[UAH] Why Basoga youth are rolling chapatis in Kampala and beyond

The jigger is a lazy parasite; the highest it can jump is 20cm it prefers to burrow in the toes of its host who normally moves around without shoes. Its other favourite places are the elbows, buttocks and the genital area because, the host will lie down on bare soil while leaning back and the flea will snuggle under the skin. The main reason the victim will be attacked is because they can neither afford to patch up their torn trousers, buy a papyrus mat to lie on or buy a safety pin to remove the leech.

Unlike the jigger, the Basoga of eastern Uganda are hardworking people. Nature was generous to the region, surrounding it with lakes - Victoria, Kyoga, Nawampasa, Lemwa, River Nile and Mpologoma, which have moistened it's 38,000 square miles of land with fresh water and fed it's inhabitants with an endless supply of Nile Perch, Tilapia and Mukene. Kakira's loam soil continues to nurture a thriving crop of sugarcane, making Busoga one of the sweetest places on earth.

In 2009, Iganga District harvested more than 300 million kilogrammes of maize, making it the highest producer in Uganda. Mubende came second with 170 million kilogrammes. According to the Uganda Bureau Of Statistics, Iganga gathered 32 million kilogrammes of rice followed by Soroti with 24 million. As for sweet potatoes (emboli), Iganga uprooted more than 270 million kilogrammes compared to Soroti's 160 millionkilogrammes.

Even with the jigger infestation of the region, it is important to note that these bumper harvests were possible using hand-held hoes and not modern methods of mechanised agriculture. Districts like Mubende, Mbarara, Kyenjojo did not produce even a grain of rice.
Despite the above endowments, Busoga has also had it's share of calamities - some man-made, others not. Tsetse flies infected the people with sleeping sickness and Nagana in livestock triggering a mass exodus. The industries in Jinja were closed, driving young men and women into 'funtula' or smuggling essential goods across lake Victoria in dugout canoes. This enterprise saw a modest rise in fortunes with iron-roofed houses shining across the grassy plains.

When the Anti Smuggling Unit halted this business, the result was a bored and idle young population who had not gone to school or invested in other skills. Sheik Jamil Mukulu, found some of these military age males playing cards and drafted them into his Allied Democratic Forces rebel group. Most of them perished in the forests of the DR Congo

Having laid down the AK 47, village youths picked up frying pans and rushed to the city to break eggs and knead dough. Today, the chapati franchise in Kampala and beyond is owned by Basoga youth. This failure to utilise the economic opportunities back home is not only a symptom of a bickering political class but also the character of Basoga as a people that has expressed itself in the failure to elect a Kyabazinga.

Defiance, rebelliousness or emputu yo Omusoga is not an idle characterisation of Basoga, it is an active streak that is costing us lives, money and time. Our current crop of leaders should be the first to abandon this persona and leading us on an irreversible course of prosperity. Busoga is yearning for leadership, not jiggers!

http://www.monitor.co.ug/OpEd/Commentary/Why-Basoga-youth-are-rolling-chapatis-in-Kampala-and-beyond/-/689364/1846312/-/5jx2b7/-/index.html

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"War is nothing but a  continuation of political intercourse, with a mixture of other means. Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest." 

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