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"The scenery,
the climate, and especially the people are
different from
anything elsewhere to be seen in the whole range of
Africa.
" Winston Churchill
Good Vibrations
in Uganda
By David
Cogswell
 I
knew almost nothing about Uganda before I attended
the African Travel Association's Cultural and
Ecotourism Symposium in October 2004. In a short
time I was to fall in love with it. For me the
experience of Uganda is joined with the experience
of the symposium, with the glowing energy of the
hope and purpose shared by its participants. That
was how I experienced Uganda.
Coming Down to
Earth
We arrived at the Entebbe airport at night and
were met at the airport by ATA's Uganda Chapter
President Susan Muhwezi, and a group of about the
friendliest people I could remember ever meeting.
For an American, there is something about the
encounter with Africa that cannot be fully
communicated unless both sides of the conversation
share that experience. The ATA is made up of people
who do share that experience, and who also share
the belief that the world would be a better place
if more people traveled to Africa. I share that
conviction. The whole thing is embodied in that
first mind-altering encounter with the African
culture, and the African land.
It was not my first
encounter with sub-Saharan Africa, but it was the
first of its kind for me. I had been on Safari in
Kenya, and it was magnificent. But I had had an
unquenched thirst for coming in from the bush and
the tourist lodges to meet and mingle with the
people in the cities and villages of modern Africa.
This trip there was no safari; it was not a tourist
trip. On paper it was a business trip, but really
it was a people trip.
 The
Land and the People
As much as I hold the great wildlife of Africa
in reverence, for me the greatest attraction of
Africa is the people. Of course there is no real
separation of the two. The fact that the people of
Africa have learned to live in harmony with their
extraordinary wildlife is at the core of what makes
them such superb people. Such is the power of the
land that within moments of encountering Africa,
you are at home, and practically forget what life
was like before you got there. Scientists say that
all human life has its root in Africa. "To me it
feels like there is a deep genetic memory that
resonates when you fall under the spell of the
land."
Musical
Magnetism
The affinity between Africa and America has
always been powerful. Growing up in America I
experienced a great deal of African culture through
the medium of the American cultural melting pot. I
have long shared Bohemian composer Antonin Dvorak's
opinion that the African component of America's
music is the most vital part of it. So as an
American interested in music, it is impossible not
to feel a connection with Africa, even without ever
going there. To hear African music at its source is
a priceless experience. It was a great pleasure to
be able to walk into a restaurant and hear an
ensemble playing traditional indigenous music, a
complex polyrhythmical cacophony, with both
looseness and precision, everything going every
which way at the same time and all perfectly in
synch and in tune.
Home Away From
Home
We took a half-hour trip from the airport by
van to the Nile Hotel in Kampala. After many hours
in transit it was a night for sleep. The next
morning I woke up and looked out off my balcony to
get my first look at the land in the daylight. God,
what a Garden of Eden it was! The earth was deep
red with a rich growth of plants, towering trees of
many varieties, many colors and shapes of flowers,
rich green grasses and vegetation. The air was
thick with the smell of life.
One of my first
pleasant surprises was maribu storks that I could
see in the treetops out my window. I had never
heard of them, but in Kampala they are a second
population that shares the city with the human
population. These birds are magnificent -- with
huge wings that pump the air audibly as they fly
overhead. They pose proudly atop the highest
perches in the city, trees, high streetlamps,
steeples and tall buildings. They are everywhere,
living in marvelous symbiosis with people, as they
clean up the garbage in the town -- and eat
it.
If you see one on
the ground taking inventory of a garbage receptacle
you'll see that they are as big as small humans. In
the morning a great many of them perched in the
trees out my window and they woke up in the morning
the same time as me, and preened their feathers,
then slowly unfolded and stretched their wings and
prepared for their first morning flight.
Touring
Kampala
After getting registered for the conference,
the ATA group was treated to a tour of Uganda's
capital city by Kelley MacTavish-Mungar the
operator of Pearl of Africa Tours. Kelley is a
former Texan who went to Uganda originally as a
dentist with her dentist father, and then became a
tour operator. Now she is married to a Ugandan and
raising Ugandan children. She was a great guide for
a group of Americans because as an American herself
she knew just the kinds of things we would want to
learn about.
Before we began our
tour, she began her narrative by sharing a few
insights into the people of Uganda. "Ugandans are
quiet," she said. "They may seem a little reserved,
it's not because they don't like you, but during
the war, if you attracted too much attention you
may get shot. So they're a little reserved, but if
you talk to them they will really
shine."
As I became
acquainted with the people of Uganda, I remembered
what Kelley said. At times I tried to fathom in my
imagination what they must have experienced in
those terrible years, those memories and scars that
had become imprinted on the culture. It was a
quality I thought I could feel in their presence,
but could not name or pinpoint. What was not hidden
was the great spiritual depth of the Ugandan
people, the warmth, the generosity, the
sensitivity. They were extremely kind to me, to
other visitors and to each other. I was struck by
how supportive they were to each other, as if they
were all extended family.
For an American it
was almost shocking. I found myself staring in
wide-eyed wonder, trying to take it in and figure
out what it was that the Ugandans had that we seem
to have lost. They have a sense of immediacy, of
being fully present in the moment that Americans
seem to have left behind somewhere along the way,
perhaps from being too comfortable, or watching too
much TV.
