By Silas Nyanchwani
I want to lift a lid on one of the most sensitive, nearly taboo subjects. I am risking my future political career, about to mess many friendships and some of you will never talk to me ever again.
But freedom of speech involves saying all those things a majority are silent about.
But.
But.
Lemme say it here.
Ugali was a mistake.
Big mistake.
Bantus owes the Africans an apology.
It is lazy, tasteless, useless and so bland, my shoe soles taste better.
When I cook ugali, I have to let it ungua kabisa for it to have some taste. We used to have some househelp who used to use margarine to make the offending mound palatable. And another shamba boy used to apply some Kimbo. Still, you can’t improve ugali.
Ugali was a mistake and that we accepted to live with it, baffles me.
Compare societies that discovered Pearl Pishori rice earlier. Or chapati. Or Pizza.
Ugali is the reason Africa is underdeveloped.
The only positive here is that for my future wife, whereas she has to know how to cook ugali, it will not be a daily requirement.
And with this, I hope I have lost my manly credentials.
Because ugali, makes no sense.
Bantu Kivai adds:
People are attacking Silas for coming out of the closet, apropos ugali. But if we did a little reflection we’d agree that ugali lacks character, is bland, and we only eat it because we don’t have an option, it’s easily available and we are mostly poor.
The idea of making a lump or paste from flour isn’t entirely stupid, but we should at least roll back the years and use things like sorghum and millet, or mixture.
Sometimes I look at Ugali and think that there’s a chance that it slows mental development.
