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Bigambo = Words [(Big) ambo]... |
Fuka = Urinate [Fu ka = Flower has grown]... |
Lindako = Wait a bit [Linda ko = Catching Linda]... |
Mukenenya = HIV/ AIDS [Mukene nya = Eating silverfish]... |
Nakafu = Female-given name with meaning related to sth dead [Na ka fu = When three go out] |
Nva ko = Get off me [Mvako = No child]... |
Obuze = You are lost [O'bu ze = Worm faeces]... |
Onzita = You are killing me [Onzi ta = Coping with evil or bad things]... |
Osibye otya = How have you stayed/ How are you? [Osi be oti-a = Produced eggs at the brother-in-law; Osubi ti-a = Bean leaves in the mouth]... |
Sagala (Siyagala) = I don't want [Sa gala (Si ya gala) = Slapped a snake (The teeth shook the snake)]... |
Semakula = Male-given name with meaning related to gains [Se maku la = Pulled the potato to read]... |
LOST IN TRANSLATION (Lugbara AI): |
This encyclopedic research documentation is inspired by (and dedicated to) Cynthia Letasi, aka Rejoice (The Beautyful One [Roger that Ayi Kwei Armah] and Green Riding Hood [Now Mrs. Mungufeni whose husband I was a fan of after his song "DJ Pastor" before she proclaimed that they were dating] born on Thursday 17th August 1995) who changed my worldview like a valuable pearl (Matthew 13:45-46), worth far above rubies (Proverbs 31:10), Kumari in Nepal (Orient) or Divine Feminine between 2001-6; made me feel like Bob Harris in Arua (not Japan) around 2003 because she was 11 years younger than me, but inversely over four years ahead in speaking the language of the land we played on. If a snake, Balaam's donkey, ants, prophesied Beast and parrots can talk, then how about stones? This pre-teen Lugbara girl drained Amalala ga kibuga [Luganda for: City haughtiness] out of me. To be honest, she was my first "superhigh" crush within Arua (West Nile) after the Y2K Computer Bug Doom's Day didn't happen though I never told her my exact heartfelt reality for multiple years (Just tried to show it through kind, unapologetic treatment because I loved her smile and hawking eyes until she confessed something unexpected, but very stunning that I will treasure until infinity). Cynthia engraved her fingerprints in my heart. Everytime I left Arua for campus in Mukono, I would feel my heart pain around Madi Okollo, but calm down in Nebbi Town. Her lookalikes included the volatile Tonto Dikeh (Nigerian I watched on Top TV in KLA), lyric-savvy Sheebah Karungi who broke out around 2009, decent Betty Mpologoma, unflinching Victoria Bagaya on NBS, worry-free Spice Diana as well as the easygoing Scarlett Johansson who automatically became my all-time favourites; I knew CL before all of them except maybe Betty who began her diamond singing career in 1999. Queenie, one of the lead vocalists in the Miracle Cathedral Rubaga (MCR) Proclaim Music choir also has that Cynthia aura plus Jommie Nankya (Bukedde TV), Pretty Banks, Sheila Gashumba, etc. Even though I reconnected with Xnthi (nickname I gave her meaning Numberless or Infinite value) via Facebook at the turn of the 2010s, I did not see her again physically until Tuesday 12th February 2019 walking southwards with her darkskinned female friend on the hyper-straight Arua Avenue at the Ediofe Road Junction (while I escorted my cousin to a printshop before he rushed to Onduparaka to see his sister). That was about 13 unlucky years since the last time, but only three surreal days after dreaming about her. I smiled like GOD's sun was shining on me in the afternoon before rush hour; it was the same day Onduparaka drew 0-0 with URA FC in the Ugandan top-flight league. Obsession is not a crime, just harness it like human solar electricity: Rise and shine! Disconnection is re-direction; too much love will heal you. Love is indestructible and the Greatest Thing: I admired Cynthia's pleasant appearance and shameless, supadupa fluency at a very tender age of 6 to 11 plus felt inspired to polish my own linguistics by reading Lugbara afresh since I learnt my mother tongue in Busoga (Birth to 11 years) and Buganda only by listening to Lugbara people