Esther Namugoji
6 January 2008
column
Kampala — IN the Ibo saying popularised by Chinua Achebe's Thing's Fall Apart, when men learnt to shoot without missing, Eneke the bird learnt to fly without perching. Following the controversial swearing in of President Mwai Kibaki and violence in neighbouring Kenya, there has been a media ban on live broadcasts.
But some Kenyans have turned to the Internet to disseminate and access regular updates, especially through blogs. Having no such restrictions, Kenyan bloggers have been relaying information to the rest of the world and other Kenyans.
In Uganda, blogging is a growing trend, especially with young people. Blog is short for 'weblog', an Internet based account written by individuals (bloggers) and published on one of various websites. Most Ugandans make use of free hosting by Blogger.com, Wordpress.com and other Ugandan websites like Ugpulse.com and Marketuganda.com to put out their thoughts.
Most of Uganda's bloggers are Ugandans living outside the country, those living in and around Kampala and expatriates writing about their African experiences. Many of the bloggers do it as a pastime. They publish their thoughts, pictures, diaries of their personal lives and works of fiction.
More Ugandans with a regular, cheap or free Internet connection are finding the attraction to blogging irresistible. Currently the main audience of the blogs is fellow bloggers. They link from one to another and there is a community that meets physically once a month, although hundreds more remain at large.
A number of them have learnt to use blogging as a formidable tool of communication with other Ugandans and the outside world.
Amidst the sea of journals and diaries, some are dedicated to news updates, political analyses and criticisms. These blogs are raising the bar, becoming watchdogs of society, just like the traditional media - newspapers, radio and television.
With some Ugandan bloggers being themselves journalists already established in other media, blogging for a cause can play a major role in the politics, economy and society today.
Some blogs of note include:
kampalaver.wordpress.com, whose subject is the capital city's urban structure.
ugandaninsomniac.wordpress. com, where a journalist puts public policy and leaders on the spot.
scarlettlion.blogspot.com, a foreign journalist.
dioceseofnorthernuganda. blogspot.com, among many others. The bloggers at paradoxuganda-.blogspot.com have been putting down their thoughts on many issues in Bundibugyo, but in December, their posts on the Ebola outbreak were published in The Sunday Vision.
During the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in November, the former Commonwealth Secretary General, Don MacKinnon, kept an update at www.thecommonwealthsg-.blogspot.com of the events. The blog was informative and serious and yet there was room for humour and remarks that the Secretary General probably would not make in an official speech.
Most blogs serve the author more than anyone else, like therapy. The blogger gains confidence in his/her own writing abilities, opinions and analyses as he/she interacts with visitors to the site. Some will grow to become famous writers or politicians. Some already are.
For those who blog anonymously, there is a feeling of freedom and often controversial information is posted. But there can be serious consequences if somehow they are discovered. Some have jeopardised their jobs and friendships or been sued for what they published on their blogs. In some countries, governments have made restrictions on blogging by either blocking or registering bloggers.
Occasionally, a google search for a Ugandan event or personality may lead to a blog that has first-hand information on the subject and thus would become an authority for that subject or that period time. Usually some blogs will stand out, either because of the writers or the topic of discussion, either for a short or long time. A few blogs gain cult status with regular visitors who keep passing the link on to others. In cases where certain rumours take the country by storm, the unsuspected origin could very well be a weblog.
Although not quite a blog, the case of radiokatwe.com, a site which churned out sensational information during the Uganda presidential and parliamentary elections of 2006, is telling. It showed that even with the small numbers accessing the Internet, the trickle down effect may be felt.
During that time, radiokatwe.com was blocked to Ugandan readers to stem its effect. The ethics of bloggers will continue to be of concern, as most are prone to exaggerations, unresearched information and plagiarism, since there is no gatekeeper in the form of an editor as is the case in other media.
Can Ugandan bloggers have impact on society?
The author of kampala.ver identifies himself as Filoug. In an e-mail interview with Sunday Vision, he explains that, for him, blogging is simply a hobby and he does not expect it to have a real impact on the wider society. "But of course it would be nice to gradually create a platform for discussion on urban and architectural issues related to Kampala."
Filoug is an architect who feels that his work routine leaves little room for reflection. "It rarely offers the chance to design non-commercial projects and urban schemes. This is the reason why I enjoy running kampala.ver. It allows me to create and discuss ideas, whether realistic or not." The author notes that newspapers rarely feature in-depth debate about architectural themes, adding that the blogosphere certainly is an exception. Bloggers are picking up from where the newspapers and radios leave off. They have more room for photographs and text, with no word limits. They can post videos such as has been enabled by YouTube and e-mail their posts to a multitude of contacts. Plus, there is no overly sensitive editor to screen out controversial information.
Filoug wants his ideas to be considered by Kampala City Council's urban planners. For instance, two of his posts convincingly propose simple road bypasses that would solve traffic riddles. However, Filoug thinks that it would be naïve to expect his blog to influence policy, simply because money is the overriding factor that drives change. He, however, notes that the blogging community is vibrant and growing, adding: "I do believe that it can play its part in Uganda's development, especially as far as freedom of speech and the strengthening of civil society are concerned."
While teaching on new media at Makerere University's Mass Communication department, Sarah Namusoga, who is currently assistant editor of the Parliament of Uganda Hansard, introduced blogging to her students to publish their writing, but she does not consider the phenomenon to be that big. "Much as it is becoming popular, it is only accessible to the elite, and even then it is a small section of the elite, which is a small percentage of the population," Namusoga reasons.
She points out that a recent report on Internet access in Uganda showed that very few people have access and most of them use it in cafes, mostly to send e-mail. Most of them do not have time to read blogs, let alone write. Even most of those who come across them do not take them seriously. To compound things, the majority of Ugandans are illiterate.
Namusoga is, therefore, skeptical about the ability of Ugandan blogs to play a significant role in influencing society. "There's a debate on whether blogging is journalism and whether it will overtake regular media," she says "I don't know if it will be like it is in the US - maybe it will happen with time - but I don't think so, because people start and stop blogging." Still, blogs and other mainstream media can have an interface. Many newspapers, including The New Vision, have weblogs of some of their most recognised writers. In other cases, a discussion that starts on a blog can end up in newspaper pages. This happened some time last year with a brief debate on whether female Ugandan writers had overtaken male writers. The expatriates documenting the Ebola outbreak in Bundibugyo at paradoxuganda.blogspot.com became a credible information source, extending to the newspaper. Some blogs help to disseminate regular news that appears in newspapers when they provide links to the news websites. Many Ugandan blogs campaigned against the plan to give part of Mabira Forest to an investor alongside the mainstream media.
On the whole, blogging in Uganda is undermined by the expensive and minimal Internet access. A September 2007 Internet usage survey indicates that Uganda has only 750,000 Internet users. For now, mobile telephony maintains an edge with the proximity of text messaging in any language and the expansion of cellphones countrywide, even to rural areas. But people are increasingly buying cellphones with a capacity for Internet connectivity. Even the Government recently felt it necessary to buy Blackberries for its ministers.
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