44 / 64
44 July 2016
S
hall I tell you a little bit about Uganda, and then about the
people on the Mwenge Tea Estate?
Well! Uganda, the Pearl of Africa, is a landlocked country in
Eastern Africa. This verdant land, bisected by the equator, is
rich in wildlife including the endangered gorilla and
chimpanzee. Although Uganda is fairly small in size when
compared to its neigbours, its population of 37.5 million
people make up over 40 different ethnic groups. For example,
the Baganda, the largest of the ethnic groups, are from the
South of the country, the Batoro are from the West, the Acholi
from the North and the Basamia, the East.
I recently moved to Mwenge, one of the largest tea estates in
Uganda. It lies within the Toro Kingdom (we have monarchies
here too!) which is in the western region of the country.
Mwenge is massive! It covers 2280 hectares, 1046 hectares of
which are cultivated. It has an equally large workforce of 1345
resident workers which swells to 2452 during the peak season.
New to life on a tea estate, and to the tea community in
general, I was drawn to, and took comfort in the landscape:
the bucolic views of rolling hills and natural forest that stretch
all the way to the snow-capped Rwenzori mountains on a clear
day; the extraordinary sunsets that we experience daily on our
runs along the airstrip; and the graphic contrast of the workers
in orange overalls against the green of the tea bushes.
On my walks around the estate, I encounter groups of people
employed here, walking to and from work. As I pass, I catch
snippets of conversations, each one in a different language.
Over time, it dawned on me that Mwenge could be seen as a
microcosm of Uganda – a convergence of different national
ethnic groups and foreigners within a specific boundary
brought together for a common goal – in the case of Mwenge,
the quest for the perfect Ugandan cup.
As I settled into this life, it was this convergence of ethnicity
and nationality on the tea estate that I kept returning to. Who
were the people that made up this community? Where did
they come from? How far did they have to travel to get here?
What memories of home did they carry inside them? What
memento of home did they carry with them?
I set out to find out. I started asking the people I met questions
about home, about the distances travelled, the memories held
and the mementos carried. Here, I present to you some of the
answers I received. I see it as a very, very small but indicative
cross section of the people that work at Mwenge and the
reminders of home that they brought with them.
Sanjay
is the Estate
Manager at Mwenge Tea
Estate. Although from
Nagaland and Rajasthan
in India, Sanjay considers
Darjeeling home. Two
years ago, Sanjay travelled
approximately 6800 km
over two days to get to
Uganda. It took three
time zones, three flights
and two four-hour car
~Bathsheba Okwenje-Sharma
Mwenge T.E.
A Memento of Home
Bathsheba is a researcher-artist who combines information practices and aesthetics in her work inspired by
the hidden histories of people, their interior lives and the interactions between them. Her art work has been
shown in India, USA, Uganda, South Africa, Namibia and Switzerland. Currently, she is on contract with
the United Nations and travels for work from Mwenge where her husband, Sanjay, is posted.