Category: uganda

Ugandan IT successes

Blogret* and technology entrepreneur Jon Gosier was interviewed by Jonathan Marks at SXSW this month. Marks writes:

I’m very impressed with the work of Jonathan Gosier, not only because of the pioneering work he is doing in the fledgling IT sector in Kampala, Uganda, but also because of the quality of his contributions to his blog appafrica.net. He believes that building sustainable businesses and using local talent is key – so obvious, yet so often missing in daily practice.

Check out the video:


Ugandan IT Successes – Jonathan Gosier from Jonathan Marks on Vimeo.

*blogren, masculine, singular

Global Voices Uganda: Fire destroys Owino Market

It’s been a long time since I’ve written anything for Global Voices, but this week’s fire at Owino Market prompted enough of a blogger response (and I’ve been sufficiently inspired by my week in Miami with ten other GV-ers) that I had to post a round-up:

A massive fire gutted Kampala’s Owino Market early Wednesday morning, seriously injuring five people and destroying thousands of stalls. As many as 25,000 traders, mostly women, are estimated to have suffered losses.

Owino, also known as the Nakivubo Park Yard and St. Balikuddembe Market, is Kampala’s largest market and has been at the center of several controversies involving leasing rights. Recent plans to build a new bus terminal at the Nakivubo Stadium next door have sparked anger among vendors, who will lose their space if the development proceeds as planned.

Uganda’s Daily Monitor is reporting that the fire started at a hole in the wall separating the market from the stadium, and many victims are accusing the bus company that wants to build the terminal of arson. Some bloggers agree.

Read more »

Featured in this post are Even Steven, Ariaka, Ugandan Insomniac and Spartakuss.

36 Hours in K’la City

Almost two years ago Josh at In an African Minute posted a guide for tourists on how to spend a weekend in Kampala. He included such highlights as bribing a fisherman to borrow his canoe for an afternoon and relaxing afterward in Kabalagala with the mixed plate, Mama’s vegetarian Ethiopian special.

Things have changed since then, largely due to November 2007’s Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting. Cafe Pap, Josh’s Saturday afternoon pick, has lost the widescreens and upped the charge for wi-fi, allowing itself to be usurped by the delicious coffee at continential fusion restaurant La Fontaine, where an hour of wireless costs just $1.50.

Lotus Mexicanas, operated by the same couple that owns New York Pizza Kitchen in Garden City, serves up fresh strawberry margaritas and queso that rivals most Tex-Mex restaurants, if not in America, at least on the East Coast, pushing Fat Boyz to the curb.

So, at Josh’s urging and because last month I thoroughly enjoyed rediscovering the city, here’s the updated version of 36 Hours in K’la City:

Friday
2PM Kololo
Start your trip by exploring Kololo, one of Kampala’s highest neighborhoods, on foot. Check out the Sudanese, Ethiopian, Cuban, Saudi and Congolese embassies, as well as the US Ambassador’s house, and admire the many roadside garden shops and the private airstrip, where President Museveni holds many of his public speeches. If you’re lucky, one of Kampala’s many marathon trainees will pass you and encourage you to pick up your pace. Join them only if you’re feeling particularly spry.

5PM Bubbles O’Leary’s
End your walk at this Irish pub, where an afternoon beer will run you less than $2 and the wireless is unlimited and free. Two years ago Bubbles was packed with expats and had a hard-to-find entrance on a tiny side road in Kololo, but the new gigantic sign off Acacia Avenue is hard to miss, and the afternoon crowd skews Ugandan these days. Offer your neighbor a Nile Special and ask if he has a blog.

8PM La Fontaine
If you haven’t satisfied your Internet fix, this charming indoor/outdoor restaurant in Kisementi, just up the road from Kololo, is one of Kampala’s newest wireless hot spots. Shake hands with Jacob, the host, and order the blue cheese salad, the pumpkin soup or the fish symphony. If Manchester or Chelsea are playing, catch the game on the satellite TV at the bar.

10PM Iguana
After dinner, head next door to Iguana’s second floor open air bar, where the plump couches, adventurous DJ and Kampala breezes will ease you into Kampala nightlife. Make sure to peer over the balcony at Kisementi, where late-night snack sellers and various providers of transport hawk their wares to passersby.

Saturday
10AM Good African Coffee
Brunch in Uganda is somewhat hard to come by, but this bustling coffee shop in Lugogo serves up eggs, potatoes, toast, pastries and more. Order spiced African tea and nurse the hangover you will invariably have after sampling too many of Uganda’s half-liter beers.

11:30 AM Lugogo
After brunch, take a leisurely stroll through Lugogo to pick up souvenirs for friends and family back home. Banana Boat, in the Lugogo shopping center, has postcards, jewelry, woven baskets and more. It’s popular with tourists, but for a more unique experience head to the wine bar in Lugogo Showgrounds and ask the owner if he has any of his own art for sale. In a few months you should be able to pick up crafts made by women throughout Uganda, courtesy of fair trade organization Awava.

