The Africa you saw in National Geographic is set to Disappear

Experiencing Uganda as an outsider allows me to watch the colonization and cultural genocide happen over and over here. It is no longer the British, but the people themselves with internalised racism continuing a harmful cycle. As a First Nations woman I can see the many comparisons between loss of indigenous culture in Canada and Uganda. How is this change occurring? Through the ritualised use of foreign religion that pervades their culture, the disappearance of traditional appearance and a pulling away from traditional values to Western ones.

Western religion is everywhere in Uganda; schools, homes and communities. Christian churches are numerous across the rural and urban areas of Uganda and boast high numbers on Sundays with people often spilling out into the street to listen. Anecdotally I would estimate 95% of people I see in Uganda wear a necklace with a pendant bearing the image of Jesus Christ. During a debate about the importance of foreigners in Uganda a teacher rose and said “We have foreigners to thank for religion because now we have a God we can see,” she looked to me for support and I merely bowed my head to the ground. This was not my shame to carry but I still felt awful that these people, like mine, had been forced to give up Gods that their ancestors had prayed to for thousands of years. Another man stood up and said “How can we see this God? We cannot. Now that we have given up our traditional Gods we no longer have anyone to pray to for rain.” When He said that, I understood clearly that just as each building must suit the lands conditions, so to must a religion fit the people.

            Foreign religion is not just in communities it is also in schools; “Spare the rod and spoil the child,” is often quoted from the bible when caning students in school. Talking to Martin, a URF staff member he commented “You know they used to cane us in school when we spoke English.” This sets off Goosebumps on my arm as I think about the many children of Residential schools in Canada that experienced the same thing. The only difference is foreign nuns and priests caned us for speaking our language, the people of Uganda are now doing that to themselves.

While sitting in a taxi heading to Masaka I saw an image of two women that defined the loss of culture to me. A mother and her daughter were walking into the sun, the mother wore silk of orange and red, peaked material at her proud shoulders and a traditional scarf upon her curly head gleamed in the sun while the younger woman next to her wore black jeans and a pink top from America with chemically relaxed hair. Women traditionally wore the Gomez every day but for the urban and rural younger generation it is only worn on some special occasions. They are instead choosing to wear the latest western clothing. This is a small thing but it signifies a disinterest in following cultural practices and a preference for western clothes. I believe there is also a growing stigma against wearing the Gomez because the women still wearing the Gomez are generally in their fifties or older and have an absent or limited formal western education.  As young people want to be seen as forward thinking they see the Gomez as the uniform of the uneducated. The country of Uganda is embracing western ideals of beauty in their hairstyles and clothes and rejecting traditional ideals as old fashioned. In a few years the Traditional Gomez may completely disappear from the Ugandan landscape.

I admire cultures that have rejected Western ideals and built their countries by valuing their own culture.  Both China and India have managed to retain their long history and cultural alive while still competing on a global market and managed to prosper. What I wish for the Ugandan people is the same as my wish for my own people; to value their own culture and believe they do not have to be western to be successful. In some ways I feel the Ugandan people are better off than my own: everyone knows their traditional language even if they do not choose to speak it and while my own culture has died out with some elders, never to be discovered again, their culture is still intact, if fragile.

         The Metis, First Nations and Inuit of Canada have something the Ugandan people do not; the beginnings of breaking out of internalised racism. We have cultural schools, teachers like Kathy Manuel in T’Kamloops Secwepemc Territory that go into our elementary schools and teach traditional languages, we celebrate in Pow Wows, Sweat Lodges, Big Houses, Naming ceremonies, Potlatches, Sun Dances because we value our culture revival and stability. Many of us have lost our culture and found a way back to it, and the very act of losing something shows us how important it is to have. We are fighters building back our culture and communities through the development of programs like Surrounded by Cedar Child and Family Services, Friendship Centres and this Aboriginal Youth Internship Program. We know what we have to lose so we are fighting for it; I just wish Uganda did not have to lose their culture first with the possibility of reclaiming its value later.


I would like to dedicate this article to my mother who has spent her life and passion dedicated to uncovering our roots and helping our communities. She is a true inspiration and the best mother I could hope for. Happy Mothers Day.