The SS Robert Corydon (Before 1964 and After 2012) - with thanks to the original photographers
October marked the Golden Jubilee
Anniversary of the separation of Uganda from the protection of the British
Empire. When Stanley, Speke, Burton and
countless other Europeans explored the country in the 19th Century
and helped fill in the previously blank areas of the map, Uganda was a region
of Kingdoms and chiefdoms. With regions
such as Bunyoro-Kitara and Ankole long established with a defined hierarchy and
social structure with the King at the top, it was necessary for these early
friendly visitors to pay homage to cross these territories with gifts and trade
goods.
Kampala is situated in Buganda, one of the largest
of these districts in modern day Uganda and was visited by Henry Stanley the
Welsh-American journalist and Explorer in 1875 where he met with its Kabaka
(King) Mutessa during his search for David Livingstone. As he crossed through Buganda on his way to
Lake Albert he was forced to march into the Kabaka’s camp situated at the end
of a long and tree lined road. The Kings
seat of power, that he had recently chosen, survives to this day as a UNESCO
World Heritage Site in Kampala at The Kasubi Tombs in Rubaga, East Kampala. It was during these early meetings that
Stanley paved the way for Buganda to become one of the first Kingdoms to
establish links with the British and be adopted into the protectorate shortly
before the Berlin Conference of the early twentieth Century; where Africa was
carved up between the European super powers with interests in the Dark
Continent…and Belgium.
Kampala is also the present day capital of
Uganda and the location chosen on Independence Day this year for the Government
to showcase the history and tradition of the nation in front of some of Worlds
visiting press and important dignitaries.
Prince Edward the Duke of Kent was on hand as he was fifty years
previously to watch the troops marching, the children singing and the jet
fighters looping overhead. We also made
the short trip down through the traffic from our hill in Mutungo to witness this
historic event, albeit in the background and as I watched the Independence
Celebrations I couldn't help but consider the legacy that the UK left fifty
years ago and how the State of the Nation is today.
A lot of parallels can be and often are
drawn between African nations and ‘the West.’
The foreign press and Aid Agencies more often than not focus on the
negatives as this sells news or generates donations better than stories and
images of hope and prosperity. We know
that the African middle class is expanding at an alarming rate with skyscrapers
being thrown up with the help of Chinese, Indian and Middle Eastern money. However for all of those that are able to
afford the new shiny cars and trips to the cities restaurants, the majority of
the country is still below the poverty line.
I think it’s fairly safe to say that although Uganda may have high spec
technology for sale and has skipped Bell’s land-line phenomenon with mobiles
found from rich to poor they are in reality, to the eyes of a UK resident, with
respect to religion and human rights, close to a hundred years behind their old
colonial protectorate ‘masters.’
What I do find sad though is just how
decrepit the old infrastructure has become in just half a century. There was once a time when a traveller could
cross over 1,000 km from Mombasa to Gulu by train on the ‘Lunatic Express’ and
then jump onto the Steam Ship Robert Corydon for a trip down Lake Albert. Unfortunately the passenger services now stop
at Nairobi and as for the SS.R.C, well that has certainly seen better days and
now spends its inflicted retirement rusting helpless on the lake shore close to
the very point Ernest Hemingway’s light aircraft crashed twice on one of his
numerous hunting expeditions. I only
hope that sometime in the next 50 years of self-rule the Ugandans realise how
useful and important this type of legacy was and how it could help generate increased
tourist and commercial interest in the more upcountry parts helping pave a way
for an even more advanced, successful and broad-minded nation.
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