HATTERSLEY THE MISSIONARY PHOTOGRAPHER

Charles William Hattersley (1866-1934), despite the influence of his books and photographs and his major role in the development of education in Uganda, is not a well-known figure. Accepted by the CMS in February 1897, he was previously manager of a cutlery works in Sheffield. He left for Uganda in September, and his missionary career had a tragic beginning. On the way up from the coast, Hattersley's rifle misfired, shooting his colleague E. H. Hubbard in the back. Despite all the efforts of Dr. Albert Cook, Hubbard died at Mengo a few weeks later. No blame seems to have been laid on Hattersley, and his name was suppressed in the published reports of Hubbard's death.  Hattersley's initial duties were to assist Archdeacon Robert Walker "in the business part of the work," keeping accounts, supervising the stores and the sale of books. Bishop Tucker, having asked Hattersley to implement a system of primary education, writes that he took the task in hand with characteristic energy. (Everyone who wrote about Hattersley commented on his energy.) Later his interests moved from general primary education to the education of sons of the chiefs and the future elite, and he became the founding headmaster of Mengo.

Back in England in 1902-3, Hattersley married Florence Annie Middleton, who accompanied him back to Uganda. Photographs published in The Baganda at Homegive glimpses of their domestic life with their infant son Stanley, named for the explorer who first invited missionaries to Buganda. Stanley kept an interest in the progress of the mission and corresponded with Hattersley. A photograph, captioned "Black and White: A Little Negro Boy and the Son of the Author," shows the two children looking at what could be a photograph album. Hattersley labors his point: "Our picture of the little white boy with his native playmate affords a very good illustration of the safety in which people exist at the moment. Ladies and children live in almost perfect security amongst a people who a few years back were in a state of anarchy, bloodshed, war raiding, slavery, distress and poverty."

In 1904 Hattersley's sister Emily, a clerk in the furnishing business, followed him to Uganda and worked as a teacher until her resignation in 1911.Hattersley himself resigned from CMS in 1913 because of a conflict of interest (he was by now a manager of the Mengo Planters Company) and differences of opinion about the teaching at Mengo Boys School. After some years, he returned to England and went into business in London. The business failed in the depression, and tormented by his inability, as he saw it, to provide for his family, Hattersley took his own life.

In happier days, there was no doubt of Hattersley's devotion to photographic duty. In 1907 the boy-king of Uganda, Daudi Chwa, paid an official visit to the tomb of his grandfather Mutesa. Here he was to participate in a cleaned-up, Christianized version of a ritual that had previously involved pagan rites and human sacrifice. The prime minister, Apolo Kagwa, invited Hattersley to photograph the ceremonies. Hattersley recalls,

By half past three in the morning the king's drums were booming the signal for assembling. I had been asked on this occasion to go up early and take a photograph and had thought that early might perhaps mean seven or eight o'clock. Before six however a special messenger from the Katikiro arrived on a bicycle to say that if I wished to have a photograph I must hurry up because the work was all but completed.

Hattersley, by dint of his own enthusiasm, had assumed the role of official photographer to the church and court of Uganda. Prints circulated among his fellow missionaries, who then used them to illustrate their own books.The print of the Namirembe Cathedral drum reproduced here comes from the Ernest Millar collection in the Royal Commonwealth Society Collections, Cambridge University Library (Y045L).Other Hattersley prints are found in an album of photographs of Uganda ca. 1906-11 (Y3045C), which also contains photographs by the commercial photographer Alfred Lobo and by Protectorate officials. Many of these are reproduced in Hattersley's published works. An album belonging to Archdeacon Walker, currently in the possession of Walker's great-nephew, contains examples of his work, and the Hattersley family has photographs of the Hattersley children and scenes in Uganda that I have not seen reproduced elsewhere.

