Last Weekend’s Riots

Photo taken and published by the Independent

I know many of you, by this point, have read about the riots that hit Kampala on Thursday, September 10th. Even with the historical instability of the country, the violence took many locals by surprise last week. We were never in any immediate danger and the city has returned to normal. The underlying tension and anger that many Ugandans feel toward the government has once again been pushed under the surface in the priority of getting on with daily life, to resurface again at a later date.

The Baganda are the central tribe of Uganda (out of around 50 tribes) and the Kabaka is the king of this tribe. The term king is loose because he was ousted in 1966 and reinstated as a cultural leader in 1993 without political power, but still wielding much influence. Last week he was planning to visit part of his kingdom, but the president of Uganda forbade him to go saying it was unsafe. This was an opportunity for the Baganda (and many others in Uganda) to express their feelings of oppression under the government by taking to the streets burning tires, cars and even a police post while arming themselves with rocks. The police responded with tear gas and bullets and seven people were killed the first day. The situation is much more complex than I described, but at least that gives a little background.

On that Thursday, I had finally obtained my international driver’s permit and was busy driving through several villages in our project area, which is about 45 minutes away from the office (actually along the same road the Kabaka was supposed to be traveling on in two days). I was organizing several training events and was driving a couple pastors around on dirt roads past goats and small huts. In several villages, young guys were building wooden structures over the road for the Kabaka to drive under as a way of greeting and honoring him. At one point some of the guys stopped my vehicle, held out their hat, and told me they were taking up a collection for the Kabaka and that I should contribute. Luckily I had the other pastors in the car and in so many words they told them to get lost. I wondered why the king would need my contribution, knowing the guys were disappointed not to get any money from us.

After we had finished our work, my colleague and I were driving back to the office in the late afternoon. Passing through one of the towns closer to Kampala there was a tire burning in the road and traffic was diverted a different way. Honestly, I didn’t think too much of it. I found out later that the road was completely shut off about two hours after I passed through. Tension was high with the growing controversy of whether the Kabaka would or wouldn’t be able to visit part of his territory. By the time I reached the office, we were told to go home immediately because riots were beginning to spill out of the city into the surrounding areas.

The next day we went into work, and were hearing early morning reports that the violence had already started back up and gunshots could faintly be heard. Our office cut the workday in half and sent us home at noon so that all of us could be off the streets early. Friday, Saturday and Sunday we spent our time at friends’ houses relaxing and checking the news online and I ended up having to cancel a speaking engagement for Sunday morning. Finally on Saturday (two days after the conflict had started) the international news picked up the story and we were able to read a very government biased article on CNN.

On Monday everyone went back to work, shops reopened and life seems almost normal again. Thanks so much for everyone’s prayers. We never felt threatened and the reports of such events usually sound much worse than they actually are. I’m sure we’ll write more about them, but until then feel free to post any questions you have.

-Jamie