The Changing Eating Habits In Uganda.

By Arthur Mwenkanya Katabalwa

There is food in Ugandan markets.

Recently I was invited over for dinner at a friends’ house on Gayaza road. I was excited about seeing him and his family. We hadn’t been in touch for a while. Personally, I dreaded a few things. What if he had changed from what I knew him to be like? But most importantly, I was worried about the dinner itself.

I have decided that it is about time that one loses a few inches round the waist. And on this particular evening, I was trying to find ways of excusing myself from filling my face. Thanks be to God when we sat down in his pagoda, the dinner was lovely but it wasn’t the heaps that I was worried about. We had some chicken and season vegetables all dashed with a touch of olive oil washed down with dry white South African wine. The evening felt decidedly Mediterranean. The timing was perfect as well. Dinner was done by 2000 after which we retired to another part of his extensive gardens to partake in some more merriment.

That was definitely not the kind of Ugandan evening I was expecting. Dinner in many households is had at around 2100. In many cases we eat a lot of “stoge”, high carbohydrate food washed down sometimes with a high sugar carbonated drink or better still a fruit juice. And then after that we then go to sleep with this mound of cassava stuck in our guts. Invariably we wake up in the morning still feeling well and truly full.

Over the last few months I realised that I was pilling on weight. For a while I was excited about Ugandan food. Lunch was a party, with my plate heaped high with mere yyona. Rice, potatoes, Katunkuma, beef, binyeebwa….. The works. And then the hour after lunch would always be a difficult one as I fought to stay awake in the heat. In my view, I bet economic activity in Uganda falls by a huge percentage point in this hour as the population struggles to stay awake.

Can I say that this is bad? Certainly not. We had days not long ago when food was scarce in the country. But if anyone were to visit some of the food producing counties like Kyaggwe you won’t believe how much food is being produced. Any markets one may visit are well stocked with all kinds of fresh food most of which is at affordable prices. The supermarkets are also well supplied with this food.

The good thing though is that unlike me, many people in Uganda have started taking on a more active lifestyle, watching their food intake. There are more people doing exercises. I attended a gym in Bugoloobi about a fortnight ago and this man made me do some exercises whereby he brought me within touching distance of death. He was making me dance at an incredible speed. I will go back sometime. Not yet though.

We have an incredible array of food and I can see things are getting better. Men with distended bellies are no longer in vogue. Our eating habits are what we need to change. Surely lounging about by the lakeside stuffing ones face with mpuuta will one day go out of fashion but as for this weekend, I will be sat at my favourite spot quaffing!