Monday, July 12, 2010

No shitting in the toilet when it comes to Zana township.

I was in Kasaana Luweero when a friend of mine called me. This was his first call. I wondered what could be that made him initially call me. I wanted to make the phone busy but chose to pick him up. It was now 4pm Kampala time." Hi Quitstorm, this is JS calling you. I have some issues that i would like you to help me with, are you in Kampala?" the voice behind the phone asked. I answered that am not in Kampala but if the issues are urgent, i will be making it tomorrow. He agreed.


JS is a pan Africanist. I have not asociated much with pan Africanism, whatever that means, I must say that it's one area that had never crossed my mind and never tried to look into the history of PanAfricanism. I have read somewhere that it started as a movement to empower and equip blacks wherever they are to stand up and take control of their destinies. If that's true, am not sure.

From my observation, Pan Africanism is a concept to extricate Africans from the grip of European/American colonialism; but yet, British/American Big Oil can get African leaders to sign contracts without obligating anyone to redistribute the wealth among the poor of Africans in Africa. Instead, the African leaders redistribute the oil wealth among members of their family and close friends. And try to extricate religious Africans from the psychosis of the Muslim and Christian religions! Lot's of luck!

There's a Pan Africanist movement in Uganda with a bold suitable offices in Kamwokya. I have talked to them and they happen to have one dream. That's creating a single Government for all the 53 countries of Africa. This is the same dream for Libyan President Muammer Gaddaffi, who will be joining other heads of Government in Kampala this July 2010 under African Union. This Sounds like another religion to me--get everyone in the world to unite and worship Allah. That was the dream of the Soviet Union--to unite the workers of the world under Communism, and this would solve everyone's problems.

The other problem with Pan Africans--which is pie-in-the-sky like Communism--is that it would erect barriers to Western technological developments. As humans, we must teach and learn from one another--regardless of national borders.

I must stand on the rooftop and shout loud that am against both, the East African political Federation and the Pan African single Government. (53 countries with one President). I am against this because, Countries in Africa are failing to fully build a functioning system of Governance desirable to its citizens and as a result, we see almost all 53 African Union member states failing and rotten. If you cannot manage a smaller territory, why would you dream of managing a huge empire like Africa? Give me one single Country in Africa which has suitable political governance system acceptable to its citizens. This topic deserve its own article which I will discuss soon.

I made a decision that very early in the morning, I will be in Kampala. I boarded a taxi at around 6am and arrived in Kampala at around 7am.Urgently jumped in another taxi to Zana where JS resides.

Zana is a small township along Entebbe Road but growing so rapidly. Its population is very depressing but the business environment can make you stay. Minutes after I jumped of the taxi, I felt like visiting a toilet/latrine. I have wanted to do this earlier before, but choose to hold on because no place to spot a public toilet anywhere.

Now I was in Zana. I quickly walked to the taxi tout and I kindly requested him to direct me to any public toilet facility. He pointed me to the market closely on the roadside and told me to ask the lady next to an electricity pole. There was a distance which I could hardly walk; the desire to visit the toilet was now even stronger than what I can hold on.

When I arrived to the market, I walked directly to the lady who the taxis tout said had the keys. This lady quickly pointed me to another lady; I tried to walk there with my thumbs holding my butt not to let anything out. This P lady now told me that someone had taken the keys, and he/she will not allow me to use the toilet which was almost 30 meters from where I was standing and it was invisible. I choose to either walk direct to JS or walk in someone's residence and seek help.

I walked to almost three homes and they didn't allow me to use their toilets even when they saw that I was in a harder situation, I walked to another place and this time, it was a kiosk restaurant and when I asked the lady if I could use the toilet, she pretended as if she didn't hear me, after explaining, she said in fluent Luganda that "SASULA SENTE" (pay money). I asked how much and why she couldn't immediately told that she wanted money in hand. She got the keys and walked me to the toilet. It had three rooms each closed with a padlock.

As we were walking there, I asked her if she had toilet paper and she kept quiet. This was too much for me; I have paid my money but still couldn't have a toilet tissue/paper. The toilet was extremely dirty and had a strong smell that affected my digestion system. When I told an American friend about this, he said that in his country, all restaurants and bars have their bathroom facilities open to the public. Members of the public can use them free of charge--even if they don't buy anything.

I felt good after this visit even though I felt unfairly treated by the people of Zana. Please dare not miss my next article as I finish the narration of this.

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