How time moves so fast! Fast-forward, and Nyamishana has metamorphosed into a gorgeous girl. Her niceness turning heads of men in the whole village. Nevertheless, she never allowed the madness of teenage years to get into her head. All that was on her mind was to get to Makerere, a university that was then referred to as ‘The Ivory Tower’.
Life in Wandegeya was one thing agreed upon by both the boys and the girls who had studied from Makerere University. Whenever they met in the village trading centre, they would share many stories about Wandegeya that left Nyamishana officially curious. “All sorts of activities take place in Wandegeya”, Ruth always narrated. Ruth was Nyamishana’s childhood friend who had studied her secondly education from Kampala.
Wandegeya was a busy suburb located right below Makerere. It was a bee-hive of activities that kept people in running up and down. During evening hours, the human traffic jam was so intense that passing there was like penetrating an impenetrable forest. Wandegeya had all sorts of business activities.
There were many bars where customers sat drinking all tribes of drinks, spending money as if they had a grudge with their wallets. Funny that one of these was called “Savers’ Bar”. There were also shops selling various items, mainly clothes, furniture, household items and electronics. Shops sold a lot, and so did street vendors. But one thing that attracted many people to Wandegeya was eating.
Every corner you turned to had a food joint, most of them with very interesting names. Right after the traffic lights stood “For God so Loved the World that He Gave his only Son Restaurant”. This name could make you recall your Sunday school childhood lessons that it would invite you for lunch.
Some of the food businesses were in properly constructed structures, while others were in the roadside markets. There on the roadside people enjoyed buying all sorts of eats, ranging from boiled eggs to roasted maize, bananas, chips, deep-fried fish, sausages, roasted goat meat (nyama choma), yams, roasted ground nuts, and pork, to mention but a few. Only the amount of money you had in your pocket could limit you.
This is what was happening all over the City, except for the ‘rotating chicken’, a popular term that Makerere students used in reference to Wandegeya chicken. It was derived from the manner in which it was prepared. A whole chicken would be fixed on a bar and placed into a roasting machine where it had to rotate around the hot coil till it was ready. The machine had a glass provision for by-passers to look at how delicious it was.
On a crazy side, rumor had it that campus girls formed the largest percentage of sex workers in Wandegeya. A story was told of how one man, who had travelled to Kampala for the first time, got mesmerized at the sight of these skimpily-dressed dazzling beauties that he got tempted to buy one. On entering and switching on the light in the hotel room, he was shocked at the first question.
“Dad, what are you doing with prostitutes?” It was the voice of his daughter.
“Can you explain to me how I could send you to the University to study and you end up peddling your flesh?” He answered one question with another question.
“You know the money you give me cannot sustain me at campus even for two weeks. But for you, it’s a shame. How could you leave mum home and come to sleep around with sluts?”
“Calm down, please; we can sort this out without anyone knowing.”
By that time their voices were so loud that the neighbors thought the sound was taking off the iron sheets. Before they knew, a crowd of spectators had broken into the room and were cheering and making fun out of them. The next morning the story was all over the tabloids.
The ‘rotating chicken’ in Wandegeya was responsible for many HIV cases, unwanted pregnancies and family upheavals as older men, commonly referred to as ‘sugar daddies’ usually seduced young campus girls, using it as bait.
It was not only girls who were taken advantage of, but also young boys who were hungry for money. Rich women who either had no husbands or had husbands that were too busy for them had resorted to ensnaring campus boys by paying their tuition fees, driving them in posh cars, buying them items like fridges, television sets and floor carpets, plus of course taking them out to Wandegeya for the ‘rotating chicken’.
This excerpt was picked from my new novel 'TEARS OF MY MOTHER: The Success Story of Nyamishana, the First Female President of Uganda', the newest inspirational book on the scene.
You can passby WORLD OF INSPIRATION, Luwum Street, MM Plaza T33 (3rd Floor) and get yourself a copy autographed by myself. You can also inbox me your contact or call us on 0704666851/ 0774107287 / 0414691595 if you want your copy to be delivered to u at no extra cost. A copy goes for 20,000/= only.
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