March 24th: Kampala

On March 24th 1980 I was in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, travelling with Audrey my American friend.  It was nearly a year after the overthrow of Idi Amin, but Tanzanian soldiers were still in the country, making people uneasy, and the government seemed weak.  Things were scarcely getting back to normal.

We were trying to stay in a downtown hotel, but finding everything a hassle.  In the evening we went for a meal at the colonial Speke Hotel.  Afterwards we were walking back to our own hotel as the time was approaching the ten o'clock curfew deadline and the air was pleasantly fresh and cool.  There was already gunfire in the streets around and we were stopped by a friendly policeman who was anxious that we might not get where we were going on time.  The gunfire kept up most of the night, interspersed with louder noises whizzing across the sky above and exploding when landing.

Although banks and larger offices were largely operating, the main street was lined with boarded up or empty shops, right along to the area where a few Asians were still trying to do business.  We had to leave our room during the day because it had been reserved for government officials who never materialised; and so we took a tour with a friendly taxi driver out through the hills and suburbs to the Kasubi tombs of the Kabakas, the traditional rulers of Buganda, and to the Catholic Cathedral on another hill which had murals of the first missionaries and the embalmed body of the first African archbishop.  It was good to get some historical perspective on the country amid the depressing current situation. 

We had made a fleeting visit to the city ten days earlier to transact some business when we first arrived in the country.  We stayed that time in a small Asian hotel a mile or two from the centre.  This is what I recorded in my journal:

We took the bus journey to Kampala from Kabale, which was long and slow; we were on the bus at 11 but didn't leave until 2.30 or so and it stopped frequently in the densely populated country of Kigezi.  After that the country became more hilly savannah, Ankole cattle land.  Mbarara was battle-worn, the barracks and police area destroyed, the centre of the town empty and looted, only the bus station functioning.  Our neighbour on the bus was going to visit his daughter, aged 20, previously at Makarere University, now in hospital, blinded by gas in the war.  In the early morning Kampala was empty and calm, yet busier than anywhere else I had seen so far in Africa.  Bomb and looting damage, some piles of rubble, yet banks and hotels functioning, and some men involved in construction.  Night-time seems to be the problem, but we heard nothing except a storm after curfew yesterday.  We went at night to see the Israeli film of Raid on Entebbe and the audience hooted with laughter at the appearance of the actor playing Idi Amin (now that he had gone).

Mbarara had been notorious during the Amin years for the killings that were carried out in the police barracks and headquarters.  I had been particularly interested to see what the state of the city would be, and found the sight numbing rather than shocking.

I remember that the bus took a back road as we approached Kampala in the evening.  We parked up for the night in a quiet place, sheltered, with houses near but not right outside the bus.  We were asked to stay quietly on the bus and then we drove into Kampala in the morning once curfew was over, all this handled very calmly in a matter-of-fact way. 

Kasubi Tomb in Kampala:  Picture by Eve Gray, CC

Patrimonium Mundi: Panorama of Kasubi Tomb.

March 22nd: Chobe in Northern Uganda

On March 22nd 1980 I was in Chobe in northern Uganda.  This was a lodge in what is now called the Murchison Falls National Park.  I was with my American friend Audrey. 

The wildlife parks in Uganda were struggling after the Idi Amin years.  Animals had been poached or shot by soldiers throughout that period, and the Tanzanian army had been no better since their arrival.  There was no fuel for trips and there were almost no tourists.  A handful of cheap tourists like me were at Chobe, but there was not a lot to see in the way of wildlife although the Nile was very beautiful at that spot. 

The Nile in Murchison Falls Park, 2010:  Picture by Daryona, CC

However I enjoyed this day.  The roar of the river was constant as it passed by the lodge and the many islands, but I could always hear the grunting and splashing of hippos in the water.  The earth was red and the trees mainly small and thorny with many sausage-trees (Kigelia, a characteristic tree in much of Africa.)  With two others I went out in the morning for a walk, under the leadership of a guide with a rifle.  This was the only way to get out in the park unless you actually had fuel to put in the tank of one of the park vehicles.  Walking was a good way to do things and was atmospheric even if the guide did not know which antelope was which.   We saw crocodiles by the river which I had not seen before in Uganda.  Best was a huge herd of elephants, maybe one hundred in total, spread out along the ridge amongst trees perhaps seventy yards away.  There were led by a huge male and were not especially pleased with our presence.  I kept close to a tree but held my ground and was able to watch them for a long time while the guard kept his rifle at the ready.  I knew enough to know that such a large herd of elephants was a bad sign rather than a good one, as elephants only gather in such numbers when they are under threat.  This was probably all the elephants within a wide area.

Then in the evening I went out again down to the creek by the Nile, enjoying being quiet and being on my own with just the birds around.  I sat near the weed-covered areas where the jacanas and the moorhens live, and then there was a splendid sunset going down behind an acacia tree as I sat and watched it get darker and darker until the bats came out.  Being out in the wild was more important than seeing the more spectacular animals.

We had stayed a week or so earlier at Mweya in Queen Elizabeth National Park in the west of the country by Lake Edward.  It was a beautiful place but the road in was littered with the dead bodies of hippos killed by soldiers.  I could see the ridge of the Ruwenzori mountains to the west but not the snow peaks.  Again there had been no fuel for vehicles but we were able to go out on a launch on the lake which was good for the water birds.  One evening I left my meal in the hotel to go back to my room in the hostel to get something and had to cross a courtyard to get back.  I heard an animal make an almighty roar as I started to cross, but I did not hesitate for long as I was hungry.  The staff told me that they had been troubled by a lion at night recently.

