Are you at a 1980s hiphop show? No. You are at a prison in central Uganda.
I always enjoy visiting public institutions in foreign countries--schools, hospitals, and the like. Somehow, detention centers have stayed off my list. This changed after my recent trip to the country's second largest prison, located in Jinja--a beautiful tourist town and the source of the Nile.
Do me a favor. In your mind, picture your idea of a detention center in a developing country. Now, let's compare this with my experience:
1. A sign on the wall reading "Prisoners are people too!"
2. A friendly warden who stressed the value of rehabilitation instead of punishment
3. An idyllic setting overlooking beautiful Lake Victoria, surrounded by rolling hills, farmland, and baby goats. Fucking baby goats, people.
As you can imagine, this was not the prison experience I had expected. Our class visited with a group of ministers from Kampala, who were certainly proselytizing but seemed very nice. They set up a speaker system in the rectangular, open-air courtyard in the middle of the three-story facility. Once the music got going, several hundred prisoners in bright yellow and orange jumpsuits began to laugh, sing and dance to Ugandan-style gospel music. They were absolutely beaming.
"Is this real life?" I asked my friend Claire over and over, as we sat at the front of the stage, seemingly on display to the entire prison population.
"No... this is certainly a malaria dream," she replied.
Of course, I am not so naive to believe that this is how the prison functions every day. Human rights abuses at this facility have been documented in the past. Several years ago a man was tortured almost to death by a prison guard--a story which drew national attention. It was interesting, however, to see so much joy in a place you would think would be terribly depressing.
There is beauty in the chaos.
I always enjoy visiting public institutions in foreign countries--schools, hospitals, and the like. Somehow, detention centers have stayed off my list. This changed after my recent trip to the country's second largest prison, located in Jinja--a beautiful tourist town and the source of the Nile.
Do me a favor. In your mind, picture your idea of a detention center in a developing country. Now, let's compare this with my experience:
1. A sign on the wall reading "Prisoners are people too!"
2. A friendly warden who stressed the value of rehabilitation instead of punishment
3. An idyllic setting overlooking beautiful Lake Victoria, surrounded by rolling hills, farmland, and baby goats. Fucking baby goats, people.
As you can imagine, this was not the prison experience I had expected. Our class visited with a group of ministers from Kampala, who were certainly proselytizing but seemed very nice. They set up a speaker system in the rectangular, open-air courtyard in the middle of the three-story facility. Once the music got going, several hundred prisoners in bright yellow and orange jumpsuits began to laugh, sing and dance to Ugandan-style gospel music. They were absolutely beaming.
"Is this real life?" I asked my friend Claire over and over, as we sat at the front of the stage, seemingly on display to the entire prison population.
"No... this is certainly a malaria dream," she replied.
Of course, I am not so naive to believe that this is how the prison functions every day. Human rights abuses at this facility have been documented in the past. Several years ago a man was tortured almost to death by a prison guard--a story which drew national attention. It was interesting, however, to see so much joy in a place you would think would be terribly depressing.
There is beauty in the chaos.
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