The Informal

Upon researching “the informal” aspects of Kampala, I came to understand this term as one that is loosely defined. As such, there were three different ways that “the informal” is interpreted when it comes to Kampala. The first method concerns the economy of the city, the second relates to health conditions, and the third regards the refugees within the city.

In terms of the “informal economy,” it is important to first lay the groundwork and understand this term. According to the Chr. Michelsen Institute, informal work is that which is not recognized, protected, nor recorded by the public authorities. Informal employment comprises roughly 90 percent of new jobs in urban Africa.[1] Additionally, the percentage of women (approximately 62%) is much greater than the percentage of men (about 55%) in this category. [2] The chart below uses data from the 2009-2010 Uganda National Household Survey to depict some of these statistics on a nationwide scale.

The Nordic African Institute has done some research in this area and one study in particular, titled “Collective Organization among Informal Workers in African Cities” highlights the notion that by making the city markets’ management private, conditions for vendors and their organizations have changed. This study notes that the informal economy has seen a huge surge in the last few years, which is evidenced by the increasing number of city markets and street vendors found in Kampala – population censuses indicate that trading is one of the most common income activities in the city.[3] Amidst the

existence of vendor organizations, the Ugandan government decided to decentralize and privatize city markets, which has resulted in private companies or cooperative societies managing the vast majority of the markets within Kampala District.

The largest market in the country, the St. Balikuddembe Market (also known as the Owino Market), operates under a special arrangement between private companies and vendor organizations – the vendor organizations are allowed to exist in the market. This is not the case in many markets, however. Organized vendors face certain obstacles as a result of market privatization. As such, an umbrella body of org

anizations of informal workers, as well as the emergence of relationships between informal workers groups and trade unions are on the rise,

as these informal workers struggle to survive and

thrive in Kampala’s bustling economy.

The second way of approaching “the informal” in Kampala relates to health conditions. The National Water and Sewage Corporation’s Kampala Sanitation Program, which commenced in February of 2010 strives to improve sanitation of the city – particularly the urban poor residents in the Nakivubo catchment - through a variety of ways.[4] Undertaking measures such as the extension of pipelines, addition of sewers, construction of Nakivubo Sewage Treatment, addition of a new pumping station at East Bugolobi, and the generation of power using solar energy and methane gas produced during the sewage treatment p

rocess, the city of Kampala is working on its environmental and sanitation circumstances. The ultimate goal of this project is to improve sanitation services in order to increase coverage to 30% of Kampalans who live in informal settlements.

Lastly, the third interpretation of “the informal” concerns the refugees within Kampala, which is primarily related to resettlement agreements. Quite a struggle exists between urban refugees and the Unite Nations High Commissioner for Refugees over the distribution of third-country resettlement slots. Meant to homogonize the city, it is argued that it has contributed to a form of legal diversity. Resettlement has become a method of migration to the West, but a complex process that involves informal arrangements and legal practices has caused a significant amount of tension in trying to tease out the intricacies of resettlement.

Thus, the informal can be seen in terms of commerce, living standards, and legal methodologies. This diverse meaning of the word speaks to its encompassing nature. The cases observed in this post are tied together by a common thread – these scenarios involve problematic situations, consequently demonstrating a response of the Kampalan people and a desire to improve themselves and their city while fighting for their rights.

Works Cited:

African Development Bank Group , "Kampala sanitation program." Accessed March 30, 2012. http://www.afdb.org/en/projects-and-operations/project-portfolio/project/p-ug-e00-008/.

Lange, Siri. Chr. Michelsen Institute, "When women grow wings: Gender relations in the informal economy of Kampala." Accessed March 29, 2012. http://www.cmi.no/publications/publication/?1563=when-women-grow-wings.

Lourenço-Lindell, Ilda, and Jenny Appelblad. The Nordic Africa Institute, "Collective organising among informal vendors in Kampala." Accessed March 29, 2012. http://www.nai.uu.se/publications/news/archives/072lindell_and_appelblad/.

Sandvik, Kristin Bergtora, 2011. 'Blurring Boundaries: Refugee Resettlement in Kampala—between the Formal, the Informal, and the Illegal', PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review 34(1): 11–32.

Uganda Bureau of Statistics , "Uganda National Household Survey Report 2009/2010, hapter 4.0: Labour Force and Time use." Accessed March 29, 2012. http://www.ubos.org/UNHS0910/chapter4_employment in the informal secto outside agriculture.html.

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[1] Lange

[2] Uganda Bureau of Statistics

[3] Lourenço-Lindell, Ilda, and Jenny Appelblad

[4] African Development Bank Group

Transitions and Migration

The most common method for arriving in Kampala is via Kampala’s Entebbe airport.