talk despite being downgraded as backward or Lower class (Not Upper). Depression Management (Edification): Detach your mind and heart (Subconscious) from negative criticism, abuse, belittlement, mockery, disrespect, pokopoko or contempt! Even though I spoke and understood the language, I couldn't transcribe Lugbara well like English but when moonstruck by our Mt. Wati Road (Arua) neighbour's adorable brownskinned daughter, I was motivated to re-study this vernacular from Northwestern Uganda in black and white (scraping from music lyrics, Bibilia, Straight Talk newspapers, brochures, internet articles, other literature, then a Fountain Publishers 2009 dictionary compiled by Willy Ngaka, Edward O'du'bua and Paul Iga Ongua [bought for a Twenty10 gig from Sarah Ojirot at Uganda Deaf Women's Organisation; my Design Manager from UCU named Edmund Asingwire (Munyankole studying Business Administration) also hired me after campus to do artwork in Lugbara for him and Jolynn Investments Limited - One Nation under GOD], exclusively English dictionaries, a Chinese Dictionary for finding word classes, Google web searches for synonyms plus asked various people including my Parents and Facebook friends like Okitembeki Ndengendu [Enoch Opika Diku], 2012 Kyambogo University dissertation entitled "A History of the Logbari Clans of West Nile 1000-1925 AD" by Fr. Lazarus Ijoyi from Ofude [Maraca], etc). Consequently, I would perhaps grasp Lugbara the way ShaoLan Hsueh created Chineasy, then fabricate my own Synthetic Artificial Lugbara Technology (SALT), Informative Synthetic Encoder (ISE, the Grasshopper Translation Machine), Ojapi Converter (Bypassing the Language Barrier) or African Chinese. My big brother Victor Draman(i) Afayo (an I.T. Specialist based in KLA City) wanted to create a Lugbara.net website and gave me the assignment of doing research for him in the latter half of the 2000s; I decided to create my own Lugbara Culture blog (Amazing World of Lugbara) plus Facebook groups with the data around 2008, a process that inspired this vocabulary-book too. The words here are the ones used on UBC Radio (formerly Radio Uganda), Voice Of Life (probably since 1997 though I started listening in 2000), Arua One (since 2002), Koboko FM, Nile FM (since 2004), Radio Pacis, Access FM (since Monday 19th March 2018) plus BTN Television (from 2003), Westnile TV (from around 2020) and in voice commands for Airtel Uganda, et cetera. During one of the Mobile Monday sessions in KLA City, I asked a Google Executive from Germany who came to UG around 2012 if Lugbara could be added to the advanced Google Translate machine. He replied that he would forward my concern to the relevant office. Additionally, I posted a request at Wikimedia for a Lugbara Wiktionary but there weren't enough volunteer editors as is the requirement for the project to hatch; a Lugbarapedia would be the eventual outcome. Tualu.org [West Nile Portal] announced that they were working on a project of over 500 Lugbara words but I could not find their draft PDF. Nevertheless, Tualu posted a long and thorough Dictionary of Lugbara Personal Names by Alex Matua Asumi and his colleagues: Fortunate Drateru, Moses Dramiga and Proscovia Adrupiyo. There were no names listed with the letters H, Q and X, but the ones posted are more than enough; I commend them for that, a masterpiece about Ru'daza Lugbara niri (Naming in the Lugbara Tradition). Saidi Omar Dramani (Islamic University In Uganda - Mbale) also posted a PDF of his 2007 dissertation research for a Lugbarati Dictionary; it was very helpful. Fountain Publishers has Lugbarati Buku Anzini for Secondary School children, approved by Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) plus National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC) in Kyambogo. Language has to be preserved through documentation and transmitted to anyone connected or interested because cultural heritage represents a collective identity of values, diversity, traditions and assets passed around from generation to generation eg my Parents (James + Elizabeth Ndezo Dramani) to