My time in East Africa is rapidly approaching its end. I just received confirmation that I will be leaving about 6 days early because of the cancellation of our end of trip excursion. It would have left us with an extra week in Kampala that didn’t appeal much to me. Most of the people and places I care about are up in Gulu where we are not returning. So my friend Robbie and I changed our tickets and now we head to London on the 11th instead of the 17th.
Most of our trip has been spent living in the communities that we are studying and learning about. We have had a number of excursions that get us out to see the countries we have been living in, but our touristy outings have been very limited. My friends Hannah and Allie and I decided that there were some places in Kampala that we should see, and we felt the need to be typical Muzungus at least once.
Mengo Palace
So to the Palace of the Kabaka we went. The Kabaka is the king of the Buganda kingdom, the largest ethnic group in Southern Uganda. The palace sits upon a hill and overlooks the entire city. It’s a new structure because the old one was destroyed when Milton Obote, former President/ Dictator of Uganda, wanted to wrest power from the Kabaka and destroyed it.
The layout of the palace was based on a royal palace in Scotland with a number of architectural cues obviously taken from a more western place and with the addition of a “royal mile” connecting the palace with the parliament. We weren’t allowed into the palace, which is odd because it is not occupied right now (some dispute of some sort) but the grounds were pretty enough. Our guide took us down to the royal lake that was built in order to provide an easier commute for the king to his palace (How convenient).
On the path down to the lake we saw a large tunnel cut into the hillside that led to a dark foreboding looking cave. After gazing at the lake, we made our way down the tunnel. It was lined with vegetation and large concrete walls that ended in a large concrete opening that penetrated the hill. We had arrived at Idi Amin’s torture chambers. Idi Amin was president of Uganda from 1972 to 1979; his life was detailed in the movie “The Last King of Scotland.” He was an incredibly harsh dictator and his torture chambers remain a testament to his reign. There were five rooms whose entrances were raised four feet from the floor of the bunker. Apparently, prisoners would be put in the rooms and the bunker floor would be filled with three feet of water, the water would then be electrified so the prisoners could not escape. It was common practice for them to be thrown in the water once they were deemed unfit to live. Amin himself was hardly educated and most of his prisoners were the educated people of Uganda. Another notch in Uganda’s belt of oppressive leaders.
Mosque
Uganda is a largely Christian nation, but that doesn’t mean other religions don’t thrive as well. One of the largest structures in all of Kampala is a gigantic mosque in Old Kampala. We drive by it all of the time but we just never got around to visiting it but today we felt inspired.
The Mosque is named after Colonel Qaddafi, of Libya, who donated the money to build the mosque and maintain it for 25 years. Apparently, Idi Amin started it in 1978, but construction was halted when Obote overthrew Amin in 1979. It was restarted in 2003 when Qaddafi came to visit Uganda.
The building itself is incredible: carpets from Libya, lamps from Egypt, the intricate details created by Moroccan artists, and the design by Qaddafi’s architect. The interior space can fit 7,000 people easily and the entire structure is designed to house more on bigger occasions. The minaret of the mosque is one of the tallest structures in Kampala and can be seen from almost every part of the city.
Before we could look around the compound, Hannah and Allie first had to cover themselves as their attire of pants with their uncovered heads was not appropriate according to the Islamic tradition. They made quite the pair once they were decked out in their colorful scarves. When we were all dressed appropriately, we were taken towards the mosque. The building is massive but the designs are all incredibly intricate, truly fascinating.
Our guide first took us up to the top of the minaret where we got an incredible view of Kampala. The climb took a good five minutes, and was, besides the “marathon,” the most exercise I have had this entire trip. The view was spectacular; we picked a perfect day and could see all of the places we had been in Kampala. Our guide apparently makes the climb seven times a day and claimed it made him incredibly fit, fit enough, he decided, to take a Muzungu as his wife. I quickly had to claim both Hannah and Allie as my wives to deter his advances, the ploy worked and we soon descended the tower.
Next was the mosque itself. I have been inside many monumental churches, full of pews, paintings, and elegant statues. I honestly didn’t know what to expect from the mosque. The inside was just a vast expanse of open carpet and columns. The columns ended in large domes that had openings in the top to let in natural light. Instead of statues and carvings, the beautification was in the architecture itself, intricate designs were set in the domes and the lamps were wrought in incredibly miniscule detail. In a space composed of relatively simply architectural forms, incredible beauty accentuated the interior.
After walking around for a while we were headed out of the Mosque and we bumped into a white robed man entering through the doors. We were told he was the man responsible for the call to prayer, what a wonderful chance encounter. We were just in time to listen to him do his thing. As he walked over to the microphone he told us how he had started calling twenty years ago at the district level, he had worked his way all the way up to the national level and was incredibly proud of what he had done.
He approached the mic and we sat down to watch him do his thing. He covered his ears and then started speaking Arabic in a hauntingly melodic manner; I could see how he had become the main caller in all of Uganda. It was simply beautiful. It went on for a few minutes and his voice echoed powerfully through the mosque.
After he finished we gathered ourselves and left the mosque, ending a great cultural experience that I never would have thought would have happened to me in Kampala, Uganda.
Suit Up
We returned home in the late afternoon where I was greeted by Robbie who was decked out in a suit. Obviously curious, I asked him why he was dressed so smartly. He looked at me and said simply, “Suit up.” And no questions asked, I did. Let me explain.
In Uganda there are a limited number of TV shows that are truly bearable. In order to get by, we shared a lot of movies and TV shows amongst our group. The most widely liked and widely viewed show was “How I Met Your Mother.” I have heard some heathens call it a mediocre show, I beg to differ, but in Uganda it was pure viewing gold. One of the most beloved characters is Barney. Barney is on all counts a pretty bad person (egoistic, chauvinistic, and selfish) but for some reason he is strangely endearing. One of his catch phrases is “Suit Up,” used whenever it is time to go out on the town and impress a certain gentler sex. To turn down his demand is travesty in his eyes. So naturally, when asked to suit up, I did.
Turns out we were having a guys night out to the casinos of Kampala. Three guys from my group (Steven was sick) and the two guys from the other group, Jason and Luke. It’s been a long time since I gambled, at least three years, and it’s not something I particularly enjoy, but I was excited for the night ahead regardless. We all bodad over to Kampala City Casino to start the night off right. Luke and Jason had been there for a while; Luke was doing well, while Jason was a few shillings down. Luke made his winnings through the slot machines so we decided to give it a try. I changed out about 20,000 shillings for tokens and started off my night. I stayed pretty even for about fifteen minutes then won a little bit which prompted my buying drinks for some of the guys.
I was down to 10,000 shillings and was about to call it quits when I switched to another machine. I sat down and played a few rounds, and was about to leave and made one last pull… and won. A lot. The machine kept spitting out tokens and when it was done, and after much excitement from the guys, I gathered my winnings and brought them to the cashier. I went from 10,000 shillings (about $5) to 200,000 shillings (about $100). Not bad for one night in Kampala.
Not wanting to push our luck, we decided to switch casinos and headed out to Simba Casino. We failed miserably at every turn at Simba and resorted to giving money to Robbie to play Blackjack on our behalf, the dealer won almost every time and before long we figured Simba was not the place for us.
The rest of the night saw us sing karaoke and find our way home. A good night of suiting up was had by all, and my winnings paid back the money owed to me by my shifty advisor Oliver. Win win.
-Muzungu currently in Notting Hill slowly adjusting to life away from Africa after experiencing a rousing carol show at the Royal Albert Hall
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