Appalled

Our local shops

A few weeks ago, these were the local shops just a short walk from our house. Here, I would buy our day-to-day goods and most of our fresh fruit and vegetables. As it happened, I had snapped a few photos one afternoon while waiting for Ben to collect our purchases:

HOWEVER...

I was utterly appalled last week as I watched the willful destruction of these shops which have been serving our local community!

Destruction

It was heartbreaking to see our local shop-keepers have their places of business dug up by a huge machine and smashed to the ground. I felt so bad for these hard-working people who were forced to stand back while their livelihoods were destroyed right in front of their eyes. To name just a few, I felt so bad for these Ugandan shop-keepers...

...Mark who makes chapatis and from whom we often buy our lunch.

...Jessica who sells us fresh fruit and vegetables. I buy fresh produce from her at least once a week.

...Edna who had a tiny, wooden hut that was her shop, a small business where she could sew and mend clothes. Often she has sewn up the holes in my sons' trousers and she fixed my bag for me when the lining got torn.

Around midday a large digger started smashing up the shop-fronts while people on the street watched helplessly:

Working its way down the street, this giant machine wreaked destruction as more and more shops were destroyed. People's containers or wooden shops and tin roof structures were mercilessly smashed:

Shop-keepers were forced to run with their goods. Many of them congregated on the opposite side of the street in the shelter of a disused garage. Their sales goods and their shop equipment had been hastily removed and was now piled up, futile, on the ground while the destruction continued across the road.

Edna stood with her wooden table and shelves, her sewing machine and a handful avocados she was still hoping to sell- all of which had been salvaged before her shop was pulled down:

Behind her, Jessica had managed to rescue her shelving and the fruit and vegetables she wanted to sell and had placed everything on a street corner where she still had a vantage point that allowed her to assess the damage to her small, recently-painted green-grocer stall. The damage was absolute.

I was so stunned by what was happening. I stood for a while and chatted with the people concerned, along with my children and another MAF friend, as we tried to find out why this ruining of property was taking place. It transpired that the local council was in charge of this mass destruction.

Apparently, there has been a long-running land ownership dispute, so Kampala council had now ordered the elimination of these small shops.
In addition, we heard that the council considered these structures an eye-sore, since they were the product of individual sellers who set up shops as best they could on limited budgets. These shops were not aesthetically planned or in any way slick or modern and now the council wanted to clean up the area. It is rumoured that the council have plans to build a brand new, smart shopping area.

Thus, in an sweeping action of brute force, the poor but hard-working had been forced out of their places of business. It seems like such incredibly harsh treatment of the people. Some told us that they had been pre-warned that the council may act this way. Others reported that they had been told that if they simply smartened up their shop-fronts they would be allowed to remain and continue business.

Some of them had recently bought new metal sheeting to make their shops smarter or had painted them. Now they were being forced to watch all that effort and expense being wasted as their walls crumbled and roof-tops collapsed. It seems so unfair.

It is difficult to find out exact details of the matter and who actually owns the land. Yet in a way, that matter seems irrelevant, as it is equally difficult to understand why people's livelihoods should be so absolutely smashed up in such a barbarous fashion.

Maybe there is a land dispute, or maybe the council is absolutely bent on development by smartening up neighbourhoods throughout the city. However, when this means that they are prepared to treat the hard-working in this way, there will be no development. There will just be heightened unemployment as locals are stripped of their source of income to feed their families and pay school fees for their children in this land without free education. There may be desperation and therefore an increase in crime.

Surely there is a more enlightened way to clear land or solve land disputes? A way in which those prepared to work hard to set up business can be given encouragement and support- rather than leaving them with a pile of rubble in the place of hope?

Resilience

This week, Jessica told me that she is determined to stay in the local area and keep selling her produce. With true resilience, she found a wooden table to set out fresh fruit and vegetables and was simply selling her goods on top of the debris that used to be her shop. She told me how much she cried when her shop was torn down. She has two young children to provide for and is a single mother- her husband drank too much and beat her so hard that eventually she had to run away for safety's sake.
I took these pictures a couple of days ago as I went to buy my usual order of fresh goods:

Jessica is praying as she asks God to provide a new business venue where she can keep her loyal customers- or that the owners of the new shops which may be established will notice her and give her employment. Her hope is in God to take care of her and her children. But this hope comes at a cost, as she has lost so much and still struggles to make ends meet.

Yesterday, she moved her table around the corner to a nearby street and asked me to continue to buy from her.

Meanwhile, Mark is still making chapati from a portable wooden stand and greets us cheerfully despite the challenge he still faces to find a new place to work from.

Edna has moved her sewing machine onto a paved area in front of her friend's shop and sits there each day, waiting for business- but no longer has a place to hang mended garments or to store her supplies. Despite this, she smiles when I walk past and tells me that she trusts God to help her. Her optimism and faith challenge me.

If you are a praying person, pray for these people who trust so much despite harsh treatment. Pray for justice for the poor. Pray for enlightened policies that can help those prepared to work hard and give them opportunities to thrive rather than discouragement. 

Thank you.