me, though my Mother departed in Twenty22 (during Volume 7) - She used to tell me: If you cannot express something in Lugbara, then use English! My father meanwhile said translation is difficult sometimes and I should be out with people to learn more, but still helped me find words quite well. Some relatives and natives would laugh at my pronunciations or choice of words but it didn't phase me. In Bantuland, I was never ashamed to be called Omulugwara even if it was a byword for stupidity, Naked People (Only Karamoja was ranked before us), backwardness, thieves, street vendors with baskets on the head, mairunji-eaters, security guards, toilet cleaners or emptors, etc. At least, we are not beggars, but educated, energetic, welcoming, hardworking Ugandans who remain natural (No artificial bodyparts), faithful in marriage, kind and loving. Some Lugbara are lawyers, bankers, professors, clergy, managers and wealthy people. From Arua Park in KLA to Arua Park in Bugerere, you can find Lugbara people everywhere. Aren't we all descendants of Noah, the Flood Survivor? One day, I bypassed two dudes on Acacia Avenue in KLA and heard them speak what sounded like broken Lugbara; I reasoned later that it might have been Madi or another related language. Also, Aringa is like Lugbara Patois, Pidgin or Filipino. During May 2023, someone asked me why I study Lugbara yet it is not useful and I told him not to belittle my mother tongue like that; garbage or waste appears worthless until it's recycled and given value or repackaged like brickets or beads, biogas, etc: Lugbara is a multinational language spoken mainly across three colonial borders which converge at Salia Musala (about 2 hours by car northwards from Arua City). There are about six Lugbara clans in DR Congo (Kari Culture Minister - John Godo, a UPC stalwart, taught me that in 2009: When I went to Ariwara [inside DRC] the following year, I was stunned by the amount of Lugbara songs playing loudly near the markets, more than Lingala or even English; many place names in Orientale Province as spotted on Google Maps look like Lugbara words). #SpeakLugbara on International Mother Tongue Day (21st February)! I strongly believe Generative AI can learn Lugbarati and make it reuseable and applicable in various fields; Deep Learning Indaba (DLI), Ambani, Masakhane (We Build Together) African Language NLP, Translators Without Borders (TWB), Artificial Intelligence for Development-Africa Network (AI4D-Africa), Hugging Face, Deep Site, Foundation for Lugbarati Development Initiative (FLUDI), Quantum ML or Lugbara GPT type-of-way. Live translation of President M7's speeches (by people like Nahori Oya, Fred Bada, John Ondoma, etc), social media broadcasts (eg Getrude Abiria [Oku aka], Peace Victoria Eyotaru, X. Pillo Hilarious who resembles Ham Jay animations, Baby Girl, Scorpionbae, etc) plus other arrangements such as crusades, conferences, weddings, funerals and so on can also be a reference... In December 2013, the Lugbarati Language Board proposed an Orthography Guide with 45 letters (including 7 vowels and 38 consonants). Tonal Lugbara literature with its many character symbols (accents, crosses, dashes or hyphens, dots, umlauts, etc) seems advanced plus crowdily complex (like the new books commissioned from DR Congo that I used to see at the Radio Pacis Printery) and scares away learners or researchers, but the simpler version shared in this wordbook is legit too... Lugbara funeral songs have been replaced with church hymns and modern Gospel music... In my Allegory of Artificial Ignorance: For machines to learn Lugbara, humans (both self-motivated and paid contributors) must train them or organise datasets for AI to decode unsupervised... Artificial Dreams (or Hallucinations) can also come true like Dreamcast... My makeshift Word Interchange Theory (WIT) from 1996 was not far-fetched afterall (feeling like Michael Jordan versus Detroit Pistons: No rules); every challenge forces you to think of ways to sidestep (jump off/ bypass or leap over) it... |
