My Uganda

Today marks the 54^th Independence Day for my beloved country Uganda. I woke up this morning and decided to celebrate that by going to church to Thank God for my dear nation (that’s a lie, I went to church to awaken and recharge my faith for the week, and because I hadn’t been in a while. It completely slipped my mind that it was even Independence Day). I did however, leave church more patriotic than I ever expected to leave any church- EVER! Or more patriotic than I ever thought I’d be. I always considered myself fairly patriotic. For me patriotism meant being proud enough to admit that I’m Ugandan no matter where in the world I was or no matter what was going on in the country. Perhaps naming all the presidents that have been in power since I was born (the simplest of all tasks). And that’s about it. I mean how much more patriotic can one be right? Well today I learnt the answer to that question- extremely. Now you’re probably wondering what type of church I go to that preaches politics instead of love and talks about patriotism instead of our father in heaven. Not mine. The main point of the sermon was basically to teach us and encourage us to be proud of our heritage and of where we are. God did not make us Ugandan by mistake or place us in this country by mistake. We have a purpose to fulfil and that is why we are where we are. Every time I attend this church I always leave feeling better about myself and wanting to go out into the world and be a better person in whatever way that I can. And today I guess I left with the same feeling in just a slightly different way.  I left wanting to tell the world about the beautiful country that I’m from. I always knew Uganda had some greatness about it but I never knew the full extremities of its goodness and beauty. So here are a few interesting facts to broaden your knowledge of my beloved nation if you didn’t already know.

Did you know that Uganda is the second youngest population in the world? That’s right, in the entire world! With about 80% of its population under the age of 35 and (get this) 50% of the population under the age of 15 and a half. Now that’s young! It used to be the youngest population till about last year. I guess we grew a bit over the last year, or another country out-younged us ;).

It is also the most entrepreneurial country in the world. Bet you didn’t know that! I know I didn’t. It’s pretty easy to start a business in this country and anyone from the 50% of children that make up the country to the other grown 50% can and/or have started businesses at one point or another.

Now get this- Ugandans have been ranked the happiest people in East Africa. Where other East Africans call us slow, we like to think of ourselves as easy-going, what matters is that the job gets done in the end. We are definitely a very hospitable nation and for that reason a lot of people that come to just visit or for temporary jobs end up getting attached to our beautiful people and wanting to stay longer or come back as often as possible. Take for example Caribbean artistes; Konshens or Shaggy. Lord knows how many times Shaggy has been to Uganda.

Uganda is among one of the top 16 holiday destinations- IN THE WORLD!! While some of you are thinking of island destinations like Fiji and the Bahamas you’re forgetting the plenty of tourist attractions we have in our own country. Murchison falls, Chobe and Bulago Islands, Bwindi forest, to mention but a few.

And do not get me started on our cultural diversity that we have in Uganda (no seriously, don’t let me start, I won’t finish. That’s a different blog post for a different day). I will just mention though that in Uganda alone we have 40 different ethnic groups and there are more than 54 languages spoken in this, our nation.

There are so many more facts about this country that I have not mentioned that are definitely worth being proud of. I know it’s in our human nature to criticise things and people more than we praise them but how bout we start now by loving our beloved country for all its beauty and wonder. There are so many things going wrong with our country but all that doesn’t negate the fact that there is so much beauty all around us. We should never let ourselves forget that fact. So please, fellow Ugandans I urge you, let us be flag bearers of our country wherever we are. Let us be true reflections of the wonder that is Uganda. Speak greatly about it, speak of its beauty and do whatever you can and whatever you must to ensure that the beauty remains and that it becomes a greater country. Let’s all make this country the best that it can be. It may not happen today, not even tomorrow but if you become the change you wish to see in this country, if you pioneer the change that you can make, one day our children will live to tell a greater tale than ours. So how ‘bout we start by being patriotic. Love our country, appreciate its beauty, speak of all its wonders. We may not be able to change the state of our country this very instant but we can at least change the way it is seen around the world.

From today forward I will speak greater things about my country and not constantly look down on it. I will speak of its beauty and go tell it to the world. A country of freshness, beauty and fertility. A country of innovative, hospitable and happy people. That is my country. That is My Uganda. #MyUG #CelebrateUganda #UgandaAt54 #TheUspokenWonderOfTheWorld #ThePearlOfAfrica.