A couple of days ago, Chris Blattman linked to my recent reporting on the gay community and asked, Is Uganda a good place to be gay?

Homophobia is real and widespread. Yet Uganda boasts a vibrant gay rights movement, and nowhere else in Africa have I seen a more open and public debate. Gay men and women tell their stories in the newspapers; protests and legal battles get fair and often favorable coverage in the press. Every single editorial board of every major newspaper is solidly behind the gay rights movement.

The anti-homosexuality bill, simply put, is a backlash. A backlash from a group that, in the long run, is losing the battle of ideas.

Blattman is right that western newspapers are behind the gay rights movement, but doesn’t mention that Ugandan newspapers regularly publish stories calling for “forensic anal probes” to determine whether or not someone has participated in “sodomy.”

The virulent hatred I heard during a taping of Agenda Uganda on the bill made it clear that while things are being discussed, the discussion is neither balanced nor courteous.

Many of the people I talked to think things have gotten worse recently because of the bill. In a way, friends told me, it allows people who were mildly homophobic or not public about their homophobia to not just express themselves but also to act on their hatred and fears. It’s impossible to say how many violent attacks or instances of discrimination have taken place recently or in the past simply because the police are some of the most homophobic people in this equation.

There are whispered stories of violent offenses too grave to write without confirmation, and too dangerous to confirm.

But, in one respect, Chris is right: Uganda has a chance to be a leader in sub-Saharan Africa and set a precedent for protecting gay rights. That is, if the bill doesn’t pass. When I was asking to speak to people last month, many said no and cited the bill as the reason. I thought to myself, “there’s no way that bill will pass, ever,” but my conviction is nothing compared to the consequences they will face if I am wrong.

Here’s what Andrew Mwenda has to say:

Multitudes of Ugandans are homophobic and would not hesitate to sanction genocide against gays. To secure attitudinal change through force would require unprecedented violence. Our challenge is how to foster openness and tolerance. This can only be achieved through open debate.

This is why although Bahati is subjectively homophobic, he is objectively an ally of gays. By introducing his bill with provisions to kill gays, he has inadvertently opened debate on a subject that has been taboo in Uganda. In the process, he has given gays and progressive intellectuals an opportunity and a platform to enlighten Ugandans about sexual diversity and expose the fallacies that inform homophobia.

He’s right that a conversation has started, and things might change quickly. But, for now, Uganda is not a good place to be gay . That’s like saying the American South in the 1960s was a good place to be black.

We’ll just have to wait and see where the conversation goes.

The international part of Monrovia’s central post office. See more images of the post office in the upcoming addition of BBC Focus on Africa magazine.

On Wednesday afternoon, I left Monrovia and flew to Kampala. I’m here for an assignment, and a bit of a vacation, and I have to say, it’s wonderful to be back. I’m seeing this place with different eyes. What before looked shoddy and inefficient now looks like a thriving African city with a robust economy. I can’t believe how fast the internet is, and I’ve eaten amazing Indian food, Italian food, Mexican food, and of course, matooke (that’s for you K.R.!) and reveled at how cheap everything seems after Monrovia’s inflated prices.

Last night at a party a group of old friend bear hugged me when I walked in the door, and then proceeded to argue about the Kabaka and the Mzee. It felt so good to see old friends and hear familiar banter.

Everyone asks me what Liberia is like. I hesitate, and find that the best way to explain it is to compare it to Juba, in south Sudan. They look at me and shudder and ask when I’m moving back to Kampala for good.

We’ll see, we’ll see. I’ve got a lot coming up when I get back to Liberia next month, though sitting at La Fontaine right now, drinking a wonderful cup of coffee, watching images of Monrovia’s amputee soccer team upload at breakneck speed on my FTP client, and enjoying a sunny and temperate afternoon, it’s hard to think about leaving again.

Keep up to the moment with what’s happening by searching the hashtag #kampala or following these folks on Twitter:

@UgandaTalks, @Nnfrank, @UgInsomniac, @SolomonKing, @CamaraAfrica

Also, check Uganda Witness, which looks like it’s rolling out an Ushahidi type platform. BlogSpirit aggregates most blogs about Uganda. The Independent is timing out on my connection right now, but will hopefully be back up and running soon.

Here’s some background and analysis from AFP:

Protesters from the Baganda tribe, which is the majority in central Uganda, have been angered by government efforts to stop their ruler Ronald Muwenda Mutebi visiting Kayunga county, north of Kampala, where violence was feared.

