“When Roasters was Roasters”

As I was saying, the place re-opened with pomp; there was a fully-fledged bar, a projector cum huge screen for displaying the famous English premiership Soccer and all that goes with a place worth its name. The place was owned by some guys who had a stake in the media industry in Kigali; there was one that owned a certain Data printer and word had it that, they were also working on opening up an FM station. I suppose that, it wasn’t bad for such a media cum entertainment minded people! With just another “Night Spot” just opened up in Kigali, life was not gona be the same (just in the short run), we had to make the best of the new Roasters. Most of us had to have the day’s dust washed off our dry throats and hence, the best place to be was always there. We always ate and drank away the day into the evening, evening into night and the night into morning! In actual sense, this place opened all day long till the wee hours of the night in some cases till the darkness was washed off the night’s face by the morning light! It was common for someone to leave home on a car washing mission but only to end up going home nearly ten or more hours later! The place boasted of all tribes of edibles e.g. Nyama Choma, kabenzi (pork), chicken all these laced with Kaunga, boiled cassava, bananas, kacumbali etc. Eating was a must, drinking a luxury and dancing a value added service! There was this young man who was in-charge of the music, I think he was called Simple or something like that; he was the DJ who always made people jig all night long without worrying of going home. That reminds me of the Nakonkona, Mama Mia, Dorotia, etc. By the way, the Chameleon (the man himself) visited Roasters twice or so and hadwell attended concerts. At one moment in time, he came along with none other than Raga Dee. I don’t think I will easily forget that show; not that it was so good but because Raga Dee referred to a Toyoya Corolla as a bicycle (that was the same car I owned). I don’t know whether he was trying to brag or belittle us (the Corolla owners) or was he trying to make us aim higher? On an ordinary day, people began frequenting Roaster as early as 05:00pm, they had fun, fun that included chewing a plate or so of roasted goat ribs or kabenzi, washed down with Sodas, beers or even African tea. The screening of the Premiership matches as well as the UEFA and all other international matches, there was no other place where one felt so free to have fun. The animosity between Roaster and the “Cobra’s Burrow (Cadillac) was increasing by the day, most probably, the former was taking many more revellers from the latter and the latter was not gona take this lying down (without a fight). To many of us (Old timers), Roasters was a more mature location than the noisy archrival. After all, we did not need to pay any entry fee to access Roasters, did we? mfashumwana@fastmail.fm