Having been away from Africa for a while, it is quite a refreshing eye opener to revisit the continent and see it in a comparative perspective. Having reported on and attended endless development workshops, debates and conferences in Europe, almost all permeated with the image of a miserably poor, dark, sick, dying and drying up continent, its refreshing to see how alive and well mother Africa is, its shortcomings not withstanding. My five month research trip starts in Uganda. I have opted to travel by road, through Kenya and also Tanzania in order to better grasp the full essence of Africa

Uganda is a beautiful, lush green, highly fertile and agriculturally productive country. Driving through the countryside across the border from Kenya at dawn by bus is sheer pleasure; the landscape, the sights, the people, the abundance of life and all that Africa embodies, in its magnificent beauty, is a sight to behold. Having been “away” for 5 years in Holland, it was and still is an overwhelming ‘home-coming’ experience. Its been almost 10 years since I last visited Kampala and specifically Makerere University and the entire ride reveals the remarkable progress that Uganda has made from the many years of conflict, civil war and brutal militarism of the 1970’s and 1980’s (Last King of Scotland!).

Gone are the raw testimonies of war, the bullet-riddled, pock-marked walls all over the city, abandoned burnt out military vehicles and tankers, and overbearing presence of military patrols in the streets; that wary look of fear and caution in people’s eyes and general look of dilapidation across the capital. Although there hasn’t been a boom in construction of new high-rise sky scrapers as in Nairobi, Kampala is shining anew and rising up to its old nick-name: “the pearl of Africa”. The streets are bustling with activity, markets full of local and imported produce and products (thank you China!). Imbued with a sense of optimism, Ugandans are smiling with happy healthy faces and the streets are clean and neat. I guess it does help that the city is preparing to host the Commonwealth Heads of Government Summit (CHOGM) in a few weeks (The Queen is coming to town!); hence the almost non-stop (re)construction all over the city, from painting, paving the streets and side walks and fine trimmings. This though has not gone without much criticism from local commentators that the whole effort to ready the country and city for CHOGM has been tainted with corruption and cronyism in the award of contracts, inflation of costs and kickbacks.

Comparatively though, although the streets are much busier and full of traffic, its nowhere near the grid-lock traffic jams experienced in Nairobi where you can sit in traffic for hours and a would be 15 minutes ride can take up to an hour or more on a normal working day. In order to beat traffic, Kampala has a new and efficient means of getting around: The Boda Boda! This is a motorbike taxi. You will find them virtually lined up at every street corner, employing thousands of Ugandan young men. A ride across town costs about 2 thousand Uganda shillings, approximately one Euro. One can also get to most parts of the city comfortably by relatively clean and decent minibus taxis (compared to the rickety, old, dusty, overcrowded and daladalas in Dar es Salaam) carrying the mandatory maximum of 14 passengers for only 500 Uganda shillings.

In this regard, Uganda is a country of plenty and the cost of living is surprisingly relatively low compared to the rest of East Africa. I was so glad to leave Nairobi after a one week stop over from Amsterdam, after I realised the cost of living has almost doubled since I left five years ago. Nairobi by contrast has over-embraced all the symptoms of a highly consumerist, very aggressive society with huge American-style shopping malls popping up all over the city and some even open 24hours; huge gas-guzzling auto mobiles, luxurious apartment blocks, hotels, restaurants and golf courses. One would hail these are the true hallmarks of development if only it didn’t belie the stifling poverty in which many urban and rural poor are still trapped. And all these under the watch of the most highly paid members of parliament in the commonwealth (yes, they get to vote and pass laws on how much they should pay themselves); while ignoring the most glaring evidence of grinding poverty. Kenya is increasingly becoming one of the most socio-economically unequal societies.

Back to Kampala, I am now sitting in a small room in a very noisy privately operated student hostel, just outside Makerere University Campus. The whole building is inhabited by undergraduate students, some of them from the neighbouring countries to Uganda including Kenya. Regionally, Uganda’s education system is the least expensive and with reasonably high standards. While Kenya is rated higher in terms of quality, its education system is generally more expensive. University tuition in Kenya is more than twice that in Uganda. In Uganda though, there is almost no government subsidy for University education and students/parents have to meet almost 70 percent of tuition costs and full boarding fees. I am in the room previously occupied by Hilde my fellow researcher from Leiden who’s now in Gulu in the North of Uganda, brave enough to venture into the region beset by over 20 years of the LRA conflict. By the way, while in Kampala, you’d never guess there has been a 20 year long brutal civil conflict going on in the north. It’s like two different worlds/countries. The southerners are almost oblivious of the conflict in the north, and that’s why, among other reasons, the government has not seriously been held to account for its inability/unwillingness to end it either peacefully or militarily.

I am here to talk to politicians, political observers, university professors and journalists regarding the country’s two year transition from the movement system of government (or what others have termed a single party authoritarian dictatorship) to a multi party democratic political dispensation. In the coming days, I will be posting my comments from my discussions regarding this emotive and divisive topic among Ugandan Society. However, my next posting will come from Gulu, as I take another road trip to the war torn Northern Uganda.