Has the Black Lives Matter Movement affected Uganda?
The Reality of the Black Lives Matter Effect on Uganda Tourism?
The Black Lives Matter Effect on Uganda. Black Lives matter has influenced the thoughts and minds of mainly young people in Uganda by giving them ideas that can be applied locally. Protest wise. There was one protest where 15, mostly foreigners, were arrested for violating COVID-19 Social Distancing Guidelines.
The Black Lives Matter movement has evoked many comments in local newspapers. Police Violence is not uncommon in Africa. Africans can easily sympathize with there a bit more geographically distant cousins. African-Americans, on the other hand, have less of an understanding of what life is like in Africa unless they have visited the continent.
Black Lives Matter reignited the Colonial Streets, Places, and Parks Name Change Movement, which is something for Ugandans to decide. Name Changes could affect Parks, Lakes such as Lake Victoria, Lake Albert, Lake Edward. Many of the park names will come under scrutiny since they were named after British Colonialists.
Under Idi Amin, changed the names of landmarks, places, parks to Ugandan ones. After his downfall, 
they reverted to their original ones. Today, the time might be right for changing Colonial Designations to African and Ugandan ones.
A lasting issue from Colonial times faced by Ugandans is what the renown Kenyan Author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’ o calls the decolonizing the mind of Africans. The Explorers, such as John Hanning Speke, Sir Samuel Baker, Henry Morton Stanley saw Africans as less developed beings. Something that was kept alive by most Europeans, including Winston Churchill, until the African independence movement and beyond.
The theory of Evolution popularized by Charles Darwin divided humanity into distinct races according to differences in skin, eye, or hair color. He was also convinced that Evolution was progressive and that the white races, especially the Europeans, were evolutionarily more advanced than the black races, thus establishing race differences and a racial hierarchy.
Africans, Ugandans, cannot forget how Africa was raped of its resources and treasures. Its people put on display in the West in Human Zoos, which included a popular exhibition at the Bronx Zoo fully endorsed by the New York Times Newspaper.
Missionaries wanted converts as the Arab Slave and Ivory Traders before them. Britain wanted Uganda’s Resources, along with cheap and compliant labor. Policing during Colonial Times was one most based on expressing any form of dissent by force. Something that today’s police forces throughout sub-Sahara still practice throughout Africa. The emphasis of the police throughout Africa is to protect institutions first, and citizens are the secondary focus.
Uganda, unlike Kenya and Tanzania, was a British Protectorate and not a Colony. Uganda did not have a sizeable British Settler population. Uganda was thus spared of many things, such as the Mau-Mau Rebellion. Nevertheless, many trappings from the Colonial days were incorporated into Uganda at independence.
Colonial laws were incorporated without thinking about them. That includes the anti-homosexual laws of that era. Judges and the speaker of the parliament still wear the wigs that came from the Colonial past.
Ugandans often think that Western ways are better than Ugandan or African methods. There are some changes. Today it is the Chinese that have taken the place of the colonial powers of the West with their scramble for Africa that has both benefited and harmed Africa.
Tourists with a bit of sensitivity will readily see how they receive special treatment by many Ugandans. In restaurants, they are often served first. That has nothing to do with race, but the simple reality that Westerners, especially Americans, and Canadians who come from Tipping Cultures will leave a bit of useful cash.
Most Ugandans are aware of the Black Lives Matter movement and protests in the US and the West. Here it has 
reignited a movement of wanting to change the names of locations from Colonial ones to African ones. Sir Frederick Lugard, who treated Africans in brutal and dehumanizing ways, is one person whose name may soon be removed from places in Uganda.
The Ugandan Street and Places Name Change campaigner Apollo Makubuya said the aim was to name streets. “In a manner that addresses the legacy of colonialism and oppression, promotes national heroes and heroines as well as contributes to national harmony, respect for and protection of human rights and dignity.”
Uganda does not and never has denied its historical past. Idi Amin’s portray still in parliament as one of Uganda’s past presidents.
Black Lives Matter Movement – a problem in Uganda that one always hears is not that Black Lives do not matter. What matters in Uganda is what tribe you come from. Tribalism rears its ugly head from time to time, taking away from Ugandan Patriotism.
Black Lives Matter Movement Tourist Advice: If asked about what is happening in your country as a result of “Black Lives Matter.” Answer it to the best of your ability. If you want to ask questions about life in Uganda, do so in an appropriate manner. Do not criticize Uganda. Many Ugandans are quite patriotic and defensive of their country no matter what their political views might be.
Do not assume that the Ugandan that you are speaking to does not understand what you are talking about. Uganda has been recognized as the best English speaking country in Africa. You Safari Driver just might be a University Graduate. Cast aside perceived cultural Stereotypes and enjoy a Ugandan conversation Style.
We also suggest that you know a bit about Ugandan Culture before you arrive…enjoy Uganda.
