Letter to Prof Nuwagaba and all Bakiga of Kigezi

Nov 09, 2015

Abeishemwe, I have been travelling to Kigezi intermittently since 1987, though it was not till January of 2002 that I ventured beyond the urban confines of Kabale town

By David Sseppuuya   
       
Abeishemwe, I have been travelling to Kigezi intermittently since 1987, though it was not till January of 2002 that I ventured beyond the urban confines of Kabale town.


Even then, that visit to the rural community was the only one until I went up the hills once again, last month.

In between, my visits had been limited to the comforts of White Horse Inn, or the energy of Rugarama, Pentecostal Hill, where the first stirrings of spiritual revival in Uganda started in the 1930s.

Any other ventures have been a drive-through to either Kanungu or Kisoro (with the latter, my only journey was on the old rock-strewn murram road and it was punctuated with three punctures. Mercifully the road has since been bitumenised, thanks to the Government planning and donor funding).

That first time I went rural, in 2002, was quite remarkable. We had been at a ‘kuhingira’ ceremony when, as the sun was setting, one of our group asked us to accompany him. We drove out of town, and shortly we parked our vehicles at some spot.

Disembarking, we walked, or rather stumbled, our way up a steep hill, through an indeterminate path, dodging boulders and ducking under vegetation.

Then, emerging from the bushes we hit upon cleared ground and beheld the unlikely sight of a modern house, complete with electric (solar) lights.

Two weeks ago, I returned to rural Kigezi. We drove a few kilometres off the Mbarara-Kabale highway, to Maziba. I had been told that we would leave our cars at the trading centre at the bottom of the hill, so this was no surprise.

However, the big shock was having to clamber up the hill, at near-perpendicular angles, with no aid.

Gasping, grasping and clasping, we somehow made it 200m or 300m to the home we were going to visit. Down below I could sense the locals sniggering under their breath about our inability to be comfortable in climbing.

Now I do admire the people of Greater Kigezi for their industrious ability make the most of what are physically trying circumstances.

These have conditioned them to thrive in less demanding environments and that is great.

However, my disappointment this time around was that, here we were, in the Year of our Lord 2015, and the descent/ascent on some hills of Kigezi is still unaided: that is, the paths and walkways up a number of the inhabited hills are still as they have been for centuries.

In spite of the fact that many modern buildings have been constructed – with iron sheet roofing, concrete or baked blocks/bricks, cement-plastered walls, rainwater harvesters – many villages still will not design and cement simple steps/stairway systems to aid movement up and down the steep inclines.

I have been told that there are exceptional places, like Kamwezi, that cannot be tamed – we would leave those to their natural devices.

I do appreciate that the local people have adapted to this environment (I took a couple of minutes, while planning an emergency rescue for my travel companions in case they slipped on the treacherous path, to marvel at how a herd of cows adjusted by inclining their hooves at such an angle that they could walk dexterously up the hill. I could not envisage a full grown Ankole cow or Teso Zebu daring the same!).

But adapting to our environment is only but a basic form of existence.

The advance of civilisation, throughout mankind’s long history, has always been premised on our ability to make the environment conform to us.

Thus, I think, for those places in Kigezi and Kisoro, where the old mud-and-wattle grass-thatched dwellings are fast-giving way to modern concrete houses, the very tools of construction and some of the building material, can be diverted to make solid ‘all-weather’ steps to replace the treachery of the natural setting.

Of course our people tend to get stuck in their ways; but that is why we have folks like Prof Augustus Nuwagaba and scores of other highly educated and enlightened Bakiga: to be salt and light.

I do understand that when the terracing of Kigezi’s rural farmland happened in the 1950s, homesteads were required to cooperate, in the form of ‘bulungi bwansi’.

Why, in this modern age, can we not compel homes to do the same with concrete steps, for the good of the community?

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Before the emergence of the genetically-disposed and altitudinally-conditioned Kiprotich, Kipsiro and Kimutai in the last 15 years, Uganda’s most outstanding long distance runners came from Kigezi, although they were not the world beaters that the Sebei boys are proving today.

Peter Rwamuhanda, Constance Rwabiragye and Vincent Ruguga were, I believe, conditioned in the high altitude of Kigezi.

It would be healthy competition if Kigezi went head-to-head with Kapchorwa in producing world class long distance runners. Uganda would be the winner.

dsseppuuya@yahoo.com 
 

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