When Ugandans are feeling low, they do this – with coffee

What you need to know:

People cursing. To this day, there are people who still curse Museveni, and say that decision was the foundation of what they see as today’s poverty. In his own Ankole backyard, he has never been forgiven for the death of the Banyankole Kweterana.

Every now and then, when things are really gloomy in Uganda, like the security forces have savagely beaten up Opposition supporters and it is a big story of savagery internationally, Ugandans will seek refugee in the brighter side of their country in order to keep their sanity and justify to themselves why they still love it.

On social media, they will start a hashtag like #BeautifulUganda and share beautiful photos of the country’s landscape – and even its people. And rightly so, because perhaps no country the size of Uganda has so varied and amazing landscapes, and the story has not yet been half told.

Trying getting your head around the fact that Tooro has the largest concentration of crater lakes in the world. We used to be told that the Saka crater lake in Fort Portal, would swallow anyone who swam to the centre of it.

Many years ago we used to live near Fort Portal, and during vacation, we journeyed to Lake Saka. When no adult was nearby, I sneaked with my younger brother, and with him watching in horror, I jumped into the lake and swam to the centre, and then across. I am still here, although there are a thousand ways that could have gone horribly wrong (I am a little wiser, and don’t have the lungs for it, so wouldn’t try it again). This land offers plenty to those who want to live out the foolishness of youth, beauty, but also adventure that give great learning about our world.

However, these lakes, mountains, birds, and mountain gorillas, are not products of our innovation or industry. That is why I am more drawn to the times when Ugandans create social media challenges about the things its people have made with their sweat, money, and creative minds and hands.

A few weeks ago, there was one about people’s favourite Ugandan coffee. We have come a long way. Coffee was once the most political thing in this country – and influenced regional politics extensively. It was virtually the only foreign exchanger earner during the last years of Field Marshal Idi Amin’s rule, Obote II, and the early years of President Museveni’s rule.
Coffee smuggling to Kenya, and a little to Rwanda, was extensive during Amin’s time. It was a time when, during Daniel arap Moi’s time, Kenya was in its deepest crisis, and revenues from Uganda coffee smuggling became a big source of sustenance for a large section of the country’s business class and their political and security allies.

Strangely enough, at a time when there were tens of thousands of Ugandans living in Kenya as exiles, money from our smuggled coffee allowed regions like western Kenya to have an economy that sustained them. But it also leaked resources outside the control of the ruling KANU, that partly fed the democracy movement that gave it a lot of headache, and finally ended it in 2002.

Coffee was such king, such that during UPC/Obote II, it was the patronage trophy that Obote gave to the top echelons of his army, by naming his charismatic and money-minded Chief of Staff Brig Oyite Ojok, as chair of its Board. All these ended with the economic liberalisation that took off in 1988, and the State got out of buying cash crops, and dismantled cooperative and produce boards.

To this day, there are people who still curse Museveni, and say that decision was the foundation of what they see as today’s poverty. In his own Ankole backyard, he has never been forgiven for the death of the Banyankole Kweterana. Neither has coffee heartland Masaka forgotten. Bugisu grieved, but seems to have recovered.

The critics say Museveni broke the old coffee cooperatives – or cartels to me – in order to smash their political power, and build his own over their graves. But here is the thing. By the start of 1988, there was not a single Ugandan coffee brand to speak of, with the likes of Elgonia and Kawa Kawomera popping up on and off. Today, Uganda probably has more coffee top end brands than any other East African country, though only a nascent café culture. And each of the last two social media call outs on favourite Ugandan coffees, produced ever-new brands.

The old coffee order was burnt down in a deadly fire, but a phoenix has risen from its ashes. In my view, it needed to burn, because State commodity boards just steal from hardworking farmers, and put the money in the pockets of bureaucrats and politicians. And they make innovation in the sectors they control nearly impossible.

There is beauty in our lakes and hills, yes, but they do not say anything useful about us. There are nine other items that should be on this list, but for now, the coffee on the supermarket shelves, that’s the real deal.

Mr Onyango-Obbo is the publisher of Africa data. visualiser Africapedia.com and explainer site. Roguechiefs.com. Twitter@cobbo3