{UAH} This is a typical look of the food we grew up eating.(by UAH Facebook member

This is a typical look of the food we grew up eating. Full blast katogo--pumpkins, irish potatoes, matooke, sweet potatoes, beans and eshwiiga/greens--all rolled into one. Some people would add in entakara/katunkuma for good measure.

This is also a proper replica of the tray--olusania--on/from which we would be served food.

Listen! The idea of each child having and eating from their own plate is a recent development. I don't know if it was for lack of plates, or if it was meant for other purposes. The only families in the village which gave each child a separate plate to eat from were those which were a bit sophisticated-- such as those of teachers, chiefs or those who had worked in Kilembe Mines.

It was only the elders, notably, the men in the houses, whose food would be put on separate plates.

I know the idea of the lusaniya has recently returned, especially for us that live in cities and towns, notably, for meat lovers. The only difference is that you will find only two men or women, seated around a tray like this of 4 kgs of goat or pork, eating and sweating profusely.

So growing up at one of my grannies in Muyebe, Kabale, in early 1980s, I recall vividly the politics and dynamics of the lusaniya.

When food would be served, especially at night, you had to be smart and swift to be able to land your hand on the favorite item in the katogo or you risked going hungry.

It is strange though, that in a situation where each child is served from a separate plate, they will start by eating what it not their favorite item of the katogo and end with the most favourite. If it is chicken, they will eat the rest fast and chicken last! Ofcourse we know some parents who will beat a child who eats chicken out of the plate fast first.

So, when presented with katogo on a lusaniya like this, the order of preference of what to eat fast was something like this: irish potatoes, matooke, pumpkins and sweet potatoes last!

So, on a typical evening, seated about 7 of us outside in the dark, with a flickering tadooba as our only source of light,a lusaniya would be presented.

Very quickly you would spot which side of the Lusaniya has your most favorite items--and then, the next immediate victim would be the source of light!

A smart boy--and I used to be among those--would promptly blow out the tadooba, and in that moment of darkness, the tray/lusaniya would rotate at high speeds in different directions, with each one of us trying to bring the side of irish to their side!

Some of the bigger and muscular boys had a habit of holding your hand into the tray and preventing you from moving it, while they used their powerful left hands to eat. And this would take only a few seconds, but sufficient to leave the tray empty.

By the time mukaaka/grand mother would come to rescue us with a match stick to light the tadooba, all food would be gone. Under such dynamics, it was possible never to ever get satisfied however much food they put on the lusaniya, for, in ones mind, there was always a feeling that someone had eaten more than yourself.

When later we learnt about the concept of SURVIVAL FOR THE FITTTEST in our science lessons, there could not be a better example, than our life at the LUSANIYA.

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Allaah gives the best to those who leave the choice to Him."And if Allah touches you with harm, none can remove it but He, and if He touches you with good, then He is Able to do all things." (6:17)

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