Yoweri said his government would not back down on keeping Mutebi out of Kayunga. “I told him (the ruler) that the meeting in Kayunga will not take place until some conditions that will be communicated to him by the minister of internal affairs are met.”

Medard Ssegona, deputy information minister for the Buganda Kingdom, also refused to back down.
“We are not going to be intimidated by the government into giving up our demands,” he said, while adding that the group was ready for talks with the government.

Ethnic Baganda MPs walked out of parliament in protest over the issue Wednesday.

The traditional king holds a ceremonial position but also wields political influence.

The government shut down a radio station owned by the Baganda kingdom accusing it of engaging in “sectarian acts”. The king of the Baganda is expected to travel to Kayunga on Saturday, heightening fears of more violence.

Daniel Kalinaki, managing editor of the Monitor newspaper, said in an editorial the riots are the most serious test so far for Museveni, am ethnic Munyankole, as they have destroyed his relationship with the Baganda people.

“Among the debris in the blood-splattered streets lies something else: the broken shards of what was left of President Museveni?s relationship with Buganda.”

The Baganda are in the majority in central Uganda and the loss of this voter base would weaken Museveni’s position at the next elections.

And, to all my friends and everyone else in Uganda, stay safe. Journalists, don’t get too close.

After more than two years in Uganda, I’m leaving on Tuesday evening. (Announcement buried in a Saturday blog post from a bit ago.) The next few posts will be of the wrapping up kind, and then in the coming weeks links to a few stories and pieces currently in the pipeline, and eventually, an announcement about West Africa whereabouts.

Wrapping up Kampala:

Best of times…

• Best Restaurant: Tuhende in old Kampala
• Best local lunch buffet in town: Café Joy on Shimoni Road
• Best/only margaritas: Lotus Mexicana
• Best indoor ice skating rink that’s really just a waxy floor: Alleygator’s
• Best hotel with fast internet where all you have to do is buy a soda to use the connection: Protea
• Best (expensive) get away only one hour from Kampala: Mabira Rain Forrest Lodge
• Best (cheap) get away only one hour from Kampala: Hairy Lemon
• Best used bookstore: the one run by that nice British lady who smokes menthol cigarettes all day in the compound for the Surgery
• Best newspaper to find photos of yourself, drunk, from the other night: Red Pepper
• Best croissant in town (and only one that doesn’t taste like a stale roll shaped like a croissant): La Patisserie
• Best place to sit somewhere swanky and overlook a slum: La Patisserie
• Best muffins in Uganda: that tourist shop at the Equator near Masaka
• Best place for a picnic: Entebbe Botanical Gardens
• Best place to buy wine, especially inexpensive South African wines: Wine Garage in Muyenga
• Best rafting company to take you on your white water tour of the Nile: they’re all the same
• Best street food: Rolex and chapatti
• Best place to stay when you first arrive in Uganda if you’re on a budget: La Fontaine guesthouse. (Call and ask for Jacob.)

Worst of times…

• Worst Ugandan landlord in the universe who works for USAID and therefore uses my tax dollars to subsidize my apartment, but is still rude and misogynistic despite my Obama-electing background: My landlord
• Most overpriced place for coffee with bad service and slow internet: Café Pap
• Worst mobile phone connectivity and internet pricing scheme: MTN
• Place where a boda boda is most likely to rip you off, or try to: Garden City
• Most unclear and inconsistent billing system in town: Umeme
• Worst place to go on your weekend off from work that truly boggles my mind as to why people do that: Gulu
• Worst newspaper to find photos of yourself, drunk, from the other night: The Onion

RLP is one of the only organizations that is advocating for the rights of internally displaced persons who live in urban settings both locally and internationally. (Remember Stephen?) While IDPs in the north receive government and non-governmental assistance, the same is not true of their urban counterparts who are more vulnerable than most slum dwellers.

Meeting Point International (supported by AVSI) also works with urban IDPs, and Siena also started a blog to raise money for a sustainable tailoring project in Kireka.

