Experiencing Uganda's polychromatic culture

I am traveling from Arua to Kampala. 498 km and 8 hours of bumpy road that connects the West areas of Uganda bordering Congo and South Sudan to Lake Victoria, crossing the Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda's largest national park with the world's most powerful waterfall (300 cubic meters of water per second). The landscape from the window of the minivan is incredible: antelopes, baboons, a few villages with children running and waving when they see us pass, women carrying baskets on their heads, and men chatting in the shade of a tree. Near Pakwach town, when there are still 5 hours of travel left, I see two elephants walking slowly along the road. I feel grateful that I am having this experience, I close my eyes, and by the time I wake up, I am already in the chaotic Kampala.

Elephants in Murchison Falls National Park

My name is Florinda, I am 26 years old and until November I will be living in the capital of the Pearl of Africa. In this monthly blog, I will tell you about the activities I do as a European Aid Volunteer with Mondo (my sending organization) and my adjustment process to some of the cultural differences I experience.

I arrived in Uganda in late July and with my arrival, the rainy season began. This year slightly early. When I arrived at the office of the hosting organization (Uganda Pioneers' Association), Sarah, the organization's accountant, looked at me smiling and exclaimed: "Welcome! You brought the rain!". It took me a while to realize it was a compliment. In Italy (my home country) when they tell you that "you brought the rain”, it is a way of saying that you should have rested at home. Whereas in Uganda when it rains people feel blessed.

The meeting with the hosting organization, like many other appointments in the following weeks, started a few hours late, which reminded me that time is not perceived in all countries in the same way. As well as in Senegal (where I lived for one year), in Uganda the time system is polychromatic. People are not overly concerned with deadlines and punctuality, they perform and start different tasks and activities at once and they do not have a schedule for completing them: each task and activity will be completed in its own time (Duranti & Di Prata, 2009). I come from a monochromatic culture. For me, time is linear and perfectly divided into intervals, based on specific tasks. If the appointment is at 9 o'clock, I will arrive at 8:45. People who have a polychromatic conception of time, on the other hand, will probably arrive later and the appointment will start at 11. This is just because they are not ruled by time schedules. Moreover, in polychrome cultures, relationships with other people are the most important thing (Duranti & Di Prata, 2009). I remember someone in Senegal telling me that once, the director of a local organization showed up to a business meeting four hours late, justifying that he had met a woman on the way who needed to talk. Adjusting to this different conception of time is not easy; you have to be patient. Now, after one year in the African continent, I know that if I will probably have to wait, I can simply start another task.

TASK Art Centre
where we had the DCT in Gulu

After the first weeks in Kampala, where I supported Mondo Team in readapting a Monitoring and Evaluation methodology for the Mondo Digital Competencies Training (DCT), I went to Gulu, in the Northern Region, to assist and support the Mondo Team in the implementation of the third and final session of the Digital Competences training. DCT is a program that Mondo has implemented in various countries including Uganda, aiming at different contexts and different targets, such as youth in vocational skills training centers operating in several refugee settlements and future primary teachers in Primary Teachers' Colleges (PTCs). The training is designed to teach how to use a digital device and mainly to increase employability skills with the proactive use of the Internet. In Gulu, our trainees were from the Uganda Pioneers Association Gulu Branch and after 3 intense days of lessons, they received their MDC certificate.

DCT young graduate

Millet beer

While in Gulu, around sunset time (which in Uganda is all year long at about 7 pm since we are on the equator line) I decided to take a walk around the hotel where we stayed, a narrow street full of huts (typical Ugandan dwellings). The children were playing football with a ball made of rolled rags tied by a lace. The women were preparing dinner. The men were sitting in a circle and chatting. I greeted them with a gesture and they invited me to sit with them. They were all holding very long straws and drinking something from a ceramic bowl placed in the center of the circle. They invited me to taste what they were drinking and I took a sip remembering that I had read on a website that in Uganda it is rude to refuse. That's how I discovered the bitter taste of millet beer. While in Senegal the guest must always leave something on the offered plate because otherwise, the host might think she has not cooked enough, in Uganda it seems rude to leave or refuse offered food. This made me think of Southern Italy: if my grandmother invited you for lunch you should finish all the food she prepared for you, otherwise, she could think that you do not like it and she will be offended.

A map of Ugandan Ethnic Groups
 in a Primary Teachers' Colleges

As I sat with these elders, I listened to their conversation and I asked why they were speaking in English. One of them kindly explained to me that they speak English because even if they know each other for a long time, they all come from different tribes and English is the common language. In Uganda, although the most spoken language is Luganda, from the Buganda tribe present in the Central Region, there are more than 70 spoken languages. English has been the official language since independence in 1962 as a consequence of the introduction of English in schools during the colonial period. As Uganda is part of the East African Community, a regional intergovernmental organization founded in 1999, Swahili has been embraced as mandatory into the Ugandan school curriculum as a symbol of unity within the EA Community. Nevertheless, I have not yet met anyone who speaks Swahili because here it is associated with the oppressive military regime as it was the military language of the British and German colonial armies. For the moment, since it is very important in Uganda to greet people, I have learned to ask "how are you?" in Luganda (Oli Otya?), in Acholi (Itye nining?) and in Lugbara (Awa'di fo?).

M&E qualitative data collection 

And by asking " Awa'di fo?" began the first interview to gather qualitative data about DCT at the Rhino Camp Refugee Settlement in Arua District, where we were last week and where my first month of deployment ended. Opened in 1980, Rhino refugee camp currently hosts 133,532 refugees (UNHCR, 2022) and was expanded with the outbreak of the Civil War in the South Sudanese to host the sudden influx of refugees. When it comes to refugees, the spotlight is often on the refugees going to Europe, and migration to neighboring countries is often overlooked. Uganda is home to the largest number of refugees in Africa, mainly from Congo, Somalia, South Sudan, Rwanda, and Burundi, and its refugee law is among the most progressive in the world (World Bank Group, 2016). Indeed, refugees and asylum seekers are entitled to work and they have freedom of movement; they can access Ugandan health and education services; they are either self-settled or live in organized village-style settlements, allocated on government-owned gazetted land (World Bank Group, 2016). Obviously, this system is subject to different challenges (language barriers, discrimination, low level of employability, and remote services uneasy to access for lack of public transport) but still, it is a system that has worked over the years.

Sipi Falls

Many other things happened during this first month. We visited Sipi Falls and Amuno organization, a youth-led local organization that protects and takes care of the needs of children and youth in the East of Uganda; I celebrated my birthday at the Ziwa Rhino sanctuary, which since 2005 has been working to reintroduce southern white rhinos into their natural habitat; we did a safari at Murchison Falls National Park; I met climbing lovers at Uganda's first and only climbing gym. But now I am tired of writing and probably you of reading and lunch is waiting (avocado and tomato as every day since one avocado costs about 25 cents)! But if you want to read more about Uganda and the experience of us EUAVs in Uganda, I invite you to read the blogs of my colleagues and friends Felicia, Clarisse, Ambra, and Sophie.

We will catch up next month! Tula bagane (See you in Luganda)!

Students in Amuno Library

1. Duranti, G., & Di Prata, O. 2009. Everything is about Time: Does it Have the Same Meaning All Over the World?. Project Management Institute. https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/everything-time-monochronism-polychronism-orientation-6902 

2. World Bank Group. 2016. An Assessment of Uganda's Progressive Approach to Refugee Management. World Bank, Washington, DC. © World Bank. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/24736 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO

3. UNHCR, 2022. Uganda - Refugee Statistics May 2022 - Rhino. Infographic. https://data.unhcr.org/en/documents/details/93681