Diaspoman: When Baba SFB and co. raided the Vogue

As you might know by now, I happen to be a serious party animal. That is why I found myself teaming up with a group of SFB students who had planned a visit to a sister University in Uganda. Although I have since graduated from my mature course at SFB, I usually find myself behaving like those young students whose appetite for parties is very high! I always recall the first time I entered the SFB classroom a few years ago! All the youngish students stood upright as if they had seen an Afande marching in. They stood upright to give me their maximum respect. They thought that I was the senior lecturer who had come to teach them Econometrics. I just walked majestically and instead of standing in front of ‘my students’, I chose to sit behind the rest of the class and start my serious search for a degree in Management. Eventually, the real lecturer walked in and started to teach us about the laws of demand and supply. To the students, they now believed that I was an invigilator who had come to assess the teaching skills of this particular fellow. After the lesson, I tried to mingle with the students but they were trying to dodge me. I then somehow convinced them that I was part of them and that is how I started my long search for education. Students were shocked to see me attend school with them. I was fit to be their Father for God’s sake! That is how I also acquired a nickname of Baba SFB. The kids would surround me everywhere we went. In the evening hours, I would lead them on to the Gikondo surroundings where we would sit in a makeshift bar and drink all the booze on credit. The booze sellers respected me and so credit facilities were readily available. Anyway, that was then! Now, it was time to re-join my old friends for a serious party across the border! So, last weekend, we boarded a bus heading to Uganda where we had an appointment with some students at Nkumba University situated in Entebbe. The Nkumba University students had invited us for a get together so as to exchange ideas and promote fraternity. Ibaze! Instead of boarding a flight from Kanombe to Entebbe , our pockets dictated that we had to use a bus all the way to Kampala from where we would board a mini-bus to Entebbe. By air we could have used 1 hour only. But here we were in a bus that would take us a whole long day on the bumpy, winding roads. Anyways, at Nkumba we were cordially welcomed by our hosts. As usual, the Nkumba students thought that I was the senior lecturer who had escorted the SFB kids. It took them a while for them to accept that I was part of them. Once they were convinced that I was actually an ex fellow student, our hosts revealed to us that our meeting would be held at a place called the Vogue. This is a joint just below the Nkumba University where things are happening 24 hours. So we strolled down to the venue and instead of pulling out files and folders to discuss, we embarked on guzzling and pork roasting. Within a few minutes, the place was crowded. Loud music was blasting out of the loud speakers. People started to dance as darkness set in. We joined in and started to boogie and shake our bums at the famous Vogue. When it approached midnight, our hosts advised us to proceed for another meeting in town. The venue was a new place called Knight Raiders. It’s in down town Entebbe. We entered the place and got down to business. We crowded the place and enjoyed every single bit of our time. We danced up to the wee hours of the morning. Our mission to Nkumba was over and it was time to board our buses back to Kigali.