more reasons why you should visit Uganda

WHAT FOOD DO THEY EAT IN UGANDA AND WHERE IT IS FOUND

http://www.zulatravels.com/2018/08/02/more-reasons-why-you-should-visit-uganda/

Uganda consists of traditional and modern cooking styles, practices, foods and dishes in Uganda, with English Arab and Asian dishes especially Indian influences. Like the cuisines of most countries. It varies in complexity from the basic, a starchy filler with a source of beans or meat to several course meals saved in upper class homes and high and restaurants.

In Uganda, most tribes have their own specialty dish or delicacy and many dishes which include various vegetables, potatoes, yams bananas and other tropical fruits. Chicken, pork, fish which is usually fresh but there is also a dried variety, constituted for stewing. Beef, goat and mutton are all commonly eaten although among the rural poor and disadvantaged communities meat is consumed less than in other areas and mostly eaten in form of bush meat. And those disadvantaged people also have a habit of saving income to buy meat and other foods they normally miss out on a daily basis and feast during festivals and public holidays like Christmas, New Year, birthday parties and the like. Nyama is the Swahili term for meat and it is commonly used in Uganda.

There are main dishes prepared in Uganda which are usually centered on a source or stew of groundnuts, beans or meat. The starch traditionally comes from ugali that is maize meal, or matooke and that is steamed and mashed green bananas. In the south, ugali like dishes are made from millet and in the north, ugali or posho is cooked up into a thick porridge for breakfast. For main meals, white maize flour is added to the saucepan and stirred into the ugali or posho until the consistency is firm. It is then turned out into a serving plate and cut into individual slices or served into individual plates in the kitchen.

Cassava, yam and African sweet potatoes are also eaten and the more affluent include white which is often called Irish potato and rice in their diets, say soy beans were also promoted as a healthy food staple in the 1970s and this is also used especially for breakfast. Chapatti, an Asian flat bread is also part of the Ugandan cuisines.

Various leafy greens are grown in Uganda. These may be boiled in the stews and served as side dishes in fancier homes. Amaranth (dodo), nakati, boor, akeyo (jobyo) commonly eaten in the northern part of the country are examples of regional green vegetables. Fruits such as pineapples bananas and jackfruit are plentiful land commonly consumed whether cooked in foods or eaten alone as snacks or as a desert. Other fruits you can easily access in Uganda may include mangoes of different types, water Mellon, castered fruit, sugarcane, passion fruit, oranges, lemon and many more. Juice can be extracted from these fruits to consume during sunny days especially when spending time at the beach.

Some traditional and historic Ugandan foods include the following:

Posho or kawunga called ugali in Kenya. It is usually made from maize but also other starches regional names include kwon Ugandan expatriates make posho from corn meal, masa harina or grits kwon is a type of ugali made from millet and it is called kalo in western Uganda but in other regions like eastern it includes cassava flour.

Groundnuts or peanuts are also a vital staple and common dish. Groundnut sauce is probably the most commonly eaten dish. They are eaten plain or mixed with smoked fish smoked meat, or mushrooms and can also be mixes with greens such as borr.

Simsim or sesame is a staple particularly in the north. Roasted sesame paste is mixed into stew of beans or greens and served as a condiment. A candy is made from roasted sesame seeds with sugar or honey.

Matooke or green bananas but not plantain is boiled or steamed (mashed) cooked in a or served with a sauce of peanuts, beans, fresh fish, meat or chicken.

Luwombo a traditional dish from Uganda specifically from Buganda kingdom in which a stew or either chicken, beef, mushrooms or fish is steamed in banana leaves.

Malewa a traditional dish from eastern Uganda than is from bugisu sub region and it is made from bamboo shoots. It is smoked and mixed in groundnut stew and also it can be cooked fresh then it is served with starchy foods like matooke, ugali sweet potatoes and others.

Kikomando a chapatti or flat Indian bread is cut into fine pieces and served with fried beans.

There are a variety of snacks  eaten in Uganda and these include:

 

Roasted  groundnuts, or peanuts are served in a spill of paper.

