Eunice Rukundo
21 October 2007
A week before the Benin Vs Sierra Leone and Mali vs Togo matches in Lesotho, Uncle Money is as anxious about the results as the other football fans all over the country. The results from these matches would determine whether Uganda made it for next year's MTN African Nations Cup finals in Ghana or not.
Uncle Money's anxiety however, has more to do with the fact that he has personal decisions to make based on the results of these matches. "I want to be able to order for my costume for the match in Ghana early enough because it is a bit more complex than the ones I have worn before. It is a design I saw in Lesotho," he explains excitedly in Luganda.
Yes, he was in Lesotho to watch the Uganda Cranes team tackle Lesotho's Likuena in the MTN African Nations Cup qualifier match. In fact he is at every football match he can find his way to, if one of the football teams on pitch is Express FC or Uganda Cranes.
Fast forward to last Friday when Benin beat Sierra Leone 2-0 and Mali beat Togo 2-0, denying the Uganda Cranes a mathematical chance of qualifying for the Ghana tournament. But Uncle Money is unfazed and he remains Uganda's number one fan.
Yet he is not your ordinary football fanatic. Actually, Uncle Money admits to having scanty knowledge of international football; he is not even a fan of any of the international football clubs.
This, he explains, is because he is not interested in the football itself but the fans in the stadium. "My love for football is at the cheering level. I watch to see how other people cheer their players on in other countries so I come and guide our fans here at the matches," he explains.
And the other fans seem to be in total surrender to this hilariously dressed man, whirling, shouting, singing, going into frenzy or staying calm as he gesticulates. He is completely in charge of the fans at these big matches, always outstanding in his latest creations of the garments he adorns to these matches, made out in the national colours. Uncle Money is undeniably Uganda's head cheerleader.
Behind this Uncle Money façade is an otherwise jolly but humble 38-year-old cake vendor called Jackson Ssewanyana who resides in Kasubi. Away from these matches, he treks the streets in a once white overcoat selling small yellow cakes at Shs200 each, which he bakes at home. "I learnt to bake in the 1980s at Hot Loaf bakery where I was working but couldn't continue there because I used to miss many matches," explains the little educated Ssewanyana in Luganda, completely unfazed by the day's heat under which he treks selling his cakes.
The first Ssewanyana knew of football was about Express FC when he was a small boy, from an uncle who went to these matches and brought back Express caps and T-shirts. It was the first team he knew about and when he started supporting football, express was the team.
Like most boys, he played football with his friends at school but also started attending national matches at the stadiums not as a player but a fan. "The closest I ever participated as a player at these national matches was serving as a ball boy," laughs the jovial cheerleader.
For this self-appointed cheerleading task, the football associations have with time recognised him as the fans coordinator. So he equips himself with all details and
schedules of any football matches that involve Express FC and Uganda Cranes, just in case the fans may have any questions about them.
Starting out as a cheerleader
"I longed to shake hands with the big stars hosted by the national team for a long time and this is how I ended up where I am today," he explains excitedly. In 1996 when George Weah was coming to Uganda, Ssewanyana tailored his first suit with national colours and appointed himself a security personnel over the fans, controlling them not to spill into the pitch and falling over the star.
He had seen the way fans got their notebooks signed on television at World Cup. Armed with his notebook and pen, he stationed himself where the Liberian/Chelsea player would pass. "When I pulled out my notebook and pen, I didn't have to say anything; he knew what I wanted. The rest of the fans took my cue and started pulling out anything and everything to get his signature," he proudly recounts. He had finally hatched a plan to get in close contact with the visiting stars and the fans would follow his cue henceforth.
He started to have a different costumes designed at big matches and the fans started to wait on him to lead them in cheering the players. MTN was the first to recognise him in 1997. "They gave me a phone and started to sponsor my costumes and buy paint. In return I included their logo on the costumes and the boys I painted in Uganda's colours," he says.
By then, Ssewanyana was automatically charged with coordinating the fans at national matches. He was expected to mobilise support and morale at these matches as well as be in charge of the fans. For these duties, Uncle Money has a team of about 30 youths that he paints in national colours at every match amongst whom is his oldest 12-year-old son, Disan Ssepuya, named after his grandfather.
"About two days prior to the match I paint them in national colours and send them around the city to solicit morale and put people in the mood for the match. I transport and feed them on such days as well as ensure that they enter the stadium free of charge on match day. I don't enter before each one of them is let in," he says.
Renamed Uncle Money "I used to sell cakes at these matches but realised I wasn't gaining anything because when we won, I threw the cakes to the fans due to too much excitement. Today, when there is a match I sacrifice my personal business and concentrate on the cheering," he recounts with laughter.
To the fans, the free cakes were just another reason to love their cheerleader. When he stopped bringing cakes to the matches, an attempt by a colleague to capture his cake market failed with the fans shouting, "why should we buy your cakes when there's one who gives us free ones. We want Uncle money back."
And Ssewanyana was from then on renamed Uncle Money. Uncle money's joy seems to rub off on you just by talking to him. He evidently is a jovial man, content with making the people at the matches happy but with only one complaint. "I invest a lot in these events buying paint, looking after these boys and getting my costumes tailored yet I don't gain or get support. Right now there is no sponsoring company. I don't know if I can go on for much longer."
He is however quick to add that the best that has happened to him, as a cheerleader is being able to go to Lesotho to cheer the Cranes. "I was sponsored by someone I don't know to date. I hope I can one day find out who sponsored me and tell him or her how grateful I was and what I good time I had," he beams.
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