The Ugandan Elite

Just as Uganda has a hierarchy of beauty according to the lightness of your skin, there is a hierarchy of power. The Kampala male elite drive expensive cars, go to the best restaurants and night clubs, speak almost exclusively in English and date beautiful women. This exclusive group controls the Uganda Broadcast Companies, own successful businesses, perform as popular artists and operate the country’s banks. They choose the women they want to date and keep them by paying for their partner’s meals and phones; arrange their transportation and maintaining their cash flow. As one woman described the relationships, “As soon as the money is gone, so is the woman.” While these elitists work long hours to maintain their position of power, they choose not to date other professionals, but young female university students.

While other citizens are struggling to keep home, food and school fees paid for, the elite enjoy their selection of beautiful women and western style entertainment. Many engage in what is known as “transactional sex,’ an exchange of money, transportation and gifts for sex with a young woman. The man may or may not be married and it is common knowledge that if a boy grows up into a man of influence he too will be able to afford such a woman.  Many young women and girls agree to this exchange because of limited funds and enjoying the privileges, even, as one girl put it, at the exchange of her dignity. When asked why he did it, a man replied that he enjoyed the young women’s strong bodies and since he could afford it, he engaged in it. While some men buy affection, other men take on extra wives. Bigamy is illegal in Uganda but for men with healthy bank accounts, they think as long as they can afford the extra wives and children (sometime up to 40 offspring) that it is acceptable and normal. The first wife is often acquired because she becomes pregnant and both their families encourage them to marry. Often the man will only have an introduction ceremony with her, a Ugandan engagement party.  When he meets the second woman he will marry he often professes his “real” love to her and has an introduction ceremony and a wedding in church. Any subsequent wives will only have introduction ceremonies. If the man has enough money he will buy each wife her own home and car, but if not they will all live together. One wife remarked that she had no money when he introduced her to his family, but now she has a house and car and when she meets the love of her life she will leave this man a d take the processions with her.

I had the opportunity to travel around with several girlfriends of the elite, and while I am positive this happens in Canada as well, I have never witnessed it. Being white and presumed to have money gives me a certain privilege in Uganda and often an invitation to a world that is closed to many other citizens. It is important to me that I continue to situate myself and think critically to ensure I reject these “white privileges,” as the life of the Kampala elite seems within reach. I could easily stay in Kampala and enjoy the sense of power, the use of money and the feeling that I could date (or own) the people around me.

I do not know if you have ever had the sensation of walking into a room, any room, and knowing you could have anyone in there that you wanted, and that is what I mean by white privilege.  I know that white women and men are desired because it is believed they have money, and could expand their lifestyles onto a significant other. Due to the lightness of our skin we are seen as superior to many Ugandans and the knowledge that colonization is still so deeply engrained on the people here feels embarrassing and sad. While talking to Caroline’s brother Kitto, he said “Everyone wants to marry white because then it will be like you are lifted up, you must be very special if a Muzungu wants to marry you, because Muzungu’s have money.” All of this leads up to the fact that solely because of the colour of white skin, and not due to a special attribute or talent, white people enjoy privileges, and nowhere is it more obvious than Kampala. 

Malls and restaurants cater exclusively to the Kampala elite and the white foreigners that can afford the extravagant prices.  In a country where the average person makes a dollar a day, these restaurants charge 12,000 shillings ($6) for a milkshake and stores charge 80,000 shillings ($40) for a lipstick. It is easy to see how once these women, the ones functioning as girlfriends or as transactional partners, taste the rich life they would fear ever leaving it. This creates a strange dynamic as the ones with power often never get to enjoy it because on one hand, the men need money or else they will lose the women, so they work hard and fear the loss of power is nipping at their heels, while the women are not comfortable either as the knowledge that they could be dismissed for a newer or younger woman and be catapulted back into poverty is always at the forefront of their brains.