Samsa (samousa or samosa) Indian samosas are highly assimilated into local cuisines chapatti and curry.

Mugaati namagi (bread and eggs) originally an Arab dish, it consists of wheat dough spread into a thin pancake, filled with minced meat and raw eggs and them folded into a neat parcel which is fried on a skillet or hot plate.

Nsenene this is an unusual food item which is a seasonal delicacy of a type of grass hopper. It is fried and eaten when ready and it is also steamed and dried under sun in order to preserve it especially by the poor communities without access to refrigeration services.

Nswa this is similarly to Nsenene but made of termites and you may call them white ants and these are roasted or steamed and eaten when ready. It can also be grinded in peanut paste and spread on bread.

Rolex a chapatti filled with eggs, onions, cabbage or kale and tomatoes though minced meat is sometimes added plus mushrooms.

Beverages commonly used in Uganda include:

Tea or chai and coffee or kawa are popular beverages and important cash crops. These can be served English style or spiced chai masala, coca cola, Pepsi and Fanta all made inroads in Ugandan market and soft drinks became very popular both traditional and western beers are probably the most widely available alcoholic beverages access Uganda.

Pombe and mubisi are generic words for locally made fermented beer usually from bananas and millet. Fermented banana wine is also prepared and consumed. Tonto is a traditional fermented drink made from bananas also waragi is the generic term for distilled spirits and these also vary. See for example Uganda waragi a brand name for clear or yellow gin.

Finally, pumpkin is another local food known as nsujju in the central region of the country and it can be steamed and eaten as breakfast by the poor people who cannot afford bread and other delicacies for breakfast, also it can be eaten as desert.

IS UGANDA A SAFE PLACE TO TRAVEL?

My answer to this question is YES. Uganda is indeed a safe place to travel to just like any other adventurous country and given the fact that Uganda is the pearl of Africa, who on this planet earth wouldn’t want to adventure and experience such a beauty? Uganda has enough security services for both natives and foreigners.

Kampala is one of the safest capitals in Africa and over 99% of visitors come to leave Uganda without an incident so if u want to make a trip to Uganda your safety is guaranteed. Uganda is the safest place to be, although it has lived through a turbulent history, the city is safe stable and welcoming.

The people of Uganda are hospitable in nature which is like a tradition to them. But despite the fact of being safe, lack of boarder boundaries has allowed illicit substances and lawlessness in the country especially in areas around the boarders.

Therefore, avoid all travels to areas within 50km of Uganda’s boarder with DRC and karamoja region because of safety and security situation and in addition, there is a threat of civil unrest, crime and armed banditry.

Historically, Uganda was once a place of political unrest and the economy collapsed somewhere between the  1971 to 1979 that is why people these days still carry on the perception about Uganda as a dangerous place to visit. They continuously portray images of street riots, fights among races and criminals which is untrue. It is definitely good and advisable to know the historical background of a city or a place before travelling but also important to know it was their past and you should see them to what they had revived to.

Uganda may not be the safest place in the world but like many other countries this should not stop you from exploring its beauty that is the flora and fauna, its people and so many amazing things that you cannot find anywhere else except on the pearl of Africa.

There are some basic precautions anyone should consider and they are not different from those you should consider while visiting any foreign land and these include:

Staying in a hotel close to the main road which has a door man around the clock , robberies are still common in most parts of Africa and you are advised to secure your valuables in a safe provided by the hotel. If you find yourself on a fixed budget, hotel sojovalo in Kampala city is the best option for you because its one of the cheapest hotels in the city with rooms ranging from 70usd and above.

Avoid venturing out on the streets in the dark this could invite you to any form of assault. Stick to public places know the fact that solo travel doesn’t mean to be always on enmity.

Hire a taxi or a driver through the administration of a hotel you chose to reside in. it is safer because the roads are poorly lit at night and even their conditions are not great and some people are used to rush driving habits which may cause accidents.

Try the public transport means matatu or minibuses, bodaboda or scooter taxi at least once during your stay it would be a great experience you will live to tell.

