Matatu Mania in Kampala, Uganda

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Mengo Palace

From our last fly-by a couple of days before, we learnt that Kampala is a busy city and this time we booked our accommodation ahead of time. Coming from Sesse Islands the ferry was busy and we moved to first class (not much different from second class), but made for more space and a more pleasant journey.  We were able to catch a matatu directly to Kampala right from the dock. Nice!! A 20 minute walk through the modern-ish and crazy-busy city centre to our hotel.

Of course, when one mentions Uganda, the very first thing people think of is the barbaric dictator of the 1970s, Idi Amin. His reign of terror started in '71 when he staged a coup overthrowing President Obote. Anyone suspected of opposing his regime (mostly southerners who supported the Bugandan King) were basically tortured and shot. Mengo Palace happens to be the city residence

Entrance to Idi Amin's Torture Chamber behind Mengo Palace

used by previous Bugandan Kings, and where Idi Amin built his torture chambers! The palace built on one of the seven hills of Kampala, looked stately and fairly modern and is being restored by the current King. On the property secluded down a hill is an open high-walled corridor leading to a large, eerie, concrete bunker with five elevated rooms set side by side. Smeared with blood and graffiti there were inscriptions written on the walls the corridor and chambers from prisoners kept there. Cold and damp, it gave us the shivers just to think of what went on here all those years ago. Over the next eight years 300,000 Ugandans lost their lives through Amin's violence and torture. A large man-made lake also on the property is where prisoners' bodies were dumped. As you can imagine, Uganda went into turmoil during these years: their economy, infrastructure and tourism crashed, refugees flooded out of the country. Thankfully for Uganda, Amin fled the country in 1979, but only after he caused more bloodshed picking a fight with, and subsequently becoming defeated by, neighbouring Tanzania. He

Crazy Old Taxi Rank

died in exile in Saudi Arabia in 2003. It's worth mentioning that other leaders following in Idi Amin's wake were not much better! Of course! This is Africa after all! Milton Obote came back for a second run at things and like Amin, he supported certain tribes over others. Eventually it came out that he too was responsible for organising violence and committing atrocities himself. Thankfully for Uganda, he was overthrown once more, but only after five years of his violence. The dubious and somewhat-diplomatic President Museveni has been in power since '86. I suppose all I can say, is at least Uganda is in a phase of relative stability and internal peace for the moment!

Kampala is a busy, crazy, traffic-filled city and getting around to see the 'sites' was not easy - at all! - primarily because the taxi-parks, of which there are two, were absolutely, 100%, nuts! I swear, there must be about a bazillion matatus (minivans) in Kampala, and we must have seen about a million of

View of Old and New Taxi Rank from the National Mosque

these just jammed up one against the other waiting in rows and blocks in both the taxi parks! Of course, because it wasn't clear which taxi park we needed, we went to both crazy places. Walking through madness trying to find a matatu was not fun. There seemed to be no organization to us, but there clearly must have been: the chaos must work somehow! As with all cities, and especially around bus stations etc, we are always careful of our belongings. And we had been warned. Sure enough, down one of the streets I felt a tug on my day pack and realized that someone was trying to unzip a pocket! Immediately, I checked my bag. Even though nothing had been stolen, I chased the obvious culprit down the street shouting in his wake about stealing etc and just trying to bring public attention to him. I felt it important to not let him get away with even just an attempt at pick pocketing.  The locals all looked on curiously, wondering what the crazy mzungu was doing.

After an hour or so of the delights of the taxi-park, we eventually found transport to the Kasubi tombs. Trumpeted as the largest thatched roof mausoleum (or even biggest thatched structure in Africa, for that matter) we wanted to check out the site of the Royal Family Burial Ground. This is a sacred place to Bugandans (southern Uganda people) and has been classed as a Unesco World Heritage Site. To our horror and disappointment we discovered that the building had been burnt down about two years ago! Buried far underground, the tombs were untouched, but the beautiful roof structure was destroyed. I don't know why our hotel failed to tell us this! Anyway, how terrible… and a little bit of a waste of time! There wasn't much to see apart from the small round thatched homes of

Qaddafi National Mosque

the wives of the current king, homes of relatives of previous kings' wives, and some older royal graves on the hillside overlooking the city.

Something that was very much worth the time, was the Gaddafi National Mosque: an absolutely beautiful, striking white structure with golden-topped domes towering over the city set upon another of Kampala's hills. Recently finished in 2006, and controversially, partially-funded by Libya's Gaddafi, it can hold up to 12,000 worshippers. (I say 'controversially' because Libya apparently doesn't have anything quite as large or even like it). Probably to encourage new worshippers and more converts to Islam, not to mention, bring in a bit of money, the mosque allows non-muslim

Interior of Qaddafi National Mosque

visitors. This was all-important to us as we'd never been permitted to enter a mosque before, even on our travels. After we were greeted by a guide at the gate, I was taken to an office to be dressed. I came out shrouded from head to foot in large pieces of fabric - as is expected of muslim women here. Aisha, our guide was lovely and directed us up the steps and into the main hall. Wow. It was huge! Up to 5,000 people can fit in the main area and of those, 1,000 - the women pray up in the gallery above the main pray area. It was covered in a beautiful thick carpet brought in from Libya. The chandeliers were from Ethiopia and weigh up to 2000kg each, the walls were designed with the sculpturing of arabic buildings we'd seen in Morocco. As if this wasn't cool enough to see, the highlight of our visit was the minaret towering over the mosque and amazing views over the city, right over to Lake Victoria! We laughed at the

Roof and Chandelier of the Qaddafi National Mosque

taxi-parks; even from this far above they were still impressive and daunting!

Despite the troubles and its unrest with bordering countries of Congo and Rwanda, Uganda seems to have weathered its past well and as a whole has been an interesting and great place to visit.  Trying to catch up with family we found WiFi in a shopping mall and then befriended a group of locals. Very intelligent, savvy and super friendly, Younis was thrilled to hear our story and we spent an afternoon swapping stories. Finally, we felt that we could safely say that the people of Uganda are nice and friendly, and were not to be based on the characters of the bus and matatu world! * Mush