When I was in Senior 5 (during 2001), I told my hostelmates that one day there will be a radio device that converts words spoken on air into text like S2T (Speech-2-Text) or Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and displayed on a screen, not just lyrics as Jango Radio does, but conversations too (Inspired by the way we transcribed classroom dictation from teachers. In Senior 6, GOD made the woman I loved the most at Makerere College School [named Lydia (Muganda)] to sit immediately infront of me; her back literally rested against the front of my wooden desk and sometimes when she skipped what was being dictated, she would turn around to fill missing words in her classwork book using my notes. That was truly heartwarming because I regarded her a perfect woman, but played it safe and she knew it simply because I believed competition was high (Just enjoyed the moments she gave me; told me she landed for my Art and thought of me as a gentleman)! When I joined UCU the following year, I actually fell in love with another woman [Alice (Mukonzo)] because she reminded me of my old classmate: Stout plus graceful in gait, but a Gooner like me and not Kopite Red). I was labelled "Mulalu [Luganda for: Madman]" for mentioning the radio-text display but dreams are not hopeless; GOD's time brings them to life for instance Google Assistant, Meet (In-chat captions), Apple's Siri, TranSay (My Favourite), Lingmo One2One, Translate 4 Me, Waverly Labs Pilot, Mesay, Langogo, Translaty, MUAMA Enence, Xiaomi AI Translator, Clik, WT2 Translator, Travis, LeTrans, Sigmo, NTT DoCoMo Translation Service, OBTranslate (from Nigeria), Logbar ili, OpenAI's ChatGPT or Whisper, Assembly AI, iFlytek, etc. Twitter (X) Spaces is also not very far from my Ongo (Ojapi Converter) vision. Zero-Shot Machine Translation tech is a model that can learn to translate words into another language without having to see any examples... Meta's Universal Speech Translator is a very ambitious AI research project that might improve language-mixing or Computer-Assisted Translation... LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications) which Blake Lamoine labelled "sentient" was originally introduced as Meena in 2020. It's a conversational Large Language Model (LLM) built by Google... The Madi-Lugbara language is related to the languages of Southern Nigeria eg Yoruba, Igbo, Edo, Iduma, Igala, Igbira, Gbari and Nupe. In addition, we can include Ijo and Kalabari of the Niger Delta plus the Bariba - north of Yoruba and Aja (Ewe) spoken in Southern Dahomey (Benin), Togo and South-Eastern Ghana... Some people consider Lugbara a dialect of Madi but many do not accept this theory. In fact, a survey concluded that the Ogoko, Okollo and Rigbo dialects which are considered Southern Madi or Madi (I)ndri, should be categorised as dialects of Lugbara. Besides, we share the same names, numbers and many words. The only mother tongue interference I have heard from tribemates is mixing S with SH like when saying "soap" and "shop" or -TION with -SON eg "information" becomes "informason". Some interchange D with TH eg "together" is spoken as "togeder" while "three" may be pronounced "tiri" but most times, pronunciation is okay. Exactly 11 days before I created my electronic Lugbara Dictionary in Twenty16, Google Translate switched to Google Neural Machine Translation (GNMT) translating whole sentences at a time rather than piece by piece which GT used to do through Statistical Machine Translation since 28th April 2006. GNMT improves the Quality of Translation because it uses an Example-based Machine Translation (EBMT) in which the system learns from millions of examples... In 2020, with support from the Hewlett Foundation, Sunbird AI commenced the African language technology project. They created a large multilingual parallel text dataset of Ugandan languages, with translations in Acholi, Ateso, Luganda, Lugbara and Runyankole. On Saturday 11th October 2025, an AI Language Model called Sunflower (developed by Sunbird) was officially launched and it is described as "the ChatGPT for Uganda"... GeoPoll (a global research organisation) has datasets