Monday, July 26, 2004
It's Kampala's Naming Season, So Why Not Have a Street in Yours Too?
By Joachim Buwembo
It is roads bonanza in Kampala. It is not just the recent reconfiguration of some city streets from two-way to one-way mode. The road-naming season is on again. Usually, roads in Africa get renamed for political reasons. If, say, a president gets overthrown, that high street named after him or his wife is bound to change.
But if he is a foreign fallen president, we are usually not in a hurry to take away his road. Maybe it is out of fear that our street in a foreign capital could get renamed once we also leave power. So Kampala has for a long time still had Siad Barre and Mobutu roads, which were given to them by their friend Idi Amin. But poor Emperor Bokassa was not so lucky. His street in the city centre was promptly taken away when Amin was overthrown and given to one of the latter's victims, Archbishop Janan Luwum. Bokassa himself had taken it from a pioneer Indian trader, Aladina Visram.
Some Kampala roads get renamed on the spur of the moment and such names usually don't stick, or get ignored by the public. So, although the large Lugogo Bypass that connects eastern to northern Kampala was renamed Rotary Avenue by a former acting mayor, Sarah Nkonge, everybody still calls it by the old name. I doubt if Nkonge herself can say Rotary Avenue while giving direction to someone.
The current mayor recently renamed the lengthy Cape Road after a local tycoon. The new name might stick, for you can trust there will be no shortage of name signs along it. Another road which changed names overnight a few years ago was Victoria Avenue, which for years had connected Nakasero hill to the majestic Apollo Hotel. The hotel itself was once called International Hotel after Dr Apollo (Milton Obote) was overthrown from the presidency, then Apollo again and now it is known as Sheraton. Well, the signpost reading Victoria Avenue was one day (or night?) painted over and suddenly it read State House road. But since it is no longer open to the public, nobody cares whatever it is called or whether it has any name.
But you don't have to be a tycoon or know the mayor to get a road named after you these days. All you need is to own some land where a short access road is needed to serve a couple of houses in our unplanned suburbs. Allow them access on condition that your name is painted brightly on a sign reading Buwembo Drive and there, a new road is named. It doesn't even have to be indicated on the city land map, leaving you the option of closing it if you quarrel with the neighbour it serves. It could even be leading only to your house, in which case you call it Joachim Close.
That is how Kampala, which hardly had any street names a few years ago to the frustration of mail delivery personnel, now has a million road names. A typical description of a parcel recipient's location went like: After the tall building, take the second right turn and when you reach the overflowing garbage container, look right for the house with the maroon gate...
However, if you don't have any land to lend out as an access road, you can still use clout if you have any and get yourself a road in the city centre. Some new opportunities for naming exist in the city. Each side of a dual carriageway can, for instance, bear a different name. That way, people leaving the city centre for Jinja can be on Okello Road while those driving in the opposite direction are on Mukasa Road.
Moreover, some roads are too long. What business does any person, especially a dead one, have having a whole kilometre under his name? Just chop it up and give 500 metres to Opio, call 300 metres Musoke Stretch and name the remaining 200 to a political cause like Kisanja Drive. After all, in 1995 we renamed City Square to become Constitutional Square, didn't we?
Joachim Buwembo is an editor with the Nation Media Group
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