{UAH} WHY UGANDA IS AS COMPLEX AS MARRIAGE
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WHY UGANDA IS AS COMPLEX AS MARRIAGE
By Joseph Kabuleta
That age-old newspaper comic called Ekanya once said that: "Marriage is like a bird cage. The birds inside are trying to get out while the birds outside are trying to get in."
That would be a perfect description of Uganda today.
I recently made my first post-COVID excursion out of this beautiful country and I witnessed that bitter irony at the airport; as I walked past a long queue of young girls in brown uniforms and head scarfs waiting to board a flight to the Middle East, which is now the biggest destination of Uganda's estimated 200,000 (and growing) migrant workers.
They looked like girls at a secondary school parade, but without the giggles, chuckles or the playfulness typical of that age. These are kids who have been forced to grow up and make a no-turning back decision that could change their financial fortunes (they hope) or could ruin them irredeemably.
They had blank expressions on their juvenile faces; torn between hope and dread, between resolve and regret. The last time I saw such nervous expressions was decades ago when some of my childhood friends in Hoima were conscripted into the army. All the jest and laughter ended when they boarded the bus and it downed on them that there was no turning back.
But also at the same airport, outside the terminals, I had walked past a group of Asians of different shades; Indians, Chinese and Vietnamese who had just arrived into the country, for the first time, I could tell. They looked gaunt and weary but hardly nervous. In fact, most of them were even bubbly. To them, Uganda is the land of opportunity; a land where dreams come true. Their future here is easier to predict. Five or six of them will probably rent out a three-bedroom flat in a semi-decent Kampala neighborhood and share it. In a year, they will have split up and each of them will have his own flat. In the second year, they will have a Ugandan maid to do their housework. In the third year, they will be looking to bring their families over. By the fifth year they are probably owners of small businesses and their trajectory continues to rise. Obviously not all will end up that way, but that's the general trend.
So what is it about Uganda that makes it like a bird cage; where foreigners are scrambling to come here even as many Ugandans are lining up to go out? Why is Uganda a dream country for foreigners and a nightmare for so many of its citizens?
In 2018, as many as 48 Ugandans committed suicide at their Middle East places of employment. Several others were either killed and their organs harvested, sexually abused or forced to have sex with animals or do other dehumanizing things. The previous year, at least 10 Ugandan women were violently killed by their employers in Gulf Countries. None of the killers is brought to justice. Those are the official figures. The actual numbers could be considerably bigger.
The Guardian newspaper in Britain reported that at least 6500 workers have died in Qatar while building stadiums for the 2022 World Cup. That means an average of 12 workers have died each week since the country was awarded the tournament in 2010. These are staggering figures.
There's a clear trend of an increasing number of Ugandans that return in caskets every year, and yet the queue of youths aspiring to take the plunge into the unknown continues to swell, as do the licensed companies that export labour from Uganda; from 48 in 2017 to more than 200 to-date.
The whole phenomenon of organized labour export started in the early 2000s with Ugandans going to do security jobs in Iraq. At the time it was left to small time players and was mutually beneficial to all parties involved, even the workers, who were paid decently. But when the Banene saw the volumes of cash flowing into Ugandan banks from the Middle East toilers, they did what they always do. They moved in to 'regulate' the industry; and that's just an euphemism for takeover and ring fence for the exclusivity of the Royal Family, which believes they have a birthright to every profitable undertaking in this country.
They leave it up to lesser mortals to do the discovery, the initialization and all the donkey work. When it becomes lucrative, they come to regulate. They have done that for minerals, for vanilla, coffee, milk, sugar, sports betting and everything that threatened to give money to ordinary Ugandans.
Before those self-entitled bullies joined the labour trade, going to the Middle East was for the brave, the adventurous and, most importantly, the willing. Young energetic men went as target workers and returned with enough capital to start small businesses.
When they came in to 'regulate' the market, we crossed that thin line between labour export and human trafficking. That's when young girls were said to be cajoled into signing away their freedom, and then kept in isolation lest they change their minds before the scheduled travel date. That's when stories of organ harvesting became very frequent because someone at the top was benefiting immensely from young people's hearts and kidneys. These people are heartless.
Alarmed by the stories of the abuse that our girls suffered abroad, a group of Catholic nuns (bless them) took it upon themselves to push for the safety of Uganda's exported domestic workers. They took their petition all the way to the Speaker of Parliament, but Hon Rebecca Kadaga told them that: "Last year, we had stopped government from allowing what they call domestic workers to go out. We thought we can allow those who want jobs as drivers and bankers, but unfortunately, a number of people in government own labor export companies and I am told it is very lucrative so they continued."
Labour export is a worldwide $630b industry, with India ($69b) and China ($63b) leading the way. Uganda's income in this area has grown up to 1.3bn, and a Bank of Uganda Personal Transfers Survey (2017) indicated that Middle East was the second biggest source of remittances to Uganda (28.6%) after Africa (29%) and Europe (20.7%) respectively. The survey also indicated that remittances benefited up to 820,000 households and that $6 out of every $10 received went to financing house hold expenses and education.
So the girls lining up to board an aircraft today could turn out as family providers tomorrow but there's also a very big chance that that they could return in body bags. Like the rest of us, they've heard all the horror stories but they've chosen to escape the hopelessness of Uganda (as they see it) and believe that they will be among the lucky ones.
One day (very very soon) Uganda will be a land of promise for its own citizens (more so than for foreigners) so that our people are not forced to play Russian roulette with their youthful lives.
So don't tell me about a certain other Royal Family 3000 miles away that is being slated by one of their own and his darling wife for apparent racism when we have our own Royal Family here that has sold off all the nation's resources and has now embarked on selling its people.
