BOOK REVIEW: Uganda through the roving eye

In his humorous weekly Roving Eye newspaper column, which he penned for more than 15 years, Kevin O’Connor provided a frank, reflective understanding of and keen insights into contemporary Ugandan society.

Now he has published a second selection of newspaper articles that he wrote for the Sunday Monitor, drawn mostly from 2007 to 2015. The collection is titled Insights into Uganda.

Having lived in the country for more than two decades, Kevin points out the differences between Uganda and the UK where he grew up.

Kevin’s observations in Insights are enriched by comments and views from Ugandans. He satirises and pokes fun at others and himself.

He describes himself as the mzungu with a big nose, no chin and no bum. He considers his nose to be unusually big, even by mzungu standards. His full name is Kevin Muzungu Bignose O’Connor.

“I can look ancient in the morning, especially after a late night out, but I’m never quite as prehistoric in appearance as the Shoebill Stork housed within the Uganda Wildlife Education Centre’s large wetland aviary. And I do have a big nose, but it can’t match the Saddlebill Stork’s massive black, red and yellow bill,” he wrote in an article titled Uganda, the Pearl of Birdwatching in 2007.

Kevin says he had never seen anybody drinking beer with a straw until he arrived in Uganda in 1994.

He enjoys his beer very cold, and usually from a glass. “But I do sometimes use a straw, which all goes to show that, indeed, ‘we are all Ugandans now,’” he says.

“Women kneeling in front of the other human beings, as a sign of respect, is very much part of the culture here. But in my country of birth, the same behaviour would be associated with subservience and a master and servant relationship.”

One of Kevin’s favourite Luganda phrases is ebyomunju tebitotolwa, meaning what happens in the house should never be told to outsiders.

He says that preference for personal secrecy over openness is found among several Ugandan tribes. For example, there is the Runyankore saying amaka gamanywaembeba (only the rats should know what is happening in the house). 

“And this preference can have interesting results when Ugandan culture meets bazungu culture. For instance, I often find that in a conversation with a Ugandan, they will learn far more about me than I will learn about them.”

Kevin, a self-confessed atheist, is against female genital mutilation (FGM), the death penalty and the destruction of Uganda’s historical buildings, and is an anti-tobacco campaigner.

Kevin confesses that the road to understanding Uganda has many rocks and potholes. “And it is a road so long that it has a destination at its end that I will never reach in my own lifetime even if I live till Uganda wins the World Cup.”

The 193 articles in the 410-page book are divided into 13 chapters, ranging from gender and sexual orientation to polygamy, sex and love, the environment, religion, language, sports, music, education, poverty and inequality, to health and death.

The topics cover macro issues, like religion, to micro issues such as why a British person would walk along a street eating and drinking while a Ugandan would almost never do so.

“A weekly newspaper column provides a perfect vehicle for analysing such issues, often by interviewing Ugandans from different levels of society, and integrating their comments with my own views,” he told The EastAfrican.

Kevin says he has steered clear of politics – because his knowledge of the issues is limited, and he feels that it is a subject for Ugandans, rather than a foreigner, to address.

Published by Tourguide Publications Ltd, Insights is enlivened by the late Moses Balagadde’s cartoons.