IS UGANDA POOR?

The answer is yes. It may sound unreal if anyone said to us that Uganda is not a poor country but it is also important to note that despite the fact that Uganda is developing country, it has taken steps to improve on its standards of living whereby it has a plan to improve on the percapita income through the millennium development goals and each household is to increase its percapita income by 3usd.

According to the World Bank report 2016, the proportion of the Ugandan population living below the poverty line declined from 31.1% in 2006 to 19.7% in 2013. Similarly, the country was one of the fastest in the sub Saharan Africa to reduce the share of its population living on usd 1.90 ppp per day or less from 53.2% in 2006 to 34.6% in 2013.

However, poverty reduction remains fragile in the country with households found to be vulnerable to adverse shocks poor climate change plays a significant role in making Uganda a poor country.

Around 34% of the Ugandan population lives in the rural set up communities. Additionally, 71.9% of Ugandan labour force works in the agricultural sector making it the most important industry for Ugandan population and the economy at large. With such a dependence on the natural resources, Ugandans are extremely vulnerable to the changing climate conditions.

In Uganda, increased droughts, floods and variable precipitation cycles have a detrimental impact on the water supply and other natural resources that are used for agricultural production.

In recent years the country has been facing rising temperatures and prolonged droughts. These events have decreased the productivity of coffee trees and increased the tree’s exposure to pests and diseases. Nearly all coffee production comes from small scale farmers that have little or no access to irrigation or other modern farming conveniences. Therefore, these climate effects significantly impact on the income of those farmers. This helps answer the question why Uganda is poor? As the poorest citizens of the country are small scale farmers living in remote areas across the country.

In the Ugandan governments 2015 economic analysis, climate change is predicted to halve coffee production by 2050 creating economic loss worth usd 1.2 billion as coffee is the nation’s most valuable industry. Climate change is worsening the living standards of the country’s population by destroying its main source of income.

Since 2005, lake levels in Uganda have been unusually low leading to poor shortages and disruptions to water supplies in urban areas around the lakes. Research indicates that when women and girls spend more time obtaining water, the less time these same individuals spend on education. Lower education levels are associated with higher fertility rates, early onset child birth and poverty.

These outcomes are prevalent in Uganda as the country’s fertility rates are among the world’s highest with 5.8 children being born to every woman. The rapid population growth contributes to the degradation of Uganda’s natural resources that are the backbone for household livelihoods in the country. The overpopulation issue is sited as a major contributing factor to poverty in Uganda and can be partially attributed to climate change.

On top of female education rates being low, Uganda is experiencing a greater overall demand for free education due to changing environment. As unpredictable rainfall patterns are adversely affecting farming. Many households are subjected to poverty and famine. In an interview with black star news, Elizabeth Aonyo Otiko from Ayu Lupur village spoke of her support for free schooling in Uganda stressing that most families are unable to afford school fees with the recent vitality in agricultural cultivation with low levels of education, individuals are unable to pursue employment in the formal sector which exacerbates the issue of poverty in Uganda as a nation.

Climate change has shown to have direct impact and indirect ones on the living standards for households in Uganda hence answering the question why Uganda is poor while climate change is significantly impacting on the internal affairs of the country Uganda, to address this issue an international effort must be made.

Climate change is increasing global inequality and continue to widen the gap between the wealthiest and the rest if nothing is done. Therefore, to address the issue of climate change, there must be an international effort to boost support to climate justice that starts at local levels say grass root levels.

As climate conditions play a major role in answering the question why Uganda is poor, other factors also  equally responsible for poverty issue in Uganda and these among others include diseases like malaria and HIVAIDS this consumes money and time hence less tome for working. Corruption is another factor that has left Uganda in a poor state and if it’s not addressed, the country will continue to sink in poverty. Joblessness is another factor that has made the country poor where by the country has the highest numbers of graduates without jobs or capital to start up their own ventures hence increasing the risk for crimes and violent demonstrations.  Therefore, Uganda is a poor country but it has promising people too who look towards development even though the routes taken to achieve it may not be smooth but someday it will achieve it.