A Ugandan Living and working in Mogadishu

 

March 31, 2014

By Christine W. Wanjala
“If you had told a younger me fresh out of high school that I would one day be living and working in Somalia, I would have thought you crazy. But here I am 37, and this is my second year of doing so. I have lived in Mogadishu since March 2012 and I cannot say it is half bad.                 

Ismail Mugisha Ssetumba works as a lecturer. He has been living in Mogadishu for two years. COURTESY/NET PHOTOS

I was living in Kenya before I moved to Mogadishu so in total I can say it is about 15 years since I was last permanently based in Uganda but I was born and raised in Masaka and did all my schooling in Uganda.                 

I was doing business which is how I made some friends from Somalia. We often talked about their war torn country and the effort to get some modicum of peace as well as rebuild it. He wanted to start a university there and asked me if I was interested.

Since I have a bachelor in Education from Kyambogo University. Teaching did not sound bad, neither did the pay. My family members were concerned but I had already made up my mind so off to Mogadishu I went. I now teach Public Administration at Somali International University, a two-year-old private university with a student population of 3,500.                 

First impression I remember my first impression of Mogadishu when I landed at Aden Adde airport in Mogadishu. I thought: “what a pity, this must have been a very grand city, once upon a time.” I saw the shelled out, abandoned buildings along the way. But as we drove towards the middle of town I also saw something else. Despite 20 years of instability, people are still living or doing their best to do so.                 

There were buildings with fresh coats of paint, others under construction. Markets are open and very busy. Even without moving around a lot I realised Mogadishu is a good city with a lot of opportunities, business opportunities. I settled in my work and life in Mogadishu very well and quickly learnt how to behave if I was to live peacefully with my hosts.

The differences Mogadishu is different from Uganda and many other places in that the slightest misstep can get you into   trouble. While Ugandans are complaining about the Antiporngraphy law, over here everyone has to be ultra-modest.                 

The ladies have to be fully covered up and even for men there are levels of decency you have to maintain. I wore a vest around our residential quarters and someone told me that it is not acceptable. I had to rush inside and throw on a shirt.                 

Interacting with the women here however smitten you are by their beauty is a no-no. It could get you in a lot of trouble. I have to be extra careful when relating with my female students.                 

While in many places you can freely make observations about the hosts’ culture more freely, Somalia is a different kettle of fish. Despite the what they have experienced because of the war, they are fiercely proud of everything Somali. They love their country and everything in it. Make disparaging comments about the country or the people or the culture at your own peril.                 

I found it interesting that everyone here has their own security. Not in the way we know it in Uganda of a security guard or two, rather heavy guns stationed at strategic points. It feels like one is in a mini-fort. Guns are ubiquitous, which I suppose contributes to the insecurity a great deal.                

It is only when you live here that you realise al-Shabaab is not behind every bad thing that happens here. So many people are armed, so many militia. Sometimes it is business deals gone bad, interclan feuds and other things that cause problems.

A lot of people back home find it funny when I tell them I got used to the sound of gunfire and bombs going off. It is what you have to do here in Mogadishu. It is much calmer now but when I had just come it was very common. People here do not stop everything to crowd around the site of an explosion. If you go to a place where a bomb went off a few hours later, it is like nothing ever happened.                 

There are many things you will never hear about Mogadishu and if you do you will not believe at all. Did you know for example that Mogadishu has working streetlights? They are not everywhere but wherever they are, they are all working? And then there is Bakarra market, arguably the biggest in east and central Africa.                 

It is fed by a port and billions of dollars worth of trade goes on here every day. You could find virtually anything under the sun there and did I mention the sheer size of it?

Somalia does have a fertile area that produces the freshest vegetables and fruits. The watermelon here is the best I ever had and it is so much sometimes it is given to cows. The cost of living here is so low, everything is so much cheaper but the best has to be that there is no load shedding, power is always on.                 

I could not believe how fast internet service here is, or that mobile money here is absolutely free whatever you do. I thought everything would be archaic but I was proven wrong. There are supermarkets and cable TV. The facilities at the university are up to standard, modern gyms for men and women, lecture rooms with projectors and a well  equipped computer lab.                 

Of course I miss the freedom at home and though we get most of the food we eat back at home I find myself missing good old matooke. I have tried some camel meat and did not take to it. The milk is nice though.
I miss my family too. I have not taken them to Mogadishu because as much as I believe it is not the worst place to live, it is not yet ready for a family. I think I was the only Ugandan civilian in Mogadishu when I first came. Now we are around 100. Some are health workers and others are educators. We are working on starting an organisation of Ugandans working in Somalia for welfare and savings.               

The first days we came here, there was some name calling and heckling directed at us. Some people would tell us that we have come to spread HIV/Aids but we stayed strong and gradually made them understand that we are here to just do our jobs and be part of the turnaround for Somalia.
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Source: Daily Monitor