in Lugbara while JEHOVAH's Witnesses translate their publications into Lugbara (Available at www.jw.org). Companies like MTN, dfcu Bank, etc also use Lugbara in their PR content... It was very unreal to discover on Sunday 10th September 2023 while googling for "Lugbara AI" that the mother of Jeff Dean (55 year old Google AI Lead then) speaks "fluent Lugbara"; she lived in West Nile when Jeffrey was 5 years old. I guess she knows that Lugbara is learnable by machines; Meta introduced its own AI on WhatsApp a few days later. I love the fact that it paraphrases websites rejected by Wikipedia. Mark Zuckerberg believes AI will make superintelligent multi-lingual connections possible for all. When you copy some of the BigAMBO [Words] in this dictionary and paste as a chat message to Meta AI like a Paul and Silas jailbreak, it can learn Ugandan Lugbara by reading patterns and fine-tuning itself to chat with you even though it used a strange vocabulary as Lugbara in Twenty24 (probably Central or West African) like TranslatorMind the following year. Sam Altman (CEO at Open AI) also revealed that you can add knowledge and create a custom GPT by uploading files in the GPTs App Store. The Google.com AI Mode can fish out Lugbara words from throughout the internet and explain to you (Some are hallucinations, but others are spot on especially when it scrapes from bible translations). Self-Adapting or Adjusting LLMs (SEAL or SALMs) will learn new words by themselves. Teach AI to fish and it will fish all the fish-species to extinction... Push to the limits: Vibe-coding can also help you create Lugbara chatbots, games eg Scrabble or Pictionary plus other software for investors, traders, friends, lovers, in-laws, tourists, media watchers, music listeners, conference audiences, ethnodoxologists, migrants, refugees and those supertalented in Xenoglossy... United Nations (UN) calls the language Logbari. The ISO 639-3 Language Code for Lugbara is lgg while the Glottocode is lugb1240, but I wish the language code for Lugbara was simply LB or Lbr (which is actually my Lugbara Dictionary logo in a circle; it corresponds better though already taken by Lohorung language which is an endangered Sino-Tibetan language spoken in Nepal). The quick, brown fox jumps over the lazy dog! |
[GODisgreat!] |
(CC) AIKO (Artificial Intelligence Knowledge Organiser) 2003-Now |
Born: Saturday 7th January 1984 in Jinja Hospital (UG) to Elizabeth Ndezo Dramani (from Ayivu) + James Dramani (from Maracha) |
Siblings: 1 brother, 5 sisters |
Tribe: Lugbara |
Baptised: Edward Ayikobua [Translated from Lugbara: Happiness is in Heaven] on Sunday 22nd April 1984 at Bugaddu Church of Uganda Bugerere; dropped out letter Y from surname in Primary 1 (at age 6) following advice from his father to make it shorter and modern |
Religion: Anglican-born; Savedee (1997); Muslim (2002); now JESUSfreak (Christian) |
Favourite food: Rice, beans, chapati, spaghetti, etc. |
Sports interest: Michael Jordan (since 1992); Football (John Barnes; Germany; Romario (Brazil); Arsenal FC [Ian Wright, Emmanuel Petit, Patrick Vieira, Arsene Wenger, Robert Pires, etc]; Real Madrid; Lionel Messi)... |
Education: Garage Daycare, then Modern Nursery Jinja (1989); Victoria Nile School (1990-5); Kalinabiri Primary School (1995-6); St. Mary's College Kisubi (1997-2000); Makerere College School (2001-2); Uganda Christian University in Mukono (2003-6); Maisha Filmlab (2008) |
Childhood Ambition: Become a Footballer (1992), but gave up in 1996. Others were doctor or trucker, then fireman (1997). Idea for an art label came after Y2K |
Turning Point: Rejected from joining Technical Drawing class (after quitting the Fine Art class in Senior 5 because of constantly deteriorating grades) and with teary eyes, he started writing the name of GOD in all caps plus decided to teach himself how to draw cartoons |
Penname: Aiko, chosen after a 1997 Christmas card from VNS and SMACK OB named Robin Kasinda who addressed him as "Aiiko", but the name AikoGraphics came to him during Sunday 2nd February 2003 around 4:39pm on Mt. Wati Road (Arua) as a Creativity Organisation |