Situated approximately 38 minutes and 39 kilometers south of Kampala’s city center, Entebbe has been the primary entryway to the city of Kampala for quite some time. Built in 1928, the first aircraft landed on the airport grounds in 1929. It was not until 1951 that the airport was officially re-opened, with a new runway.

The passenger terminal building that exists today was built in the mid to late 1970s. Interestingly enough. The older Entebbe airport is currently used by the military forces of Uganda, and the domestic terminal, which is apart of the new airport is the terminal responsible for the international flights into Uganda. It is reported that in 2011, International traffic reached 1.5 million passengers. The geographic coordinates of the

airport are: E 032° 26' 36.61"/N 00° 02' 32.59" 32.443503/0.042386.

Once a visitor arrives into Entebbe, one can take a taxi or minibus into the city. Within the city, there are three primary means of public transportation: boda bodas, minibuses (also known as matatus), and special hires. Boda bodas are motorcycle – like taxis of sorts. Minibuses/matatus are quite similar to what they sound like – they are small buses that are built to take as many as 14 people around town. Many of the transportation hubs are depicted in this Google Street View image below - the different bus stops and the Taxi Park are shown.

I find it fascinating at the number of taxis parked in the taxi park; it is easy to see the large number of taxis parked through this Google Earth image. Apparently, there are over 4,000 minibuses transitioning in and out of the park on any given day.

It seems as though the railway is not commonly used. The Uganda Railways Corporation operates two different routes. The first distance totals approximately 5 miles between Kampala and Port Bell and the second route extends about 120 miles between Kampala and the Kenyan border at Tororo.

Below are rectified images of my cities: [still having problems linking my work in Map Warper with WorldMap]

City Plan, Newspaper, Paper Subject

Plan:

The plan I chose to rectify was Ernst May’s 1947 Kampala Plan. May was a German architect and city planner known for his urban style. He worked on Frankfurt during the Weimar period in Germany, applied some of his techniques to Soviet Union cities, and found himself in exile in Africa once the Nazis took over Germany. It is necessary to note the significance of a European plan on the African city. The similarity of this plan and the actual city today confirms the influence of the European on the African while raising issues of the role of the European in the African city.

In terms of the plan itself, it is quite apparent that the city is very much structured around its geography. The hills dictate much of the city plan and allow a quite limited city flow. The major arteries of the city are thus in between the hills.

Newspaper:

In my search for a newspaper article, I came across a very interesting study by James F. Scotton on the independent African press in East Africa during the 1920s and the role that it played in the nationalist movement in this area. Kampala has a long history of monthly Luganda-language newspapers that “stimulated political awareness among large numbers of Africans.” (Scotton 212) I found it very intriguing to learn that at the beginning of the 1920s, many of these newspapers included the criticism of the Buganda government, and it was not until later in the 1920s that the people of Kampala began to question the role of the

British in Uganda. I think that this piece of information is particularly interesting in thinking about the evolution of this area and the development of Kampala as an independent African city.

Inspired by this finding, I selected The Uganda Herald from January 1920 and read through the entire 28 page newspaper that was published weekly. The newspaper was full of different kinds of advertisements – testament to the commercial nature of this city. The headline article of this week’s edition was titled “Facts and Theories Concerning the Geology of Uganda” which basically defined and outlined the geological composition of Uganda. It was quite didactic, similar to something one would find in an earth sciences textbook. This suggests the educative nature of the newspaper for the city of Kampala. Because literacy was actually quite common, newspapers served as a means to communicate new revelations, discoveries, and ideas with the people of Kampala.

Benin Rectified Maps:

Paper Subjects:

I am quite interested in architecture, so I am considering doing a study of the architecture of Kampala and how it fits in with the city plan. I think that the fact that much of the city plan is dictated by its hills is quite interesting and perhaps related to the city’s architecture. There is a very diverse array of architectural forms – ranging from mud huts to magnificent hotels and residences. I find the quintessential Kampalan hut to resemble the hill, and would like to explore this idea more thoroughly.

Works Cited:

Scotton, James F. . "The First African Press in East Africa: Protest and Nationalism in Uganda in the 1920s." The International Journal of African Historical Studies. 6. no. 2 (1973): 211-228. http://www.jstor.org/stable/216775 (accessed March 2, 2012).

"Facts and Theories Concerning the Geology of Uganda." Uganda Herald, January 09, 1029. http://infoweb.newsbank.com.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/iw-search/we/HistArchive?p_theme=ahnp&p_product=WHNPX&p_nbid=F54J55NRMTMzMDcwODI5Ni43MTA5Nzk6MToxNDoxMjguMTAzLjE0OS41Mg&p_action=keyword&f_pubBrowse=12EED55ECC39C2C0 (accessed March 2, 2012).