THIS IS A SLICE OF AFRICA FOR YOU

A few blogs back I talked about being in the "Rat Race"; this race has taken me to quite a few places, in pursuit of that much sought after "gold". In Africa I have traveled to at least more than 8 countries, but not much else where (just to a few others outside of Africa). The DRC Congo for me was the most amazing place to fly over; until I did, I had no idea one can take over 90 minutes to simply cross a forest flying a jet engine (the Congo Forests are the most amazing I have seen from the air). Before then my previous experience flying over any forest was the Mabira on the Nairobi – Entebbe route. This one is only a 5-minute affair, so imagine what 90 minutes must have felt like. By the way, some have alleged that Africa is by far the largest continent; they claim that the geography we were taught in our schools was deliberately skewed to make it seem otherwise. I am tempted to think this must be true going by the amount of time it takes to fly diagonally from Nairobi to Accra. Anyway, I hated geography in school to the extent that I never read (revised for exams) at all perhaps 4 months before the UCE exams; I managed a credit 4 score. In Ghana, on the streets of Accra, I was met with people that are so amiable and at east (not so on Nairobi streets). I was not afraid to walk on the streets of Accra by myself by my second visit. In fact, I took my self to downtown Accra and was totally at ease among the people there. My highlight in Ghana was attending Sunday church Service at the International Central Gospel Church, pastored by a great African Pastor, Dr. Mensa Otabil. He never disappointed as that day he took us back to the roots in his sermon about wisdom and why its important.

Among the Africans, the Ghanaians and the Malawians come quite close to Ugandans in terms of mannerisms and cultures (my opinion). I once was asked a strange question by a black South African (she was Xhosa) after I had trained with them for over 3 months. This question took me aback and I failed to answer it, considering it was the last thing I expected anyone that I thought of as my friend to ask: at the tea break at one of the training days, Kilebokhile suddenly asked me "why do you come over here to train; don't you have schools over where you come from ?"; never mind I had paid top Dollar to do this course. That same evening as I walked back to my B&B, a white gentleman stopped his car and cordially offered me a lift ( got many such offers, but never from my Black African brothers). Therefore, seeing the xenophobic attacks a few years later never surprised me. I remember in Namilyango College where I did my secondary school seeing a South African guy that used to train hard at the martial arts every evening. The rumors were rife in my Senior 1 class that this guy was a combatant from the ANC; he was 3 classes ahead of us. What I know is that when Nelson Mandela was released from jail, this guy disappeared, and we only heard that he had returned to his home country together with many others like him. I heard that Kaweweta military training school in Singo was actually first opened to train these ANC combatants. It was a breath of fresh air therefore when I saw this video of EFFs Julius Malema rebuking the black South Africans during the most recent attacks in 2019 with these very facts about the sacrifices of other Africans done for their freedom. This conversation brings to mind the Ugandans woes in the South Sudan, where Ugandans are treated like second class citizens...but yet, Ugandan blood flowed in the South Sudan till a nation was birthed there. To date I see South Sudan “brothas” and “sistas” freely roaming the suburbs of Kampala. And no one even takes notice. It makes me wonder why Africans keep doing such terrible things to each other; how soon we forget the goodness of others to us.

AH, I forgot that we were dealing with much lighter matters here; Whilst in Malawi I found Chichewa (a local dialect from Malawi & Zambia) rather cryptic until over a period of 3 months that’s all I had heard; then I started to hear stuff: "Muli bwangi?" translated "are you well ?" sounded a lot like my own "Muli Bulungi?", "Mwatzuka bwangi?" meaning "did you wake up well?" sounded a lot like "Mwazukuse Bulungi?" when directly translated. I hear the Bantu peoples came from the mountains in the Cameroon, run down towards the Congo, curved into East Africa, went South west and further down through Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia and finally South Africa ! I wonder where next had they not been stopped on both sides by two conspiring Oceans, the Indian on the East and the Atlantic on the west. I remember the western Cape for this "Fish Place" we were taken to one evening; we ate fishes of all types and sizes and cuisine ! I never ate any thing fish for 6 months after that day! But in South Africa I cannot say I understood a word by those Bantu except "Amanzi" meaning water. By the way, I taught myself the little Swahili I know, and I surely can get by decently with it; when I traveled to Kenya for the first time I reinforced my ear for it. In 2010 I traveled to Zanzibar for an office retreat; it was beautiful, but I soon found out that humidity is a kill joy; too much of it there. Seychelles is beautiful but I found Mauritius more amazing; it is beautiful and also beautifully manicured and gives us Africans something to think about as we go about moving from third world to first.

The DR Congo is by far the saddest of my travels. I landed at the N'Djili International Airport (Kinshasa Int'l) at about 9 p.m. My first shock was that my luggage never made the carousel. Now, that would be but a small problem except for the fact that I last spoke French in my Senior 2 as I prepared for my exams! I could not communicate much! I was only saved by the bell when my chaperone came through looking for me and eventually, we were able to get things moving. But, that was not the sad thing. That airport looked abandoned, almost as if the building had last been used 5 years before. No new coat of paint had seen this building clearly for many years. The entire episode of 2 hours I spent at the airport allowed me to see more than the average traveler. This is the richest African country, by natural resources and talent, but little about presentation tells that story. Good thing is that Kinshasa is kind of making her way back but still has some way to go. I managed to sneak into the back alleys of Kinshasa (due to the nature of my work) when I now understood where that name "Katanga" was picked from to baptize that place in Wandegeya. I spent about a week in Kinshasa but by the time I was flying out I could manage a few phrases in French! Had I stayed another week I would be speaking entire conversations (I think). I bought some of the best gospel music from Kinshasa on that visit (try listening to Mike Kalambay). I loved Kinshasa and I would not mind travelling there again. Actually my most un pleasant moment on that visit was caused by my own fellow Ugandans, UTL! I remember I had huge credit on my phone worth 1.5 m shillings. I made phone calls not worth more than 1 hour over 3 days and my credit run out! I never reloaded my UTL airtime again to date (the number of course eventually became inactive and is out of use now).

Its amazing how similar most African cultures are, but also amazing is the way we emphasize our differences. I wait to see the day when Africa shall be one.