Cities are a true reflection of the people

Cities reflect people’s habits and ways of life and are therefore a representation of cultural heritage of its people. Cultural heritage is broadly divided into two facets; the tangible cultural heritage and intangible cultural heritage. 

Whereas tangible cultural heritage deals with movables such as furniture, sculpture, paintings, etc, the immovable cultural heritage deals with archeological sites, monuments, historical buildings, social habits, etc.

The most outstanding feeling we get from a city is from intangible cultural heritage of its people and that is through people’s traditions and social habits. It is the people’s traditions and social habits that are the building blocks of what we see in a city. Facets of building, the architectural design of buildings, street layouts and patterns, etc all have a lot to do with our traditions and social habits. 

The animals we see on streets of our cities (Kampala, Masaka, Mbarara, Jinja, etc) are part of our ways of life and indeed our social habits. We chose to “move” to cities with animals! 

We rear goats in “flats”! We have carried “village” to the city and that is us and our social (rather unsocial) habit. When we choose to drop rubbish on ground when there are trash cans (wastebaskets, rubbish skips, garbage can) at our disposal, that is what we are – our habit and what we are capable of. It will take more than providing facilities to change the mindset. 

The real deal is by dealing with people’s attitude and habits. We need to reorient the way we think, the way we act and the way we behave. 
Habits are built over a period of time. We need to learn, adopt and practice some good habits in early days of our lives.

 Motorists voyaging and pestering on zebra-crossing (boda boda’s are real epitome of this crude behaviour and impunity) are part of irritating habit we have amassed over the years and the true meaning of indiscipline. It’s the same way we have choose to litter streets from vehicles, the same way we drop maize cobs, banana and orange peelings on the streets. Yes it’s our way of life, our habit – because we think somebody has been employed to clean “our mess”?

The stenches we get on streets of our cities are a manifestation of what we have done as a people not to care about “environmental health” of the places we dwell in. Pedestrian walkways have been turned into parking lots by the “rich” as they guzzle away bottles of  alcoholic drinks. Yes, that is how we think – indeed the manifestation of our “social fabric”. 

It will take another generation to realise what we really need of our cities. Available polices and laws have not help that much. There is need to shift the current city development and environmental hygiene approach to education based approach that could yield better-long term results.
 
Education is essential in increasing knowledge and awareness. Introduction of environmental management, especially in early stages of growth and development would inculcate a sense of responsibility in the citizenry. 

Therefore, introducing a structured curriculum on urban and environmental management in education curriculum at all levels of education would probably have a significant impact in future. City managers, Ministry of Education and Sports and National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC) could explore this venture.

For now, the cities are true reflection of our identity as a people. Potholes, garbage, slums, floods, irresponsible traffic clog, et cetera!

 Wilson Awuzu,        [email protected]