Descubriendo Uganda: Relatos desde una mirada muzungu

Descubriendo Uganda (Exploring Uganda) is a reflection from the Argentinian author Sonia Roitman on her experience working with an NGO in Kampala.

The book emerged from reflections that the author e-mailed to her friends and family during the four months in 2011 and a short trip in 2012 that she spent working for the local NGO ACTogether. As a foreigner who had previously lived in several places in Europe and Latin America, she took up the challenge to apply her knowledge as a sociologist and urban planner in a context that was completely unfamiliar to her.

The word muzungu is broadly used in Uganda to refer to (white) foreigners, and seeing the journey through her eyes and the details that struck her makes the reflections interesting reading for people embarking on a similar challenge. Other foreigners working in African countries will probably find many of her interpretations familiar, and will find their experiences resembling hers when she describes her everyday life in relation to the everyday life in Kampala. She covers many aspects, from transport to food, life in a hotel and informal dwellings, wedding ceremonies, climate, politics, diseases and expatriate communities.

Although the book has an introductory chapter that briefly touches on the historical, economic and political developments in the last decades and provides some hard facts to give readers an overview of Uganda, this is a very personal account of Sonia Roitman’s experiences with people in her work and in her daily life, illustrated with many photos. It thus goes beyond the usual touristic descriptions of Uganda, and also gives readers an honest, refreshing and detailed account of the observations and struggles of a foreign NGO worker that one cannot find in most official NGO publications.

If you are interested in obtaining a copy of this book (written in Spanish), e-mail the author at s.roitman@uq.edu.au

Book note prepared by Julia Wesely