, we translate mwoch as nicknames whose main cultural landscape is the Acholi of Northern Uganda. Methodology – Discourse analysis, participant observation, and interviews dating back to the 1940s were among the parameters we used. Yet, we fear that overindulgence in mainstream research methods will ‘get us stuck in a tar baby’ (Disney Walt, 1946). Findings – Though ‘getting stuck in a tar baby’ is culturally North American, it is similar to the Acholi folktale entitled ododo pa apwoyo, oculli ki won poto ngor (tale of the hare, wildcat and the owner of a field of cowpeas). The Hare and Wildcat used to steal the cowpeas; the owner noted goings-on but could not catch the culprits. The theft continued until the owner conceived and crafted a beautiful girl (tar baby) from the latex of a rubber tree and placed it in his field of cowpeas. When the two came to steal the crop, they saw the tar baby, engaged with it and got stuck.
Implications – Although Acholi and American folktales strike similar notes, Acholi folktales are often different since they are largely verbal rather than visual and metaphoric rather than overt. Unless analysed and discussed, meanings in such expressions may remain hidden and rather useless to stakeholders, including scholars. Originality – This is an original article whose main goal is to unravel the meanings, if not the knowledge, of a few selected Acholi nicknames.