Project

YIIYA

The YIIYA title over two men unloading goods from a truck in Kampala.

YIIYA is a documentary film about product design in Uganda, and what it could become if it grew from the country itself.

Made by
Emile Waterkeyn, Merlijn Lewerissa
Client
Self-initiated
With
Design Without Borders
Year
2022
Type
Documentary film

Yii·ya is Luganda for to innovate, to find a new way of doing things. The film grew out of the hospital research behind the Kangaroo Chair into a critique of Uganda’s import culture: what is a foreign product worth if it is never adapted to the place where it lands?

YIIYA premiered in Belgium and the Netherlands and is used in lectures at TU Delft. A crowdfunded trip back to Kampala made it possible to show the film to the designers and craftsmen in it, and their feedback shaped the final edit. Watch it at yiiyadesign.com.

A yard full of discarded hospital furniture and equipment.
Aerial view of a crowded market street in Kampala.
A maker working in a small workshop.
A repairman surrounded by salvaged parts in his workshop.