It\’s Not About Ugali, Prof,

It\’s Not About Ugali, Prof,

Professor Makau Mutua has written an article on Sunday Nation saying that Nairobi high-end restaurants are racist because he went to one and did not find ugali in the menu. 

He proceeds to make it look like serving ugali in restaurants is Pan-African arguing that foreigners who visit Kenya should be served with Ugali as a way to promote African culture.

I\’d like to disagree with Prof. One, high-end restaurants are businesses and they are free to cook what their customers want as well as not to sell food their customers don\’t buy. Restaurants have provisions for special orders, which the son of my home county, Kitui living in America should have placed . Restaurants are also very  many in Nairobi. There\’s is even one in Mlango Kubwa called \’Kwa Omosh\’ where they cook lots of Ugali and fish.

Secondly, why do we always make it as if Africa has a culture that should amaze and be appreciated by all foreigners? Not all foreigners are coming to Kenya to eat Ugali. The same way when I go to China, I won\’t be going there to eat snakes.

Observably, there\’s a confusion that befalls many Africans when they become elite. I mean, those who frequent high-end restaurants. The one where they think African life is a style. As if it is something when done, it is celebrated. No, African life is just life, ordinary life, which should be lived any day. Ati because someone from America has taken ugali so we are celebrating African culture. No.

Lastly, loving Africa is not in having Ugali in every restaurant\’s menu. It is in upholding their dignity. It is in knowing that we Africans are also people. It is in believing in our capabilities to do things in the global space.

Don\’t give us problems with eating gali.

-Boniface Muema Harrison 

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