Brian Schwartz saw no elephants at Chobe and was there at a similar time to me, perhaps a week or two later, as recounted in his book Travels Through The Third World.  He writes of meeting Iain Douglas-Hamilton who was doing an aerial survey of elephants in Uganda - Audrey and I also met him at Mweya.

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March 18th: Kagadi in North-west Uganda

On March 18th 1980 I was in Kagadi in north-western Uganda.  Together with my American friend Audrey, I was trying to get from the Ruwenzori area around Fort Portal to the Nile area in the north and east of the country.  There was no public transport in the area.

Fort Portal:  My picture

Out walking in the last evening in Fort Portal we were invited home by an old gentleman cycling home.  He told us interesting things about life in the later Amin days, such as "we could not sleep in our houses" and  "one night they came to the door with their guns."  He had been in the third class at Makerere University in 1931 and was now 72.  He had been a teacher and had worked as a chief after the war, but now lived on the milk of his herd of 50 cattle.  Walking back, I was impressed by the agricultural richness and variety of that area of Uganda, every house with its avocado tree.

Next day we tried to get going to Hoima, but only found a pickup going to Kagadi.  The journey was pretty up through tea estates to Kyenjojo, and when I looked back the Ruwenzori ridge was clear with a good amount of snow on top.  After we left the Kampala road the way became rougher with passages of uncut jungle and very sparse population mainly growing matoke (bananas).  While we were trying to find an onward lift, Audrey made several friends who spoke quite good English and everyone was delighted that we were there.  We waited in a small "hotel" (which means cafe or restaurant in these parts) and I wrote in my notebook:

A little town in semi highlands.  Lovely empty country, the backbone of Africa, not so crowded, with fine views over green hills and the red road winding through jungle and matoke and little townships even smaller than this. 

A strip of little houses with thick walls often of concrete between wood supports, wooden doors and windows, shutters painted mostly blue, tin roofs with long shallow eaves.  A radio across the wide road plays "Red River Rock."  A hot dusty wind blows through the trees and across the tin roofs.

When we came to town we sat in the shade of a tree in the town centre and were surrounded by half the school as they waited for the afternoon class to be called.  Even now the kids stare at us through the door and windows.  A friendly young man working for the Ministry of Health at the hospital, the main feature of this town, told us about the local tribe, the Banyoro, and persuaded the people in this place to make a pot of tea even without sugar and milk (it turns out to be a coffee/tea mixture) which will make our stay here a little more pleasant while we wait for the lift out.

The restaurant has a couple of Formica covered tables of different sizes and five chairs, a counter which is empty with a chair behind on which the boy of the place sits, a set of shelves with two and a half bottles of Tree-Top and a menu which says:

Matooke Nenkoko 35/-

Matooke Nanyama 30/-

Enyama Yonka 20/-

Enkoke Yonka 25/-

Chai 5/-

Amahuli (2) 20/-

Also in here there's a contraption like a baby's high chair with a water can (empty) and a cooking fat tin for water, maybe for washing.  There is  a licence for the establishment; it cost 300 shillings, and it is suspended between here and the door on a string along with a couple of light blue curtains to shade off the eating area.

Eventually we decided to stay for 40/- in a simple room at the only lodge.  We went out for a walk to the forest station, which was partly cleared and partly planted with eucalyptus.  We saw a group of four hunters with spears and nets who said they were looking for "dibrat", perhaps dik-dik.  The local people seemed very poorly clothed, growing little other than bananas and coffee but even then some spoke English, including women only wearing skirts.  Coming back we sat by some eucalyptus and watched a beautiful sunset, and on the road up the hill to the little town a group of mongoose ran across the road, ten in all from large to very small.  We had meat and matoke with hot orange for supper, followed by an evening of conversation with the local Bata shoe man and another trader, both young, both a little depressed at the slow recovery after the troubles, saying that putting up with British Sahibs would be better than some of the Africans they got. 

Country near Kagadi:  My picture

We got our truck lift in the morning, a long hard slog for the 56 miles to Hoima, 4 or 5 hours, but sitting in the cramped cab of an old Bedford, using three gears and not much in the way of brakes.  The country was more of the same as the day before, but not so high in altitude, and the truck made it difficult to enjoy the view.  In Hoima the truck people found us an onward pickup going to Marindi, again in the cab, through more developed country.  Marindi was smaller than I expected, just 3 or 4 blocks, a market, a restaurant or two where we found much needed tea and chapattis, an administrative district with rugby pitch and hospital.  Very few people spoke English here and the did not try to help us.  We bought mangoes and a pineapple at the market and sat in the welcome shade to eat them.  We went to the transport area and found a pickup to Kigumba through dry red earth country, more open than before, with thatched villages and men with holes in their ears.  Kigumba was a transport centre, where we found the Good Night Lodge in the back of a very African and dirty compound, but quite atmospheric.  I had a beer, a tub and jerry can bath, a chicken and chapatti supper, then orange and waragi and retired to bed. 

It took longer than expected to get a ride to Karuma.  In the end it was a Tata truck at 11am, about 60 passengers in the back and 45 Tanzanian soldiers, one or two rather rowdy, not enjoyable really and you couldn't see much of the dry bush country, but the road was fast over little hills.  The falls on the river were impressive, and there we got off the truck to try to find "means" into the park.  "Means" means transport.  

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