don’t try this at home…

Sunday, October 9, was Independence Day here.  And little bit of a milestone, 60 years since independence from, yes you guessed it, Britain.  Asking around folk said there would be a parade in town.  So Sunday late morning (after little sleep courtesy of the JM Kennedy gig) we set off to find it.  Everything seemed pretty normal on the streets of Yumbe, people just going about their business.  We had just one clue of the day, a guy was tying a Uganda flag to a stick that was sort-of tied to his car door/roof-rack.  It wasn’t pretty, but it was patriotic and I liked it.  We had some banter too, which was fun.  Lots of handshakes, fist pumps and laughter.  I’m assuming they thought I was an American…

So we aimlessly wandered around town, expecting to happen on the parade, but to no avail.  Eventually we got to a quiet spot on the edge of town and had to decide, left or right.  Lucky left.  A few yards later we saw some crowds, so went closer and bingo!  It was clear the crowds were looking on to a sportsground where something was happening, so we went closer and entered a football filed.  The crowds were lining the perimeter, and there was some sort of tentage along one side.  Thankfully most Ugandan’s (Africans too) are of a small stature (fact, not racist), so I could see above them to what was going on.

It was awesome.  Probably a couple of thousand schoolchildren, all in uniform marching around smartly with a banner for their school.  After a lap of the pitch, they all assembled, facing the tentage in the middle.  Once everything was settled we had a sort of cadet-kung-fu display.  It appears an army private had been at their school the day before and taught some self defence to 16-18 year olds, who put on a show.  A few different ‘routines’ and then the girls came up and did their bit.  Apparently it was sort of self defence against domestic violence thing.  A punch to the face, a kick to the groin.  The commentator observed; ‘when the man knows he will get kicked in the teeth, he wont try it on’.  Laudable but I’m thinking these super slight ladies will be up against it dealing with the admittedly smaller than average male (as above) dishing out the domestic abuse.  The kicker though, as they say in America, the commentator then said; ‘but of course don’t try this at home’. Really?

It was a long old afternoon for the children in the heat but they kept themselves busy, and the two of us captivated, with their singing.  It was really beautiful, and different classes seemed to have different verses.  But they all had the chorus which was magnificent with the excellent refrain “ohhh Uganda”.  Hairs on your neck kind of moment.

To help with the vibe there was also a marching, or maybe better described as swaggering, band.  Red uniforms, drums, trumpets, played with one handed obviously in order to swagger properly!

I mentioned tentage along one sideline and so obviously there were dignatories.  It is very common here for there to be long speeches and many ‘thank-you’s’ but when the mayor got up with his 10 sides of A4 to get through and his latest manifesto, it was time to go.  And the children apparently thought the same as they left to the strains of ‘ohhh Uganda’.  Smart kids.

Finally if there is any doubt as to AI and the idea that ‘google knows where you are’ check-out my google home page for Uganda Independence Day.