East Africa’s thin lines between home and ‘home’

If you really think the above headline is confusing smile for you are not alone. We have heard that over used line, East or West home is best. However, in some cases clarity on what exactly is home can be an issue of contention or even confusion, especially in East Africa. The other day, President Kagame was in Uganda for a third visit in a space of about two months. The “Rwanda addicts” (people usually outside Rwanda whose social commentary is always entirely about Rwanda – my definition) started mumbling about the reasons behind his frequent trips to Uganda. It was no surprise, therefore, when one journalist popped the question many had in their minds but had no opportunity to ask. The journalist from one of the leading papers in Uganda asked President Kagame about the frequent visits. The answer he offered was so spot on I don’t think I would have come up with a better one. The President aptly reminded the journalist that he had lived in Uganda for such a long time that it was actually home to him and, therefore, he saw no reason for concern over his visits. Although the circumstances that compelled him to a life in Uganda were never his making, he was trying to show the journalist that the time he did was long enough for him to safely consider it a home and home it will always be. The Rwandan President is not the only one who has more than one place to call home. In 2007, when I visited Moshi in Tanzania, I was quickly educated by one of my hosts that talking ill about Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni in that place would almost certainly draw no audience but rebuttal since, according to many locals, he was ‘their son.’ Museveni attended Dar es Salaam University but spent a lot of his exile years in the town of Moshi where he even taught at a cooperative college. My hosts even showed me a small hotel they claimed he owned before he became president. I also once saw a documentary on TBC where a lady was proudly showing the camera crew another home that housed President Museveni prior to the war against Idi Amin Dada. Last month Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki was also in Uganda, this time to receive an honorary doctorate from Makerere University. To some, he was a visitor but, at the same time, not exactly one. Kibaki studied at Makerere and, for a long time, taught Economics at the same university. I have even heard that he still owns his old house (home) in the lakeside town of Entebbe. It even gets more confusing when you look at the Awori family of Eastern Uganda or Western Kenya depending on where your compass is reading. Yes, I said it was more confusing. Moody Awori was once serving as Kenya’s Vice President under President Daniel Arap Moi. Meanwhile, across the border, his younger brother Aggrey Awori was contesting to be the next president of Uganda! So where is home for the Aworis other than just the area known as Busia on both sides of the border? By the way, even President Joseph Kabila spent so many years of his life in Uganda and by the time he became president of the D. R. Congo it is alleged that one of his closest friends was none other than Uganda’s famous radio personality, Rasta Rob MC (Robert Ogwal). Apart from Swahili, Kabila is said to speak Luganda fluently. I am not sure whether Kibaki loves Matooke or even remembers any Luganda phrases but I know for a fact that President Museveni speaks good Swahili. It is also not wise to try backbiting President Kagame in Luganda or Kinyankore, leave alone Swahili. The cross-border links of several East Africans make the definition of where exactly home is a very tricky question that should actually serve as a good starting point for integration. These days, several Kenyan, Tanzanian, Burundian and Rwandan students attend Ugandan secondary schools and universities. They, too, will soon be in the same situation. I have not been spared as well. The other day my young sister called me and asked me where I was and I told her I was at home. She responded thus, “Allan, you want to tell me you are already in Kampala?” I then told her I was at home in Nyacyonga, Kigali! A thin line indeed.