Tagline: Designs and Portraits |
Notable Artworks: Bob Marley (for S4 deskmate Jean Rwamukaga) when he discovered focussed inking without pencil sketches, Emmanuel Petit, Thierry (Y2K); ChurchTV logo (2002); Emily (2005) featuring his bounceback girlfriend; Uganda Clearing Industry & Forwarders Association (UCIFA) logo (2007); Procurement Initiatives Asia-Pacific (2011); Arua Citystate emblem (2016) made in memory of his first real love (Kawino) a day before Women's Day and emblazoned on the West Face of the 2021 Arua Central Market; Block Owners crest in SMACK League (2017); AruaCartoons, Maracha View (2018); Lugbara (2019); Jackline Katusiime (2020) sparked his Ugatoons Epiphany during a gig from The Office (TV series) director Maureen Nankya, Jhosa (Filipino); Namesake (Jhene Aiko) two days after seeing her in a birthday-wedding dream, Lugbara With a Pearl Earring (2021) a month after Cynthia Letasi's 26th birthday; Black Peace (Dreamscape); HR (Humura Ronivich) Handyman, Lindsay Hames, Self-portrait (2023); Farida, Ojapi, West Nile logo (2024); 12-colour Clock (2025)... |
Blogs: Kargo Magazine (2008); Arua District Local Government (2009)... |
Books: Aiko's Lugbara Dictionary (2016) dedicated to his first crush in West Nile (Cynthia); Dreamsurfing (Book cover features his 2005 Bounceback Girlfriend in the centre), United Gombololas (2020); Suicide Notes (2025); Sadness Trench - ignited by an unexpected call from Campus OG named Mariam Nakafu on NRM's 40th anniversary, Arua Tourism (2026)... |
Editorial Cartoons: The Standard (UCU Newspaper) from 2007-2015 and 2019-2020 Lockdown; Sunday Vision (January 2011)... |
Films: The Casual (2008)... |
Illustrations: World Wide Fund for Nature (2012); Plunging the Depths by Mike Watmon Kinyera (2015); Weaving a Path to Wisdom by Victor Draman Afayo (2025)... |
Paintings: Green Lamp (Y2K); Ndedra Stores for his parents at Arua Central Market; KADS backdrops (2007, 2009, 2012); Springs Kindergarten (2017, 2025); Charis International School (2022)... |
Writing: Sokka Magazine (2015) invited by Reverien Fils Kiruzi (Rwanda)... |
Big Plan: Depression Network (Tuesday 1st October 2024). |
Testimonials: Fundi... (Elizabeth Dramani); Artist... (Gordon, hostelmate in Bugujju); Naturally bright... (Emily Ampaire); One of the Best Cartoonists I know... (Nakanwagi Nsamba in Seeta, Mukono); Lugbara researcher... (Charles Kirikiri Bua from Vurra); Best Cartoonist in Uganda... (Thomas Froese, German-born Canadian); Clever... (John Semakula); etc... |
Advice: Worship GOD, trust in JESUS; fast and pray... |
Angu Neza [Sightseeing] |
GOD is great, first and foremost! Secondly, JESUS is the Way. Arua is a sweet and excellent (First Class) Business Hub at the Heart of West Nile (Northwestern Uganda). It connects East Africa to the rest of the Black Continent through the KAN (Koboko-Arua-Nebbi) Corridor. Transferred from Belgian colonialists to the British after 1911 because of rivers flowing towards the Albert Nile, the locality got its name from a medium-sized rock elevation west of Barifa Forest and directly south of Arua Avenue (Inzikuru Road). A "small prison" west of this prominent hill in Ayivu was the stopover detention point for arrested persons from Lado Enclave (1894-1910) eg tax defaulters en route to the bigger prison in Aru (Congo Free State, then Belgian Congo in 1908) near Vurra; Aru-a translated from Lugbara is "in prison". Some Belgians are buried in Alikua (Maracha) where they set up their first West Nile administration centre. The British who first planted their Union Jack flag on Arua Hill in 1914 brought an Agofe system and appointed Jalwere Jalusiga from Alur (1922), but it evolved in Terego as Lugbara Kari (1962) with Mariko Boroa at the helm. In 1967, UG President Milton Obote abolished cultural institutions. When NRM took over power in 1986, kingdoms returned and Jason Avutia (Vurra) became the 3rd Agofe until his departure from Earth in 2023; he was replaced by (His Highness Culu) Manase Yuma aka Amuku (Ayivu). The next rotational Agofe will be the Maracha Chief. |