--
-- By Joseph Kabuleta
That age-old newspaper comic called Ekanya once said that: "Marriage is like a bird cage. The birds inside are trying to get out while the birds outside are trying to get in."
That would be a perfect description of Uganda today.
I recently made my first post-COVID excursion out of this beautiful country and I witnessed that bitter irony at the airport; as I walked past a long queue of young girls in brown uniforms and head scarfs waiting to board a flight to the Middle East, which is now the biggest destination of Uganda's estimated 200,000 (and growing) migrant workers.
They looked like girls at a secondary school parade, but without the giggles, chuckles or the playfulness typical of that age. These are kids who have been forced to grow up and make a no-turning back decision that could change their financial fortunes (they hope) or could ruin them irredeemably.
They had blank expressions on their juvenile faces; torn between hope and dread, between resolve and regret. The last time I saw such nervous expressions was decades ago when some of my childhood friends in Hoima were conscripted into the army. All the jest and laughter ended when they boarded the bus and it downed on them that there was no turning back.
But also at the same airport, outside the terminals, I had walked past a group of Asians of different shades; Indians, Chinese and Vietnamese who had just arrived into the country, for the first time, I could tell. They looked gaunt and weary but hardly nervous. In fact, most of them were even bubbly. To them, Uganda is the land of opportunity; a land where dreams come true. Their future here is easier to predict. Five or six of them will probably rent out a three-bedroom flat in a semi-decent Kampala neighborhood and share it. In a year, they will have split up and each of them will have his own flat. In the second year, they will have a Ugandan maid to do their housework. In the third year, they will be looking to bring their families over. By the fifth year they are probably owners of small businesses and their trajectory continues to rise. Obviously not all will end up that way, but that's the general trend.
So what is it about Uganda that makes it like a bird cage; where foreigners are scrambling to come here even as many Ugandans are lining up to go out? Why is Uganda a dream country for foreigners and a nightmare for so many of its citizens?
In 2018, as many as 48 Ugandans committed suicide at their Middle East places of employment. Several others were either killed and their organs harvested, sexually abused or forced to have sex with animals or do other dehumanizing things. The previous year, at least 10 Ugandan women were violently killed by their employers in Gulf Countries. None of the killers is brought to justice. Those are the official figures. The actual numbers could be considerably bigger.
The Guardian newspaper in Britain reported that at least 6500 workers have died in Qatar while building stadiums for the 2022 World Cup. That means an average of 12 workers have died each week since the country was awarded the tournament in 2010. These are staggering figures.
There's a clear trend of an increasing number of Ugandans that return in caskets every year, and yet the queue of youths aspiring to take the plunge into the unknown continues to swell, as do the licensed companies that export labour from Uganda; from 48 in 2017 to more than 200 to-date.
The whole phenomenon of organized labour export started in the early 2000s with Ugandans going to do security jobs in Iraq. At the time it was left to small time players and was mutually beneficial to all parties involved, even the workers, who were paid decently. But when the Banene saw the volumes of cash flowing into Ugandan banks from the Middle East toilers, they did what they always do. They moved in to 'regulate' the industry; and that's just an euphemism for takeover and ring fence for the exclusivity of the Royal Family, which believes they have a birthright to every profitable undertaking in this country.
They leave it up to lesser mortals to do the discovery, the initialization and all the donkey work. When it becomes lucrative, they come to regulate. They have done that for minerals, for vanilla, coffee, milk, sugar, sports betting and everything that threatened to give money to ordinary Ugandans.
Before those self-entitled bullies joined the labour trade, going to the Middle East was for the brave, the adventurous and, most importantly, the willing. Young energetic men went as target workers and returned with enough capital to start small businesses.
When they came in to 'regulate' the market, we crossed that thin line between labour export and human trafficking. That's when young girls were said to be cajoled into signing away their freedom, and then kept in isolation lest they change their minds before the scheduled travel date. That's when stories of organ harvesting became very frequent because someone at the top was benefiting immensely from young people's hearts and kidneys. These people are heartless.
Alarmed by the stories of the abuse that our girls suffered abroad, a group of Catholic nuns (bless them) took it upon themselves to push for the safety of Uganda's exported domestic workers. They took their petition all the way to the Speaker of Parliament, but Hon Rebecca Kadaga told them that: "Last year, we had stopped government from allowing what they call domestic workers to go out. We thought we can allow those who want jobs as drivers and bankers, but unfortunately, a number of people in government own labor export companies and I am told it is very lucrative so they continued."
Labour export is a worldwide $630b industry, with India ($69b) and China ($63b) leading the way. Uganda's income in this area has grown up to 1.3bn, and a Bank of Uganda Personal Transfers Survey (2017) indicated that Middle East was the second biggest source of remittances to Uganda (28.6%) after Africa (29%) and Europe (20.7%) respectively. The survey also indicated that remittances benefited up to 820,000 households and that $6 out of every $10 received went to financing house hold expenses and education.
So the girls lining up to board an aircraft today could turn out as family providers tomorrow but there's also a very big chance that that they could return in body bags. Like the rest of us, they've heard all the horror stories but they've chosen to escape the hopelessness of Uganda (as they see it) and believe that they will be among the lucky ones.
One day (very very soon) Uganda will be a land of promise for its own citizens (more so than for foreigners) so that our people are not forced to play Russian roulette with their youthful lives.
So don't tell me about a certain other Royal Family 3000 miles away that is being slated by one of their own and his darling wife for apparent racism when we have our own Royal Family here that has sold off all the nation's resources and has now embarked on selling its people.
--
"When a man is stung by a bee, he doesn't set off to destroy all beehives"
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