Entry five - Owino market and transportation

The assistant director of MISR, Patrick Mulindwa, has acted as my contact person in the absence of Nakanyike Musisi, the UofT professor who is also the executive director of MISR. In addition to helping me negotiate the web of school bureaucracy, he has introduced me to some of the people I will need to know at Makerere, shown me around campus and given some important, and amusing, tips on life in Kampala and at Makerere. Stanley, who is around my age, works in Patrick's office along with Gertrude, who is giving me lessons in Luganda.

Last week I went to Owino market with Stanley. Although I have been there before and enjoy the chaotic atmosphere, Patrick warned me about the some tricks that hawkers and pickpockets have supposedly used there. He described how one creative merchant sold several torn sport jackets to unsuspecting customers by carefully concealing the damaged areas. He also claimed to have seen thieves prick a man in the leg with a pin so that as he bent over to examine his wound they could reach for his money in his back pocket. The moral of these stories, he said, was that "people in the market don't care about anything except money and how to get it from you."

While bargaining is tough and there are undoubtedly a few pickpockets around, I don't think that these stories accurately reflect what Owino is like. It is certainly true that getting money is why everyone except the customers is in the market. However, rather than politely telling you that corporation X is giving you a ten-dollar surcharge for this transaction, sellers in the market extract these profits through the much more complicated, and challenging, strategies of personal interaction. Although there are 'standard' prices for most items (or at least prices below which a seller will not go), I noticed that neither Stanley nor anyone else I talked with about it spoke in terms of "the price". Instead they spoke of how much the seller thinks s/he can get from you, which does seem like a more honest way of thinking about economic interactions.

By speaking of "the price" we normalize what is in fact a contested issue. If 'the free market' functions by companies charging as much for their products as they think that consumers will pay, then the idea of a standard price (e.g. everyone knows that a can of Coke costs 1 dollar) does us "consumers" a disservice. It costs Coca-Cola less than a nickel to produce a can of Coke, but they have established a relationship in which they can get a dollar for it. Likewise, in Owino market, sellers try to establish a relationship in which their customers will pay 15,000 shillings for a shirt. (1,830 Ugandan shillings [Ush] = 1 US dollar) Since they do not have the same power that Coca-Cola has, they usually end up getting four or five thousand. This variation in cost corresponds with the microcosmic 'market forces' of the relationship between the seller and buyer. Understanding how much one pays for something in terms of "how much they can get from you" rather than "the price" was very helpful when shopping in Owino and is probably applicable to anywhere. Marx's quotation seems appropriate: "Money is a relationship between people masquerading as a relationship between things."

I let Stanley determine when was appropriate to buy something - which made for a longer trip than I expected. According to his advice, I didn't look interested in anything - since showing interest apparently gives the seller more bargaining leverage. After almost an hour of browsing and going through a similar routine with each seller in the shirt section, we found that I should expect to pay 5,000 Ush for a long-sleeve shirt and 4,000 for a short-sleeved one. In the end I got a couple of shirts and a few t-shirts, whose prices were less negotiable, at 1,000. Although I hadn't intended on getting them, I got a pair of shoes for 20,000.

Owino is a sprawling place that is easy to get lost in if you don't know its layout. It is located near the old stadium and taxi parks in a busy part of town. Clothes, shoes, electronics, cooking equipment, toys, live animals, and numerous other items each have their own section. In each one, the slightest hesitation usually leads to someone grabbing your arm with a "Yes my friend…" and an invitation to buy something quickly. There are numerous paths and alleyways throughout, each of which seems only to lead further and further into the market. Each stall has its own tin roof, but there is nothing covering the entire complex, except in a few sections.

After our excursion, we took a taxi back to the campus. I should say something about public transport. The main method of transportation is by 'taxi', which are 14-seat minibuses that cover nearly all of Kampala. Others cover most of the country as well. A trip within the city is usually around 500 Ush (30 cents). They all start in either of the main taxi parks near the market and stadium. At first glance as one walks downhill toward these taxi parks, they appear utterly chaotic. However, they are in fact highly organized and regulated, as each destination has its own location, while gatekeepers monitor and tax all vehicles entering and exiting. Throughout the parks, hawkers sell small items ranging from chewing gum to religious posters to women's underwear. Each taxi has a driver and a conductor who advertises the destination and collects fares. On shorter trips in areas outside of Kampala, conductors often cram as many people as will fit (up to 30). However, within Kampala and on long-distance journeys, the maximum capacity is 14 passengers - though the conductor pushes himself in as well. (Buses also go between major cities, but I have never used them).

Within Kampala there are two other forms of transport, boda-bodas and special hires. Special hires are like American taxis (though the cars are generally in much poorer condition). Drivers apparently keep as little fuel as possible in their tanks so that car thieves won't get far. However, as I found out once four years ago, they often don't keep enough to get to a gas station, meaning a slightly longer trip than expected. Both taxis and boda-bodas congregate around stores, restaurants and major buildings - though they do not ride around town looking for customers. Bodas are bicycle-taxis, which can be either motorized scooters or regular bikes. You sit on a cushion on the back and hold on as the driver weaves through traffic. I was told that they have been outlawed downtown after 11 p.m. due to numerous accidents.

Driving in Uganda is aggressive - to put it mildly. Bigger vehicles get the right of way, though all vehicles muscle their way into traffic in order to get anywhere. Rush hour in Kampala is much like it is in any other major city from what I have seen. Moving across town can take a couple hours if you don't take shortcuts, which are often jammed with cars themselves. Driving is on the left, and dividers are being put up on a few main roads in town in order to enforce this. Vehicles do not yield for pedestrians, or for anything else except for bigger more aggressive cars occasionally. Bodas weave their way through gaps in traffic that look too small for even the smallest of pedestrians. While accidents do occur more frequently than in North America, there are far fewer than one would expect, likely due to the amount of skill involved in getting on the road in the first place. I have no plans to do any driving in Uganda.