Kampala: A Tale of Two Cities

Ggaba Beach: a striking reminder of the battle ahead

At the top of the hill at Ggaba beach fishing market sits a sculpture of a serpent rising up from the ashes. Before it was vandalised it used to emerge from a fishing boat, and was designed by artist Sandra Suubi to symbolise the destruction of the fishing community that was taking place here, through continual mismanagement of waste, and under-investment in the community. 

When you stand here at Ggaba you can see why Sandra was inspired to plant her sculpture here and why Arintwe Peter, a local artist, decided to plant our  symbolic plastic-stuffed Nile Perch fish here too: because when the rains come, this hill acts as a conduit for the mountains of rubbish and sewage from the upstream and market communities. You can see the layers of discarded plastic bags, trash and rot making up the ground here and cascading downhill towards the food-selling stalls and the houses below. 

The smell of the drying market fish combined with the sewage and the sight of the giant vulture-like Marabou Storks lurking for carcasses makes Ggaba hill a disturbing place to be as a visitor, let alone if you are a resident.

With such a huge problem to address here, it fueled our team’s energy for the packed event schedule, orchestrated by our Ugandan partners. As Ben Morison (co-founder) reminded us and the media later that day, the Flipflopi being in Kampala was not about the boat, but about bringing attention to the incredible Ugandans making change here, and turning the nation and region’s attention to communities like Ggaba who are most impacted by the effects of waste mismanagement and rising pollution.

“Artivism” to drive positive discourse and engagement

With that in mind, the programme was designed to maximise community engagement, bringing out artists, activists and creators who have the best skills to delve deep into the issues and showcase the solutions. People like Sadrach Nirere and Hilda Nakubuye who  lead Fridays4future in Uganda and founded the End Plastic Pollution campaign. They lead regular clean ups, that are not designed for the faint hearted, wading deep into the lake’s polluted shoreline to pull out waste, and are the people campaigning hard for change here.

And by eco-artist and singer-songwriter Sandra Suubi who is using her voice to call for urgent action to address climate change with songs like ‘Kilagala’ (‘Green’ ) that is bringing this message to the next generation.

Artivism is a fundamental pillar of Flipflopi’s ethos, and working with  artists like Sandra and Arintwe, we hope will help drive participatory  discourse and creative engagement in communities like Ggaba.

The innovators kickstarting the circular economy

Whilst the road ahead seems long, there are many reasons to be hopeful in Kampala. The event taking place at Ggaba beach hotel in the afternoon brought together the optimists and the entrepreneurs, all searching for  common ground to  find circular economy solutions to address environmental and societal issues. People like Ghetto Research lab, building toilets out of eco-bricks in the slums, Taka Taka plastics who are building construction materials from waste, Benedicta Nanyonga from Kinawataka making beautiful bags from discarded plastic straws with and Infonile, the understated journalist group writing poignant stories to highlight issues of the lake and the people trying to save it.

All of these really deserve blogs of their own…the intention of running eco-markets like this is to bring like-minded people together to share and kickstart new ideas, and to help grow the plastic revolution around the lake. The more we can connect and share ideas, the more our voice will be heard and  the closer we will get to progress.

Influencing change in Kampala: reasons to be hopeful at the Speke Resort?

At Flipflopi we recognise the importance of engaging all key actors who can turn the tide on plastic pollution. Changing mindsets and behaviours through education, kickstarting the waste-circular economy revolution through establishing new business models and innovation, and lobbying  those in power to finally do something to end single use plastic. (at Flipflopi we refer to these campaign pillars as Educate, Innovate and Influence).

So the event in Kampala at the Commonwealth Munyonyo Resort was focused on reaching those with the influence to effect change. Timed to coincide with Uganda’s Water and Environment week, this was the right moment in Uganda to talk about plastic pollution, together with the United Nations, UK and French Governments, the PET bottling association and the Guest of honour, the formidable Queen of the Buganda Kingdom, the Nnabagereka.

It’s with baited breath we often await the outcomes of speeches and panel discussions at events like these. Will there be any action or accountability from those ‘at the top’? At Kampala on 20th March, there were a few reasons to feel optimistic.

The Queen of Buganda advocates for an end to unnecessary single-use plastic

The Queen of Buganda, who had in the afternoon been welcomed to The Flipflopi dhow, made a direct call to Ugandans to stop using kavera (plastic bags) and unnecessary plastic bottles. She later signed the petition calling for an end to unnecessary single-use plastic in the East African community. With the Queen’s continual involvement in the campaign, it is hoped some bigger policy changes could be on the horizon.

And in a revelatory moment of honesty, Morgan Bonna, Secretary-General of Uganda Water Juice Manufacturers Association added that the manufacturers of plastic products should be held responsible for the cleaning up of the countless products they create.

 And now?

This blog was entitled a tale of two cities: the stark contrast between the mess at Ggaba beach affecting local people and the sanitised discussions at Commonwealth Munyonyo Resort that revealed the massive amount of work still to be done to close the gap between talk and action. Where there is reason to be hopeful with the words spoken at the Resort, we hope that the Ugandan leaders take notice of the urgent task ahead, and together with our strategic partners can help support the growing movement of amazing change-makers, creators and artists to ignite the clean up movement from Ggaba and beyond.