Hattersley's own books are profusely illustrated with photographs; Uganda by Pen and Camera has nearly thirty plates; The Baganda at Home has "one hundred pictures of life and work in Uganda". Even the thirty-six page Erastus, Slave and Prince has thirteen photographs. This tract tells the story of Erastus Kalamagi, from the Munyoro chiefly family, enslaved as a child, converted, freed, restored to his family as an adult, ready to play his part in the conversion of his people. The photographs in this work are particularly interesting in that they include three - "Slave raider catching boys by night: the glare of burning huts is seen in the background"; "Slave raider and captive"; "Slave raiders surprising a household" - that must have been posed and set up, not without skill.

Promotional Use of Photographs

Uganda by Pen and Camera is, as its title page declares, "profusely illustrated from photographs". It is a call to prayer and missionary recruits, and the prose, which oscillates between the pedestrian and the evocative, suggests origins in an illustrated talk or talks. The quality of reproduction is unfortunately poor, but the photographs are not just an added extra. Hattersley makes valiant attempts to integrate text and photographs, using text to explain the photographs, and photographs to emphasize his points.

The quality of reproduction is much higher in The Baganda at Home. Hattersley reveals himself as a perceptive, if untrained, field anthropologist as well as missionary propagandist - a distinction he would have seen as meaningless. His camera is pressed into service on both accounts. In the first chapter, "Changes in King and Court", he describes King Mutesa's practice of preserving royal umbilical cords and announces with some pride, "The photographs which are here reproduced are the only ones that have ever been taken of these objects." Chapters entitled "The Land and Its Products" and "How the People Live" and a harrowing description of the ravages of sleeping sickness follow, as well as more missionary-oriented and occasionally opinionated chapters on religion and education. The short final chapter, "Look on the Fields," is a missionary clarion call in which Hattersley emphasizes the spiritual darkness of the non-Buganda peoples of the Protectorate. "We have in our possession a very recent photograph of a wizard and there is no secrecy whatever about his methods." Unfortunately, this photographic evidence is not reproduced.

It is tempting to think that Ham Mukasa learned his appreciation of photographs from the indefatigable Hattersley, although there is no direct evidence for such a conclusion. Hattersley took photographs of the Mukasa family, several of which are in the Millar collection. Certainly, Mukasa held Hattersley in high esteem, and his visit to the Hattersley family in Sheffield was one of the highlights of his visit to England. On their return journey he and the Katikiro made a point of inquiring after Hattersley at Aden because they had heard news of his illness. They were much relieved to learn that he was recovering.

Hattersley was away from Uganda between July 1902 and July 1903, so it seems unlikely that the photograph of the cathedral drum was taken specifically to illustrate Mukasa's account. However, its careful composition and lighting suggest that it was specially posed and set up. It is no casual shot. Hattersley took many photographs of the cathedral. Some are reproduced in Uganda by Pen and Camera and The Baganda at Home, and like other missionaries writing for his home supporters, he made a great deal of the dramatic story of the rise and fall (all too literal) of the successive structures at Namirembe. All accounts stressed the sacrificial giving and practical labor of the native Christians.

Hattersley was also assiduous in recording both pre-Christian and Christian use of the drum. Uganda by Pen and Camera reproduces a photograph of "Lubare instruments - magic wands, horns and drums." This photograph is in the Millar Collection (Y3045L23), where it is captioned "Charms etc. brought to England by the Katikiro and the Rev. E. Millar." The Baganda at Home has a fine photograph of "Women drummers at Suna's tomb: the women clapping their hands are keeping time to the drums," with some fairly lurid accounts of the accompanying traditional rites. Another photograph in the same volume explains how "worshippers are summoned to service by the beating of drum." Hattersley is typical of missionary writers, who rarely lost an opportunity to use the drum as a symbol of the transformation of Baganda society: "One now never hears the drum being beaten to call people to war, nor is the drum heard announcing that a human sacrifice is about to be offered, and victims are being caught on the road. In place of these are the drums beaten every morning calling people to worship in the House of God."The drum has become a powerful symbol of the conversion of a society.

Written by Terry Barringer

Terry Barringer has worked with the Royal Commonwealth Society Library since 1980 and accompanied it on its transfer to Cambridge University Library in 1993.