Happy Memorial Day, America! Today I was finally able to sleep in a little until 10am, and felt no rush to get out of bed since once again there was not much scheduled for me to do. I took my garbage out to the post by my gate where the guard stands, and met the first female guard I’ve had since I’ve been here. Her name is also Josephine and we chatted for a few minutes before I returned to my book. A couple hours later, Josephine, knowing how bored I was, asked if it would be alright if we had lunch together. I was more than excited to have someone to talk to for a while and ran in my house to get her a fork and some napkins. She and I talked for over three hours, and the conversation turned my day of nothingness into a very enlightening one. Learning about different peoples’ cultures, countries, and languages is one of my greatest passions, if not the greatest, and during these few hours we learned a ton about each other’s lives. Josephine is 25 and lives with her sister in Kabalaga, a district of Kampala. She is originally from a small village in Uganda that is 230 miles away. Her parents still live in that village, and her 7 younger brothers now are dispersed around various parts of Uganda. The first topic that Josephine brought up is religion. She was born and baptized as a Catholic because her parents are Catholic, but last year she converted to the Mormon Church. Missionaries from many different Christian sects have a strong presence in Africa, especially Uganda, but she told me it is the Mormons that she sees the most. We got into a very long talk about colonialism and the concept of religious missionary work, which she was very intrigued by. During our conversation, I prefaced all my comments with “in my opinion…” and told her that in the classes I’ve taken about French imperialism I’ve learned that many imperial powers try to change the ways of “less advanced” or “less civilized” peoples by introducing them to western belief systems, both political and religious. Although there may be good intentions to help the subjects, Ugandans for example, there is always the underlying belief that these people are living incorrectly and doing things the wrong way altogether. Even though colonization is over, the work of religious missionaries continues to alter the lives of many people in developing countries. Since I don’t know from firsthand experience about the reasoning or tactics used by Christian missionaries, I couldn’t comment much except to say I believe it is another attempt to change the natural ways of life for these people.
She began to ask me many questions about the Mormon Church, specifically that of the Latter Day Saints, the sect to which she was converted last year. I was unable to answer many of her questions because I do not know much about the Mormon Church. She asked what religion I follow, and I told her that I am Jewish. She looked at me with confusion, and slightly nodded her head, and I realized she had no idea what I was talking about. I explained to her that Judaism is a religion different from Christianity altogether, not another one of its sects. She had never heard of Israel, and so I told her about the history of persecution the Jews faced, explained to her what the Holocaust was, and how as a result a state was created for the Jewish people. She did not know about the ongoing war in the Middle East between the Palestinians and the Israelis, and it was interesting and at the same time extremely difficult to break down the cause of the problems there, which came across essentially as an issue of land rights and country borders, yet with so much history and struggle behind it.
After the recent presidential election in Uganda, word spread through the international news that violence had broken out in the country’s capital, Kampala, as citizens protested the outcome of the election. Many people from the US, myself included, tend to associate opposition leaders and their parties with disruption and violence, and generally, think of them as rebel groups with a negative connotation. I know that before I arrived, my family and I were hoping that these particular Ugandan “opposition” parties would go home and be quiet so that war did not eventually break out. After speaking with Josephine, I was enlightened on much of the conflict surrounding this election, and the desperation in these opposition protests. President Museveni, as I mentioned yesterday, is believed to have rigged this most recent election in his favor. When I asked Josephine whom she voted for, she said she would have voted for anyone except him, and she personally does not know a single person that did in fact vote for Museveni. She says that she and her people are desperate for change. He has been “elected” as President since 1986, and since he has been in power life has changed dramatically for Ugandans. During his early campaigns, he borrowed billions of shillings from the Central Bank of Uganda to advertise and pay bribes to various officials to guarantee he would get their vote. He withdrew so much in fact, that the Bank ran out of money almost completely, and so when people went to their local branch to withdraw money from their accounts, there was none left. So, under government orders, this debt now falls indirectly to the people. Josephine says that before Museveni, 10,000 shillings ($5) was enough to buy a sufficient amount of groceries. But now, all supermarkets have been forced to mark up prices so high that 10,000 shillings may get a customer 3 items instead of 10. These markups are the result of the bank’s debt, which Museveni caused. Speaking in dollars, when a customer in Uganda buys a loaf of bread for $5 at the supermarket, $1 pays for the bread, a second $1 is profit for the store, and the remaining $3 goes directly to the Central Bank of Uganda to rectify the debt. This spike in prices for everyday goods explains the protests against the high cost of living that I mentioned yesterday. I asked Josephine if she thought the protests against Museveni could reach the level that they did in Egypt a couple months ago, but she does not believe they would because the Ugandan people are not united. She said that now is a time when it is difficult to know who you can trust, and most people have learned to keep their feelings of opposition to themselves because you cannot be sure that the person you talk to one day will not betray you the next. Museveni has many spies in the country and an army that is quick to kill. Josephine told me that she hears often that people she knew have been killed for one reason or another. One reason may be their open hatred for Museveni’s government, and another may be because the victim was too intelligent and posed a threat to Museveni’s presidency. If you are smart, with a good reputation from his hometown in Western Uganda, you can look forward to an appointed, well-paid position in Museveni’s government. But if you are unknown to him, from an Eastern village, politically involved and bright, it is best to keep your mouth shut or expect a visit from his soldiers.
The time I spent with Josephine today was invaluable in helping to understand the difficulties people here face on a day-to-day basis. The emotion behind her stories helped me learn more than one ever could from reading a book, or even from reading this post, but I sure hope it helps. Nothing in print is ever as good as it is firsthand, and I believe that if you can, you really have to come here and experience it for yourself.