Arua is the centre of Lugbaraland (The stones can probably speak the language after hearing it for ages); aku ambo [big home/ city] magnet and imvu [(melting) pot] for all Lugbara in the diaspora. Other groups in Arua include Madi, Luo (mainly Alur), Kakwa, Bantu (eg Baganda), Asians, Congolese, Sudanese and Whites. Foreigners allowed; strangers are welcome to visit Arua! Experience the ageless heritage of Lugbara culture! |
Religiously, Arua is the mission centre of the Anglican Madi & West Nile Diocese in Mvara (Eastern Arua City) as well as the Roman Catholic Arua Diocese in Ediofe (Western Arua City). |
I was born in Jinja and grew up in Kampala, but had a very ignorant disdain (or settled discriminative attitude) against Arua with absolutely no desire to visit throughout the 90s though most relatives did. However, since the world did not end in Y2K as prophesied by Computer Bug Doom's Day theorists (who were 100 percent dead-wrong; Pastor John Hagee in Texas also predicted that we might see the AntiChrist by 1999), I decided to make the first pilgrimage I can remember (using Nile Coach) to the land where my ancestors are resting (Mother told me she brought me to Arua when I was a handheld baby, but my oldest memory in this life is in Jinja). Every year after Y2K, I returned to Arua at least once around Christmas until moving permanently in December 2013; I wanted to demystify all the lies I heard (like Arua only has grassroofed mudsoil-and-stick-huts plus murram roads): Many cement houses existed and the huts had more durable claywalls. I was actually stunned to see reddish-orange tile roofs in Arua like you see on Entebbe Road (Things I had never seen in photos of Arua). Water ran through underground pipes too. The stereotypical view in the South is that West Nilers only eat mairungi, sell fruits like oranges and seeds eg groundnuts in baskets, work as watchmen, cut plantation sugarcanes plus are poor yet there are many doctors, lawyers, engineers, businesspeople and other professionals. Vivian Namakka in Arua said it best on TikTok: Come to Arua with a clean slate! My mantra in the new millenium was: Turn rejects into projects! I make short videos promoting Arua. Furthermore, I used to think beautiful women only originate from India, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Teso, but met some stunners in Lugbaraland too including a 2nd cousin I thought was another 2nd cousin's Congolese friend, yet sister. Beauties come out during crusades, promos, concerts and other events unless you see them in markets, churches or social media. You wonder where they stay and if their origins are really from near Arua. My first crush in West Nile was Cynthia Letasi (now Mrs. Mungufeni) who changed my worldview between 2001 and 2006 like a Kumari (She spoke Lugbara so fluently without shame and inspired me to re-study my own mother tongue by literally draining amalala ga kibuga [Luganda for: city haughtiness] out of me. Afterwards, every woman I glanced at who looked like her or had some kind of Cynthia aura became my favourite eg Tonto Dikeh (who I saw on the new Top TV in Kampala), Betty Mpologoma (who started her career in 1999), Sheebah Karungi who shot up in the Ugandan music industry around 2009, Pretty Banks, Queenie (singer in Miracle Centre Cathedral Rubaga's Proclaim Choir) plus Scarlet Johansson who featured in a 2003 movie that portrays exactly how Xnthi made me feel in the same year it came out. |
Koboko broke away from Arua in 2005 while Maracha (where I come from) and Terego left in 2006 until the latter returned to Arua in 2010 (while I was working for Electoral Commission in Tara Subcounty which is next to Terego). Other clans including my mother's clan (Ayivu, from which the City was cut out) also asked for districts, but the spirit of Arua cannot be divided nor shrunk by politicians. All the other places around Arua are like 12 gates. Arua is the only regional city in Uganda colonised by Belgians who first set up their West Nile administrative headquarters in Alikua (Maracha) immortalised by a pyramid whose