"It was only 25
years ago, Uganda endured the devastating reign of
Idi Amin, when thousands of people were killed
merely as bystanders to a drive for power. In times
of such overwhelming violence and death, I have
heard, life takes on a luminescence, from the
heightened awareness of the preciousness and
fragility of life. In Uganda I felt that light
shine on me for a while, and I was changed by
it."
And that brings us
to President Museveni.
A Hero for Our
Time
I'm not one to get carried away with the kinds
of emotions political leaders are supposed to
engender, but the experience of seeing President
Yoweri Musevene speak at the opening lunch, and
actually getting to shake his hand was a highlight
of a week full of peak experiences.
Museveni was the
man who led an armed struggle from 1981 to 1986
that ultimately forced out the reigning military
dictator Tito Okello, and subsequently transformed
the beleaguered country into a thriving democratic
republic. Ever since Uganda gained its independence
from Britain in the early 1960s, it had been
through one hell after another. Idi Amin, who had
seized power in a 1969 coup, killed over 300,000
civilians just to maintain his iron
grip.
Amin had no clue
how to govern a country, so while his soldiers
massacred wildlife for meat or ivory and the
economy collapsed into chaos, he launched a war of
distraction against Tanzania. In retaliation,
Tanzania unleashed its own wave of destruction on
Uganda. The people, the wildlife and the landscape
suffered each assault and the country lay in
devastation.
After Museveni took
over, Uganda reduced the poverty rate from 56% to
27%, AIDS from 30% to 6% in 10 years and increased
primary education from 40% to 99%. With a 6.5%
average annual growth rate, Ugandaís economy
is the fastest growing economy in Africa. Museveni
put his presidency to a vote and won overwhelmingly
in 1996 and 2001.
Museveni's
initiatives to restore the wildlife and the
environment laid the groundwork for a plan to fuel
economic growth through tourism. He recognized the
potential of tourism to provide the engine for a
developing economy like Uganda because the amount
of investment required to begin generating a return
is relatively small. But the tourism must be
carefully managed to make sure profits are
reinvested in the maintenance and economic growth
of the destination. Hence the Cultural and
Ecotourism Symposium.
Museveni met ATA
executive director Mira Berman at the screening of
Discovery Channel film called Uganda: The
President's Tour in Washington D.C. He extended his
personal invitation to ATA to hold its symposium
there, and the association accepted, shifting plans
so quickly that the preparations had to be
telescoped into a few months.
His leadership in a
movement that so drastically turned around a scene
of great tragedy was an awesome legacy, and when he
walked into the room he carried that legacy,
palpably. This was no propped up political leader,
no media creation. This was a man whose own
accomplishments and benevolence created a powerful
aura.
When Museveni
spoke, he was brilliant, but relaxed and -- funny.
He had the place cracking up. His mellow
self-assuredness cracked the stiffness that goes
with a government affair, and people were glad to
let off their tension in laughter. But while he
entertained he taught us about
Uganda.
"Uganda is one of
the three places on the globe that are on the
equator, but have high altitude," he said. "That
gives us a unique climate. One of the problems is
that architects and civil engineers try to import
the problems of Europe; like air conditioning.
Itís not necessary. Air does not need to be
conditioned. You can just enjoy it as it
is."
Uganda ranges from
80 degrees in the day to 60 at night and never
changes much, he said. In the mountains it can get
below freezing. There are two rainy seasons, and we
were there in one of them. Once in a while a storm
would come up, pour water in torrents for an hour
or so, then dissipate, and once again the sun would
come out.
Museveni went on to
describe Uganda's variety of landscapes, from high
tropical rainforests to savannahs to the mountains
so cool that Irish potatoes can grow there. "The
mountains import the temperate climate," he said.
Museveni said he intended to dispel some myths
about Africa, such as the "colonial anthropology"
that concluded that the diversity of tribes
inevitably led to dissension. "It is true-- there
are many tribes," he said, "but they are all
linked."
Uganda is safe, he
said. "This part of the world is more immune to
terrorism than many places," he said. "We don't
have much here. In most parts of Kenya, Tanzania,
Burundi we don't have national terrorism. The
populations are mainly African, some Indians. They
are not notable for terrorism. We have nice Hindus.
Our Muslims are black. They are not interested in
terrorism. East Africans don't like to die too
much. They are not good candidates for suicide
bombers. They are too busy eating pork. They are
very humble. Our people like to live."
If you have ever
Googled Uganda, or picked up a travel brochure, you
probably know that the highly quotable Winston
Churchill called Uganda The Pearl of Africa. But
there was more. He also said, "The scenery, the
climate, and especially the people are different
from anything elsewhere to be seen in the whole
range of Africa."
My experience of
Africa was set to the high pitch of the hopefulness
of a conference devoted to pursuing extremely
positive solutions to economic and environmental
problems. The energy generated by that group of
people coming together from all over Africa and the
rest of the world to find mutually beneficial ways
of building a new world was irresistible. Such a
high-minded enterprise would have been exciting
anywhere. In Uganda it was enchanting.
The End
David
Cogswell
Services
in Uganda
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