Thursday, 30th October

3.00 Trapped in Anguish – an informed account of the war in northern Uganda, its humanitarian implications and the process of return and reintergration of former combatants

3.30 Ekisil - a graphic docu-drama on the culture and values of the Karamojong and their struggle to find a lasting peace in the region

4.20 Panel discussion on the conflict in northern Uganda and the situation in Karamoja, with David Pulkol, African Leadership Institute, Naome A. Mao, filmmaker, Giovanni Dall’Oglio, filmmaker, and others

5.50 Uganda Rising - this multiple award-winning film, featuring interviews with Betty Bigombe, Samantha Power, President Museveni and Mahmood Mamdani, amongst others, gives a ground-breaking account of the 20-year war in northern Uganda

Friday, 31st October

3.00 What about us? - the Beyond Juba Project launches its documentary on urban IDPs and their exclusion from IDP policy, to be followed by a discussion with the IDPs themselves

3.30 Panel discussion on the return of IDPs and the challenges faced by their urban counterparts, with Apollo Kazungo, Office of the Prime Minister, a representative of UNHCR, and others

4.15 We didn’t know - the process of truth telling is unravelled in this insightful documentary on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa

4.40 Panel discussion on justice, truth and reconciliation in Uganda with Ofwono Opondo, NRM deputy spokesperson, a representative of the South African High Commission, and others

5.40 Red Dust – an award-winning drama exposing the complexities of truth telling at South Africa’s TRC through the disparate lives of it witnesses.

It happened yesterday around 11:50 AM. I got a call around 12:30. I was at the site by 12:50.

I once had a journalism school teacher who said 80 percent of journalism was showing up on time with all your equipment charged and ready.

I was there as fast as humanly possible, with all my equipment charged and ready.

Another thing they told me a journalism school: If it bleeds, it leads.

Associated Press hasn’t had interest in many Uganda stories, but when I spoke with the photo editor in Nairobi, he was interested in photos of a construction site accident in the middle of town that left at least seven people dead and more injured. He told me to go get images, and to be careful, be safe. (This is the AP low budget hostile environment training course.)

On the boda ride to the site, I didn’t know exactly what to expect, but felt exhilarated by the rush, the work, the immediacy. I thought of the passing scenery in F-stop/aperture ratios, set the ISO and white balance in my head.

Then I arrived. The site was boarded up, people peering in through cracks in the awning. I made my way in. From the top, it was hard to tell exactly what was happening, but as I got closer, it was clear.

Many dead, more injured. The foundation of a construction site had collapsed, burying all the workers nearby in a flash. The number of dead bodies I’ve seen went up by a percentage somewhere in the four figure range.

At first I took general shots, wide angle views, captured the scene. But then I went in closer, as I knew I’d need to in order to get any decent shots. I have never thought about composing a photo of a dead body, but yesterday I did. There were moments I had to back up and allow myself a bit of hyperventilating, but then I continued. I let the ratios become automatic, changed the settings on my camera without thinking.

I flinched at the dead body in the police truck. His toes made me sad and scared. I flinched at the chunk of flesh missing from the back of someone’s head. I flinched at someone’s head flattened and egg-shaped.

I flinched again when I left and then edited my photos, which captured details I hadn’t even seen: a man on a gurney with his fingers curled up, a construction worker irate as he uncovered what must have been his friend’s body.

I wish it weren’t true that if it bleeds it leads. But AP hasn’t asked me for photos for months, and yesterday they did.

A few hours after I filed, my editor in Nairobi called me and said that one of my images was an AP Top Picture of the Day. Should I be happy about that kind of thing?

More Eid photos on Scarlett Lion

“There’s a man here with one leg, five women, and thirty-two children,” Sarah Shambe tells me, on the day of Rosh Hashanah, as we walk away from Eid prayers to her two-room home in a suburb of Kampala, Uganda. Sarah spent the morning praying in an open field with thousands of other Ugandan Muslims. Now that the praying is done, she fills me in on the neighbours.

I didn’t know Sarah before about an hour ago, but now she’s invited me to her home. This is after prayers where small kids ate ice cream in shades of bright pink and pastel orange, and music played in the background while friends and relatives greeted each other, and everyone wore their best clothes for Eid, and people prayed in a clearing under the clouds in front of the Kampala skyline.

This is how I spend my Rosh Hashanah in Africa: observing Eid.

Back at Sarah’s house, her sister visiting from Nairobi makes a sweet called “Tambi.” She deep-fries vermicelli noodles, adds sugar, vanilla, and cardamom, and then boils the concoction. It makes me think of kugel. I drink a sticky sweet fruit soda called Mirinda. In color and taste and everything but the syrupy residue of low alcohol content, it makes me think of Manishevitz.

More on the Walrus…

Uganda’s Muslim community – about 12 percent of the general population, observe Ramadan this month. Idi Amin, Uganda’s infamous dictator, was Muslim and his legacy has tainted the image of the community throughout the country. As his memory fades, and many exiled Asians return to Uganda, the Muslim community has grown in vibrancy.