AudiencScapes

By Joseph Were

29 March 2010

Kampala, Uganda –There are plenty of blogs and microblogs focusing on Uganda. They are written by journalists and others here, by Ugandan expatriates abroad, by staff of international organizations and foreigners with a stake in Uganda. The sites cover a wide range of issues, from development to politics, social life to entertainment. But how many Ugandans actually read them? Probably not too many, given that access to the internet is extremely limited by a lack of telecommunications infrastructure and cost factors.

Over 45 percent of the Ugandan population live on less than US$2 per day, and about 30 percent of those aged 15 years and above cannot read or write. The internet is thus mainly an urban activity dominated by communities around universities and colleges, and in places of work. A language barrier also likely keeps many people out of the blogosphere. There does not seem to be many or any blogs written in Luganda, the most widely spoken vernacular language in Uganda.

Types of Uganda Blogs

Many journalists in Uganda have blogs. A few long-running ones include kalinaki.blogspot.com, tinywesonga.blogspot.com, and bazanye.wordpress.com. Rosebell Kagumire’s blog (http://ugandajournalist.wordpress.com) won a 2009 Waxal Award for Best English-language African journalist’s blog.

Most newspapers run blogs. Leading daily The New Vision runs the Discussion Board (http://www.newvision.co.ug/B/), while the Daily Monitor has The Monitor Online Community (http://blog.monitor.co.ug).There has also been collaboration between Ugandan journalists and The Guardian in the U.K newspaper on a blog called the Katine Chronicles (www.guardian.co.uk/katine/katine-chronicles-blog).

IRIN, the United Nations news service, has an important blog called Pulsenews (http://www.plusnews.org). In a posting titled, “Where does married love fit into Uganda's prevention plan,” a blogger lamented the failure of the government's HIV/AIDS prevention programs to adapt with the progression of the disease's incidence.

Numerous blogs have morphed into full-fledged websites. For example, the “pop-blog” jackfruity (http://jackfruity.blogspot.com), originally run by American Rebekah Heacock out of Uganda, has morphed into a full-fledged website (http://jackfruity.com). Rebekah now runs the blog out of New York since she became the editor and technical director of Columbia University/SIPA’s “The Morningside Post” (http://themorningsidepost.com). Rebekah’s blog was influential because it addressed many development issues such as climate change, digital age policy, tourism, and media.

Jackfruity also reflects the heavy influence of the expatriate community on Uganda’s blogosphere. Other blogs are not expat-run but are located outside Uganda, the most prominent of which is the Ugandansatheart blog (http://ugandansatheart.wordpress.com). Another was the Radiokatwe blog at (http://www.radiokatwe.blogspot.com) which has gone dormant. Before that, it had posts that the blog operators claimed to be based on insider information about Uganda’s corridors of power, including reports on President Yoweri Museveni’s personal issues.

Other blogs are agenda driven, such as http://gayuganda.blogspot.com, which is focused on another of the big stories in Uganda in 2009: the “Bill 18 Anti-homosexual Bill 2009.” This proposes, in some instance, to impose the death penalty on gays.

The development discussion in Uganda is also heavily influenced by foreign blogs such as http://ideas4development.org and http://aidwatch.org.au. Ugandan bloggers and opinion leaders either contribute to the blogs on those websites or follow the debate on topics such as HIV/Aids and the African Growth and Opportunity ACT (AGOA). For example, ideas4development recently featured articles by Ugandan journalist Andrew Mwenda.

Social Networking Just Getting Off the Ground

If blogging has taken off, at least among those with access to the internet, online social networks are in their infancy. Apart from Facebook and Twitter, social networks in Uganda are not very developed. The few available ones dwell on relationships--finding a lover, the perfect match or finding a date. For example, a Muslim site, (http://www.bestmuslim.com/forum/posts.php?), offers dating opportunities, links and profiles of potential partners, chat rooms and a discussion forum. A running topic on the site: “How do you trust a woman or man you meet on the internet, even if they are Muslim?”

At Makerere University, Uganda’s biggest university, campuser.net is a social networking site used by thousands of students free of charge, although the proprietors generate revenue through advertising. The site offers free SMS, micro-blogging, friends and dating sections, and a forum for discussions which is quite popular.

Ugandans still have to learn how to use twitter, Facebook, and blogs. Elements of micro-blogging like text messaging, instant SMS, email and digital audio are relatively undeveloped. Most of the activity is web-based.

Picture Courtesy of Flickr:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/29971881@N06/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0