NANTABULIRIRWA (or Proverbs 12:1)

Single trunk wood carving, Arusha The short Read At the time of writing, when one compares Kenya and Tanzania to Uganda, in terms of political and economic development, the latter has fallen far back, and even seems to be regressing. I am convinced the problem is fundamental. We suffer from a disease that is widespread …

Has Uganda’s Education System Gone To The Dogs – Part II

It is more than seven years since I wrote that the education system in Uganda is fundamentally broken. Each year since, usually in January, my post does rounds among concerned parents. This year alone it was forwarded to me about half a dozen times. I thought that I might pen some more of my thoughts …

Gorilla Gorilla

Muhavura is an unabashed lover of the Uganda’s wild places. Few things make me quite as happy as leaving the precincts of the Greater Kampala Area. The feeling, as the insanity of Kampala subsides, and the countryside’s calmer nature takes over is always quite palpable. Entering our national parks, I often feel transported into another …

Things We Lost In The Fire

Note: Some names and places have been changed to protect the privacy of certain persons, however the main thrust of the story told is accurate to the best of our recollections. Recently Muhavura travelled Bubende Island, one of the 80 or so islands that make up Ssese, to visit the head of a section (mutuba) …

In Defence of Bright Lights

A few weeks ago on the BBS Talk Show Amaaso Ku Ggwanga, panelists Charles Rwomushana and Nakaseke MP Paul Lutamaguzi ended the show in a bitter exchange, during which Lutamaguzi charged Rwomushana with that rather dubious crime of thinking himself smarter than the rest. The reader is invited to listen to the exchange below. https://www.youtube.com/embed/aU1heRGmNDY?start=4706 …

In Praise Of Professor Ogwang

Muhavura had heard rumours of Covidex for a while. Mentions here and there. Dismissed as yet-another-elixir offered by some charlatan looking to make a quick buck out all our suffering. Until information started to filter through about the stature of the man behind the drug. Then came his media debut. Desert Island Discs Sunday July …

H M Stanley & The Quest to Confirm The Source of The Nile

1554, Sebastian Münster map showing the source of the Nile. Source. By the time the explorer Henry Morton Stanley confirmed it source in 1875, the search for source of the Nile had occupied Western minds for thousands of years. That the search for the Nile's source should have been so important is perhaps inevitable. The …

Nambi

It is difficult to succinctly describe Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi's book The First Woman. Nominally it is the coming-of-age story of a girl, Kirabo, as she navigates the myriad layers of her African culture setting. Viewed from the mountain top, Muhavura feels that there is so much more to the book. It is a reminder that …

Caiaphas & Congo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_203PSyA2UM Welcome to Congo When President Museveni announced that Uganda would be building 200km of road inside Congo, the reaction from sections of the Ugandan public was, perhaps predictably, negative. Why, they frothed with indignation, should Uganda be gifting good roads to its neighbours when it has lots of bad ones itself? Good question. One …

Wanted: A Chief Aesthetics Officer.

 Kabaka Anjagala Road in Kampala is a mile-long stretch of Candlenut Tree-lined road and walkways beginning at Twekobe (formerly the palace of Kabaka Mutesa II) and ending at Bulange (seat of the Buganda Parliament, the Lukiiko). Initially commissioned by Kabaka Mutesa II, the road was re-imagined during Jennifer Musisi’s tenure as head of Kampala City …