We tie on Kampala for nothing but future is actually rural - part 2

As promised last week, let us explore opportunities for young people, focusing on rural futurism. On day one of the Okere Summit, I noticed something peculiar. A missing demographic component.

We had been entertained by primary school children and adolescents, seen the much older and elderly women in their civic education class, and also interacted with middle-aged community members and leaders at the summit.

“Where are the youth?” I asked. It is interesting to note that contrary to popular narrative, youth do not constitute the majority component of Uganda’s population. But it is easy to tell when they are or aren’t in a place. Futuristic community projects with the potential that Okere city has must integrate youth in their agenda of change, otherwise it is likely to come to naught.

This is for two core reasons. The first being a need to create transitions, and the second being, as a deterrent against the potential for destruction – thanks to the hubris, naivety and myopy of youth. That is why I was keen to find out where the city’s youth were.

Okere, like many other rural places around the country, is losing its young people to urban migration, in search for better opportunities. There is little to do in the village and their dreams – whatever those might be – won’t be fulfilled there. So, they come to town to ride boda-bodas, work at construction sites or as Askaris, cleaners, hawkers etc. If this fails, as is often wont to, they might resort to petty – and sometimes violent – crime.

Besides its value in oil, the Shea tree is also, apparently, famous for producing the best charcoal. Before Ojok’s foray down this inexplicable dream, whatever little came into the Okere economy was via charcoal trade.

 Now, leaders are talking about bylaws to criminalise the cutting of shea trees because they are already reaping more than they ever have and can’t begin to imagine the kind of rosy future they will soon have.

You get the sense that Ojok will not be the last son of the soil to commit class suicide. Soon, many others working high level jobs in Kampala or wherever will want in on the harvest. But it won’t be just them. It will also be those who didn’t get a good enough education and exposure to imagine what more they can do with the tracts of land their families own. They will be back home planting Shea trees on every inch of land that they can find.

If this happens, might we see millions of other young people from other parts of the country decide to swap Kampala’s meagre salaries and exorbitant rent bills for their family’s cattle farms, coffee, and matooke, and potato plantations?

Might we then be able to bring a stop to the sad sight of ‘labour migration’ that we continue to witness with hundreds of thousands of our young people seeking opportunities in the Middle East? Who knows!

But these sorts of monumental systemic shifts take lots of guts, endurance and a certain simplicity that not many of us are blessed with.  Community impact projects aren’t the kinds many would invest in because there is usually little to no return on the money. That is why Ojok’s move is great because it combines impact with economics that actually works.

 More than anything, it is a lesson on how to not over-complicate things. Development and ideas fail to take off or arrive because we start to draw linear demand and supply curves, overanalyse profit and loss margins, try to make forecasts and predict bottom lines. It is the reason why many of us don’t start because – like government bureaucrats and Ugandan bankers – we are looking to tick every box.

But those sorts of things don’t tell you that opportunity is more transcendent than linear. That you can just start without a plan and figure things out as you go. That sometimes, your only job in the equation is to begin and let others who wouldn’t, take over the planning and strategy because that is their forte. That more times than not, you have a better shot at success if you build off of the work and sweat of your ancestors than you will trying to go at it on your own, in the city. Visit Okere City, it will make sense. Then go back to your village and see what you can do.

Mr Rukwengye is the founder, Boundless Minds. @Rukwengye