History of Uganda told by its trees and flowers

Traversing Uganda today, and comparing it to the grown environment 20 years, 35 years, and 40 years ago tells an incredible story about the country.

 Twenty years ago, I wrote in the pages of this paper, to the surprise very many, how the old and indigenous trees along the main roads and highways had “evolved” to survive. One of the notable things was that, outside the towns, most of the surviving and older trees were ugly. They were hopelessly deformed, crooked, and stocky.

 They were unattractive for builders, charcoal burners, the various rebels the country has had, and the other species that prey on trees and made Uganda the most deforested country along the African Equator. Of course, Uganda is still primarily green compared to many others in Africa, but that is because it was originally heavily forested green.

 Today it looks like a faded beauty queen. The stunning looks are gone and heads no longer turn when she walks into the room, and the vestiges of time are written all over her, but she still carries herself with elegance and has aged like a great wine.

 Today, these trees that survived because they were ugly (long live bad looks) are less visible. It isn’t they that have been cut. Rather, the number of trees in the average Ugandan home near the highway has, in my estimation, gone up by anything from 200 per cent to 750 per cent over the last 20 years. The homes also have a lot more colourful flowers and shrubs.

 It’s a result of several contradictory forces. During the time of Field Marshal Idi Amin and the Milton Obote II governments, people who lived along the highways stayed further away than they do today. That was because the soldiers were murderous, so folks didn’t want to live too near the highway. They could more easily be murdered or robbed by passing soldiers attracted by something shiny in the home.

 Trees and high green fences were grown to shield homes. The years of President Yoweri Museveni saw a dramatic move back closer to the roads because of the threat the military posed to the people who lived further inside in the remote areas, where rear guard resistance and rebellion by old regime forces were more common.

 In the north and northeast, which saw some bad years of war, unlike in the Amin and Obote II years, people who felt peril didn’t move further inland. They moved close to the roads and lived in closer proximity. The road system – and infrastructure in general - as an effective instrument of political and social organisation (and of coercion) by the NRM deserves dedicated study.   These populations that moved close to the highways in the NRM’s time put pressure on the greenery that had grown as a form of defence in previous regimes. However, they had to contend with the first virus that floored Uganda – HIV/Aids.

 So many homes, and whole townships, along the highways – the Naluwereres and Lukayas – were laid to waste. They became littered with graves. People didn’t leave to hide further away. Many perished.

 That is largely behind us, and Ugandans went on a record-breaking reproduction race to replace those who were lost. A lot of these homes have long been resettled, but the stumps planted to mark graves, or the flowers laid to remember or honour the dead, have burst into full-grown trees and colourful brushes. They have been tended to and not destroyed by the most environmentally conscious generation in Uganda’s history.   They live in a time with a very large population and an economy that is almost 10 times bigger today than it was in 1985; all the economic activity has also produced a lot of dust and other pollution. The highway folks have grown more trees and green things to protect their health.

 The plains of eastern and northern Uganda are more greened than the south or west. The Teso region is a special case, and its story needs dedicated telling. The sunset in this region is spectacular because of its eerily tall trees, which in turn are a product of the peculiarities of the late 1980s/early 1990s war there. And, with the Iteso perhaps having the most technocratic mindset of all Ugandans, they interact with nature differently.

 The southern and western parts of Uganda are witnessing far more large-scale agriculture than the east and north, with far-reaching implications for domestic-level green coverage. Large-scale agriculture is not a great friend of trees, competing with them for space and water. Agriculture usually wins that contest.

 Look closely next time you drive across this fair land. Its history is writ large on every tree and shrub that flashes by.

(Dedicated to the COP27 Climate Conference)

Mr Onyango-Obbo is a journalist, writer and curator of the “Wall of Great Africans”. Twitter@cobbo3