1PM Taxi Tour
Hop on a public taxi taking the Nakawa-Kampala Road-Wandegeya-Kamwokya-Bukoto-Ntinda route, and ride the whole thing. It will take several hours and you’ll get many stares — be prepared for the conductor to use you as a selling point, enticing passengers by promising them a seat near the muzungu. Smile and shake many hands while you get a whirlwind tour of some of Kampala’s most bustling neighborhoods and busiest streets, as well as a hands-on introduction to the public transportation system.

4PM Kampala Road
Get off the taxi just a little after finishing the round trip. Stretch your legs and breathe, then make your way to 1000 Cups on Buganda Road for a much-needed cup of coffee and a chance to browse Kampala’s newspapers.

7PM Lotus Mexicanas
Start your evening off right in Lotus Mexicanas’ garden, where the friendly waiters will keep you well-supplied with margaritas (on the rocks or frozen) and tortilla chips. Order the enchiladas or the quesadillas and revel in all the cheese.

10PM Steak Out
Head to this open-air bar in Wandegeya to hang out with Makerere University students and, increasingly, a hearty sampling of Uganda’s bloggers. Stay away from the pepper vodka.

Sunday
10AM Central Kampala
Sunday morning is Kampala’s finest hour. The streets are cool and empty, making it the perfect time to explore central Kampala. Take pictures of the gigantic maribou storks lurking around Parliament, wander through the maze of streets that make up the northern part of downtown, then make your way down Kampala Road to the Old Taxi Park.

11AM Old Taxi Park
Marvel at the organized chaos and at the smorgasbord of seemingly random products being sold in the melee — everything from electric tea kettles to stilettos to sliced pineapple. Sadly, Owino Market (which Josh recommended) was burned to the ground early yesterday morning, so you won’t be able to explore its vast wealth of used clothing, herbal medicines and old books.

12PM Masala Chaat House
End your weekend in Kampala at the Masala Chat House on Dewinton Road near the National Theatre, where the gentle fans and a cold lassi will revive you after the crush of Old Kampala. Enjoy an immense metal tray of masala dosas, a house speciality, as you make plans to visit again soon.

jetlag and misconceptions

On a flight this morning from New York to Chicago, I was seated next to a couple heading to visit their son. It was snowing, and I mentioned that I hadn’t yet seen snow in New York this winter because I’d been traveling so much. They asked where I was coming from, and when I told them I’d just been in Uganda, the man laughed and said, “You must be hungry.”

I didn’t know how to tell him that I’d eaten better in Kampala than I do in New York — Greek salads, macaroni and cheese, malai kofta, apple pie. I didn’t know how to erase this image of Africa he seemed to have, where people scramble for the few grains of rice that drop off a passing World Food Program truck or where babies bathe, if they bathe, in bracken water collected in a filthy ditch.

It’s not that he’s entirely wrong, which I think is why I have trouble describing Uganda to someone who’s never been there. Parts of the country, those scarred by conflict or disease, provide perfect footage for World Vision’s sponsor-a-child commercials: children sitting naked in the dust, huge families crammed into too-small huts, sons lost to war and daughters to malaria.


Kampala skyline, via peprice on Flickr


Homeless woman in New York, via dgphilli on Flickr

At the same time, Kampala is a bustling city, constantly under construction, where you can procure everything from a new Land Rover to a margarita. I am frustrated that people cannot seem to hold both these images in their minds, the same way that they somehow reconcile urban homelessness with Trump Towers and the Chrysler Building.

Even those who have seen both sides of Africa struggle with this, with how to present the realities of extreme poverty and shiny new Mexican restaurants without either feeding stereotypes or wrongly glossing over the problems that do exist. Life in much of Africa is still a struggle for existence, a struggle against hunger and sickness and violence. The same thing can be said of much of America: though civil wars may not regularly threaten our society, gang wars do (Rev told me this week that he’s afraid I’ll die in a drive-by shooting), as do food shortages and a lack of affordable medical care. In both cases, though, glittering skyscrapers and fancy hotels make up a regular part of the landscape. So why is one dichotomy so much more acceptable than they other?

I wish I had known how to explain this to this couple. I’m not sure how much good it would have done, though — as we were getting off the plane, they started harassing an elderly man who was having trouble getting out of his seat, blaming him for holding up the line. “Old people should stay home,” the woman muttered to her husband. It is perhaps not the best sign of my character that, in my exhausted, jetlagged state, I seriously considered kicking both of them.

In search of a few good journalists

I leave today for two weeks in Kampala, a trip I’ve been looking forward to since I left Uganda 15 months ago. While there, I’ll be doing research for a professor at Columbia University as part of my master’s program in Economic and Political Development.


Training session through BBC’s Communicating Justice program

The research includes a survey of African journalists in Ghana, Nigeria and Uganda who have received training in business/economic reporting. The goal is to contribute to a better understanding of the effect that journalism training has had on the media climate in these countries and on the careers of the journalists who did the training. We will share our work with the NGO and donor community, particularly the Revenue Watch Institute, to help them develop future journalism training programs and improve the ones they have.

I’ve contacted many of the blogren directly to ask if they know of anyone who has had substantial training in economics/business journalism (at least 4 weeks) from places like the Reuters Foundation, BBC Trust, Cardiff, IIJ or ICFJ who might be willing to be interviewed. I have a great list of names, but I wanted to throw out an open call:

If you or anyone you know is interested in participating, leave a comment below or e-mail me.