09/05/2017
I am told majority of security guards all over Uganda are from the North of Uganda (Acholi, Lango and Teso. Many of these young men and women are A level leavers who feel they don't have opportunity for employment here in the North.
Yesterday I met this young man below in Gulu market parking yard. A graduate teacher from Kyambogo by training. He told me that when he could not get employment, he came to Gulu to try his luck in agriculture. Anthony, for that is his name hails from Mbale, a Mugishu by tribe has hired land somewhere in Koch Goma. He told me he planted 2 acres of tomatoes though sunshine affected his harvest, I met him carrying that boxful of tomatoes which he sold at 100,000 cash and he was still going for more.
Anthony said this season he planted 5 acres of groundnuts and he expects a very good harvest from groundnuts.
Now we find that people from Central, Eastern and some from Western Uganda come to the North to hire and cultivate our land while our sons and daughters go to their areas to be guards. I feel pained for this absurd reality. These youths from the North have open checks in form of land but it is left as if they are sh*ts for other people to come and exploit.
When Europeans discovered Americas, they rushed for agriculture, mining and other ventures But their main focus was on agriculture in that vast open land. Initially the economy of America hinged on agriculture.
May our children appreciate agriculture in it's totality.
