So… the King of Buganda waved at me the other day. You may be thinking, I didn’t know that Uganda still had a King. Oh yes my friend they do, many of them… and the King of Buganda totally waved at me. Let me preface this story with one about burning tires, tear gas, and gun shots, because a country with both a president and a handful of kings could do nothing without the above mentioned wartime weapons.
Uganda is made up of many different ethnic groups….I think about 50 or so. These tribes were thrown together by the glorious whiteman some years back to form a “protectorate” under the British government. (The Brits are the ones who introduced caning in this country, thank you very much England.) Since that point they have been expected to work together in total peace and harmony sharing a single government. This is being asked of people who speak different languages, eat different food, wear different clothes, have different customs, and even worship different Gods. Sounds like a good idea, right? Regardless of this fact, each of these different groups of people was once ruled by a King. At some point in time (not really sure the exact date) Uganda was christened with a democratic government as well as a president. Since that time the government has been overthrown multiple times (Idi Amin… Obote… etc.). Currently, the position of president is held by the magical, the wonderful Yoweri Museveni (sarcasm). He came into power around the time I was born, and swore he would only stay for 2, 5 year terms… meaning he would be out of there around ’96. Well, 1996 rolled around and homeboy decided he wanted to stay. So he nixed the ruling that said he could only stay for 2 terms and continued ruling the country. At one point he was quoted as saying, “You think a piece of paper can take me out of office?”… he was referring to ballots in elections. Good thing he hasn’t rigged any of them. Ha. Most people in this country hate their president. They feel he has cheated them (which he has). They think he is corrupt (which he is). They observe that he has rigged the elections (which he has). Take the amount of hate that people have for Museveni and turn it around into love. This is what the Buganda feel for their Kabaka (or their King). People love the king. They think he is marvelous and charming. They print out his picture and hang it on their walls. They sing songs that claim he should live forever.
Now lets get to the crazy part. Last week the Kabaka had decided to travel to the northern part of Kampala to visit some lands that were apparently his. Museveni (the president) had recently taken the lands, formed a new kingdom, and handed them over to a different King… therefore the King of Buganda was trespassing. As he headed out he was refused from entering his own lands. The people realized this and freaked out. When people here freak out it gets really ugly, really quickly. So began the riots. In Kampala they started by throwing burning tires in the road and stopping anyone from moving. All traffic ceased and then things really started to get ugly. The police here walk around with huge guns, and to me there are incredibly scary. Well… the police (who rarely do anything) got deployed into the madness and began firing warning shots (a few of which inevitably killed people). Then came the tear gas. Even with all of the chaos from the police, people were still rioting, catching things on fire, looting stores, and stopping cars in the road to steal whatever they had. The fact that 50% of Uganda’s population is under the age of 18 and very uneducated doesn’t help when it comes to riots.
I live about 2 ½ hours South of Kampala, but somehow near a pretty sketchy town, Nnyendo, full of boda boda drivers (basically young men who drive motorcycles for a living b/c they had to drop out of school). When these boys heard about the riots in K la they decided they should riot too! They began by riding around on their bodas with huge branches to stop the police from driving down the road. Then they put up road blocks by burning tires. I had no idea any of this was happening until I heard gun shots and someone said that there was rioting in Nnyendo. So of course Peace Corps found out and put everyone in the country on lock-down. Basically, I wasn’t allowed to leave my compound for a good long time. We were on lock down for almost 10 days and then finally we were allowed to go free. The exact day that we got out of lock-down I heard that the Kabaka (king) was coming to Nnyendo town for a celebration. So I decided to wake up super early in the morning to ride my bike to Nneyndo and see if I could get a glimpse of the king. I went with another PC volunteer and we waited on the side of the road for hours until as the crowds thickened. We were the only bazungu (white people) there and therefore we stood out… maybe a little more than usual. The people were absolutely stoked that we had come out to see their king. As his police escorted vehicle pulled down the street everyone went crazy. He drove past and as I was trying to figure out which one he was, it happened. We made eye contact, he smiled, and then he waved. I waved back and just about peed my pants. The King of Buganda totally just waved at me. The joy lasted about .5 seconds because soon a mob of people was charging towards the church following his vehicle. This was the point where I got out my camera and got some amazing footage of people on motorcycles and on foot, carrying babies and branches running through the streets screaming for their king. I actually feared that I would be trampled. But in the end everything was just fine…. Not even fine but amazing… because seriously how often does a king wave at you?
