THE GLOBAL AFRICAN COMMUNITY
T R A V E L N O T E S
PAN-AFRICAN TRIUMPH IN UGANDA 28 June 2006
Jambo Sisters and Brothers,
How are you? I am back in Nairobi, Kenya but only at the airport this time. I left Uganda early this morning and am now heading back to Amsterdam to catch an evening flight to Paris.
I am tired sisters and brothers, and, I think, justifiably so. I spent nine days in Uganda. That is the longest that I have been in one place since I can remember. And every one of those nine days was eventful.
Here is the recap:
Saturday--I lectured at the Pan African Center. About fifty Africans showed up. I actually lectured, did a slide presentation, and handled an extensive question and answer session. It all went very well and the discussion period was most animated.
That evening, after the lecture and on the way to a fabulous Ethiopian restaurant, I picked up the Monitor Newspaper--Uganda's largest daily paper. It featured an interview and photo of me. While reviewing the interview I tried a new, for me, food item. Yes, for the first time in my life I ate a handful of grasshoppers. They were not bad.
Sunday--A quiet afternoon and an informal dinner in the evening with me as the guest of honor. Some very distinguished Africans showed up, mostly business people, but also the Ugandan ambassador to Malaysia.
And the food was good too! But no grasshoppers this time!Monday Afternoon--Possibly my greatest day in Uganda.
I was the guest speaker at Makerere University. It was big. A lot of distinguished Pan-Africanists came, including a daughter of the late president of Guinea--Sekou Toure--and an Uganda Supreme Court justice. Altogether almost two-hundred people were in attendance, including students from the both the university itself as well as local public and private schools.For once, the sound system, the slide projector, and brother Runoko worked in near perfect precision and coordination. The audience claimed that it was a historic occasion and I am pretty sure that you would have been pleased.
Monday Evening--I did a slide presentation at an orphanage, mostly for poor children whose parents had died of AIDS. The presentation was held in one of the most impoverished slums in Kampala and I tried to treat the children with the same, if not greater, level of respect and dignity that I accorded the audience at the university earlier in the day. It was very moving.
Tuesday Afternoon--I toured the National Museum for the second time, returned to the historic Kusubi Tombs where the katakas (kings) of Buganda are honored, and revisited Lake Nyanza (colonial name Victoria Lake), and saw another BaKongo(?)man. I thought that these short statured African people were the same as the so-called "pygmies" but I was wrong. The "pygmies"
are called BaTwa. They are even shorter than the Bakongo and I expect to see them when I return to Uganda next year.Yes, I am coming back for more. Indeed, come next spring I expect to revisit Uganda and make my initial visits to Rwanda, Burundi, Southern Sudan, Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The plans are already being made and Uganda will be my base.
Over the past several months I have traveled virtually constantly, and have had a number of victories, including big lectures in Berlin, Germany, London; England, Salavador, Bahia, Brazil, Johannesburg, South Africa, Windhoek, Namibia, Paris, France, and several venues in the United States, just to name a few. But I can honestly say that nowhere that I have been have I found the spirit of Pan-Africanism more alive and vibrant than in Uganda. Perhaps not since my early travels to India with the Dalits and Tribals have I felt such a surge of energy, enthusiasm, and African solidarity. It was a rare, wonderful, spiritual, and revitalizing experience.
So now I catch a plane and head back to Europe for two whole nights! Friday, I return to Morocco and then to Spain in search of the Moors.
I am blessed.
In love of Africa,
Runoko Rashidi
Copyright © 1998 Runoko Rashidi. All rights reserved.
Posted/Revised: Thursday, December 28, 2006 4:45 PM
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