Our regular columnist Mr Brian Bilal Mwebaze offers YOURS a unique perspective every month in his articles about road safety and young people in Africa. In this column, Brian draws upon a recent experience of taking a taxi in Uganda and being scared for his life in an overloaded and speeding vehicle but with some clever persuation of the young passengers, road safety was achieved!
A few days ago, I had the pleasure to be invited home (Rukungiri District-Uganda) for Christmas…oh..Sorry…I mean Easter celebrations (that’s the 69th time I make this mistake since this year started), so-As usual I jogged to the bus station. As I was waiting, rain started to pour in free-style Now, for those who haven’t been in areas where when it rains, it really does with ambition, I decided to instead grab a taxi to save my sorry soul from the harsh weather conditions. Within the car, there were 6 males and 4 females. Please note that these taxis are licensed to carry 14 passengers on our roads.
When it rains in Africa, it really chucks it down!
So, I sat with my rucksack, on my laps as usual, and off we sped! Yes, I mean, speeding…I thought that the driver was chasing for something in those first 3 minutes until I realized it was somewhat turning into a consistent show! I turned and looked around like a rat that had just seen a snake! To my utter surprise, everyone is enjoying the ride despite them clinging onto the edges of their seats! I think we were in the range of 100-120Km/Hr. A minute later, the taxi conductor yelled at me to pass him my rack sack which was, well, according to him, occupying another seat meant for another passenger. I gave it to him on which accord he, took it and hurled it onto the roof of the taxi-I hope you get the picture. In no second, we were at the second stage, where we found 8 passengers, who really looked like ducklings that have just been swimming in muddy water! They terribly wanted to be in the taxi of course. But you see, lurking behind them was also an old lady who had a hen and a goat that she was taking to the village for the Easter celebrations! Deep in my mind, am thinking, we needed a mechanic to add extra seats by performing some form of miraculous plastic-surgery and give the car a new facelift?
A typical taxi in Africa that is often overloaded from front to back with the driver speeding and taking risks.
I was wrong pal! Without complaining, I saw someone take a seat on the laps of one passenger starting from the front seat, the next one followed, and so…the cascade effect started! And then, where in hell was the goat supposed to sit? Never mind, a red eyed, gloss lipped lady who seemed to be in her early 50s gave me that sharp eye look, as if to suggest that I would carry the damn thing! I felt it was some kind of joke, so, I scooped out my camera and I was about to shoot what would have been the photo of the century, everyone started yelling at me on top of their lungs that I was a government spy from the media or ministry of roads!
There were 4 more youths whom I asked how old they were! They were 21, 28, 18, and 23 respectively! Woooooo….Young resources! When I asked though, how many of them would want to die, everyone had sounding reasons like finishing education, supporting their families, national and international contributions….big plans you know! It sounded none of them wanted to die from avoidable deaths! It’s on that time that we demanded to leave the damn taxi without paying a single coin! You know, when the youths say No in solidarity, even the Lion thinks again for a new tactic. We could enter it again on condition that the driver doesn’t go over 80Km/Hr, and that only 14 people would be accepted as per the law! Guess what, we won the battle, despite the driver and his conductor cursing the gods under their teeth!
“You know, when the youths say NO in solidarity, even the Lion thinks again for a new tactic”
Bottom line, if someone really cares about their life, why would they want to have a picnic with the devil himself? I am reliably informed that over loading on the road doesn’t just happen in Uganda, neither is it only happening in Equatorial Guinea, Egypt, Namibia, it’s all over the continent! Looking at the productive years lost if a young person looses his or her life, worse still, to ‘avoidable’ deaths, shouldn’t we get concerned? Hello #Youths!!!! I am Talking To You!!!