My LOVE AFFAIR with JINJA

Jinja Town is the Source of My Life though Arua is my Ancestral Hometown because I am 100 percent Lugbara. But the Most Industrialised Town in Uganda after independence and for some time till Kampala took over, has a strategic soft spot in my heart.

There is so much I cherish about this town in Busoga-land. Adjacent to the Source of the Longest River on Earth, the Great Nile, it is where I enjoyed my childhood till 1995 before transferring (permanently) to Kampala. Nevertheless, I returned a number of times for one day visits, first during a Primary 7 trip to Nytil, Nile Breweries and the Source of the Nile. Secondly, with my mum during the PLE vacation, then in a Senior 4 Geography trip to Kakira and Bujagali. The others included on my way to Soroti for a sister-in-law’s burial that coincidentally fell on my first sister’s 34th birthday and on the return after a night’s vigil in November 2006, plus many others afterwards.

From friends, cartoons, town tours or walks, Club Earthquake 110 about 110 metres away from my bed, Family Christmas parties and Children's Church Bashes, cinemas, beautiful Indian bijous, Somali women and marvelous shops like Biashara Supermarket to KTV, Bop TV, UTV, Super Sport, Indian movies every night, NBA Action, Sky Movies Plus, Arabsat, Mnet, neighbourhood soccer tournaments, the Lake, my uncle cruising new cars from Malaba, grasshopper hunting, the Jesus Movie Shows, the’ Sechungwa’(delicious seedless orange) theft on Nile Crescent plus the chase, other thefts, Trips to Njeru Town across the railway bridge, Source of the Nile, Indian Buwi buwi sweets, Cricket games, Singha-singhas, creating Railroad magnets, Rumours of red male mermaids, bed wetting, Club Soccer at Spire Road Grounds, Nile (Breweries) Team training near home before a Super League game, Sirens at particular times in the morning en afternoon to alert workers plus Town Dwellers, the fantastic annual Agricultural Trade Show, Rally Championships at the Jinja Municipal (Town) Hall, Gaddafi Barracks, Victoria Nile School, the girls I had crushes on, Rwenzori House - Mulala (tall male) en Dembe (exceptional female runner) plus a neighbour’s daughter I loved like myself and of course the sweet previously untasted Tamarind juice her elder sister made for me…