By JOACHIM BUWEMBO

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Uganda recently crossed the one-million-refugee mark, and more are still streaming in.

We thump our chests proclaiming that we are always accommodative of refugees, forgetting other countries took in our refugees in the past. But even more important, we need to recognise the contribution refugees have made to our country, just as Ugandan refugees have contributed to other countries.

But even more practically, we need to identify those sectors where refugees can help us and position our economy accordingly. I am thinking of the rumblings in the jungle that we have started hearing. Yes, I am talking of the very city where boxing legend Mohammed Ali floored George Foreman in the Rumble in the Jungle in 1974.

When all the world’s media was focussed on Kinshasa as the duel for the boxing crown unfolded between Ali and Foreman, a certain toddler called Joseph Kabila was three years old. Today he reigns in Kinshasa and although he is required to retire or renew his mandate this December, he is not about to let go.

Other Congolese are saying enough is enough this time. So from here to the east of Congo, it’s time to prepare to take in more refugees.

Art and music

This need not be a bad thing. The first major wave of Congolese refugees settling in Uganda was in the early 1960s. They came in with their guitars and got to work straightaway. Those days, what passed for popular music in Uganda was mostly made by traditional drums.

A couple of Ugandans had started recording some music with modern instruments in Nairobi and were struggling to set up “orchestras” but these had no character. And then the Congolese arrived with their mastery of the Rumba. They played and Ugandans were wowed. The Ugandans started learning from them.

By the close of the 1960s, some serious Ugandan bands were coming up. The ‘70s saw the maturing of modern Ugandan music. The Ugandan musicians had learned instrumental exterity from the Congolese and now they could confidently produce a new genre of modern Ugandan music, in Ugandan languages.

Fashion

Uganda has just celebrated its 55th independence anniversary and all reviews of our arts have recognised the role of Congolese refugees in developing our music industry. But when many of us who are consulted by young journalists are asked to comment on the development of fashion since Independence, we have no answer.

Probably because there has been none.

Uganda fashion development went into the deep freeze a century ago when the gomesi for women and the kanzu for men were developed – by foreign teachers and traders respectively.

We are now in 2017. Should Congolese refugees start flowing in at the end of this year, we must insist that this time round they teach us how to perfect the making of clothes.

In our a unique country, which has such great potential to produce cotton, old underwear is sold openly. Did I say openly? The vendors of used boxers and knickers shout at the top of their voices in our towns as they urge everyone to come buy the stuff. They compose songs, entertain customers as they describe the beauty of the used undergarments and “pump” bras.

Let the Congolese come in and teach us how to design our clothes from our abundant cotton. By the time they have given us a design industry, say 10 years later, we shall be able to employ many in the process. We did it with music. We can do it with textiles.

Joachim Buwembo is a social and political commentator based in Kampala. E-mail: [email protected]