maintenance was supported by the Belgian Government and gets visitors from their country eg in 2022 plus other countries; I used to find iron sheets from Belgium sold in Arua shops unlike KLA which had Roofings. By 2026, Madi Okollo (South of Vurra) was the only district with two names while West Nile is the only subregion in UG with an English name because it is west of the Longest River on Earth (Nile). For me, Arua stands for superhigh elevation (not depression) and freedom from incarceration (mental imprisonment): African, refreshing, unchained, amazing! Draw a circle around Arua Hill from Ora Bridge in Madi Okollo and back, that is the first ripple! |
The first time I went to the summit of Arua Hill, I was a teenager (Above 16). I literally drooled because of the unexpectedly-wide and hypnotic view of Barifa Forest as seen from above compared to the limited appearance from ground level in Anyafio. Like Saul (who turned into Paul) on the road to Damascus, I made a secret vow in my heart to discover the Best (Superfly) Things about this hood and document them. Arua Hill has a 360-degree panoramic view of Lugbaraland from Ayivu to DR Congo, Maracha, Terego, Vurra and beyond. Locals and foreigners, young lads and adults, solo climbers and couples or families and other categories tour the hill. Others sit quietly and listen to headphone/ earphone music or read literatuwhile another batch take photos or exercise. Watch brown kites glide skilfully around the masts like pro-pilots (I once saw pigeons with leg-tags from Israel walking on the hill, probably migrating or imported), savour the oxygen from tree leaves while you watch Barifa Forest (where Arua Hill SC used to host its Ugandan Football league games in the early 2020s) plus the horizon, consume tasty food or watch Bollywood movies on your smartphone! Many times when I looked East, I would wish I had a pair of binoculars that could view River Nile beyond the horizon (like on Mt. Oce in Moyo) or go to the shore of a lake nearby (Rokoze is miles away in Maracha). Then in Twenty25, I hardened my heart and visited Abairo Falls in Oluko; it literally fulfilled my dreams like a mini-Murchison Falls and small Rift Valley with a Rwenzori Wonderland-like view in the South and East plus relaxation seats. The sunsets are transcendentally golden around here and invisible air vitamins from the splashing waterfalls can heal your stress. Arguably the Best Waterfalls near Arua City though not wide like Miriadua in Kijomoro (Maracha), Abairo was acquired by the Arua City Council during 2025 in order to turn it into a global tourist attraction in partnership with John Acile who discovered its potential in 2006 and began modifying it. Other activities that can be introduced include ziplining, archery, etc. Tell me who knows a peaceful place where I can go when am feeling low? Try virtual tours to Arua like 55 minute vacations on Google Earth! |
To get to Arua physically, either you fly in via the Idi Amin Dada International Airport (with a terminal foundation laid by Zaire President Mobutu Sese Seko in 1976 alongside Idi Amin) for less than 2 hours from Entebbe Airport or use the roads: It takes at least 7 hours to travel from Kampala City to Arua (IATA: RUA). In the early 2000s, the road from Karuma to Arua was murram and I would find trouble breathing because of the highway dust while we cruised through the game park, but ease up close to Pakwach. Gaagaa introduced a revolution whereby instead of leaving at 5:30am before sunrise, people could travel at 7 or 8am. Other companies like Nile Coach had to adjust too. |
Trivia: Dorcus Inzikuru, the first Ugandan woman to win a gold medal in steeplechase athletics (during Helsinki 2005) is from Vurra. Zuena (Bebe Cool's wife) lived in Arua for some time. Mukesh Shukla (one of Uganda's Richest Indian Billionaires and founder of Shumuk) was born in Arua (1962). Multi-cultural (Arua, UK, Rwanda) musician Alak SG speaks Lugbara plus half a dozen other languages. Famous people who have visited Arua include Daniel Arap Moi (President of Kenya) at Adriko's Factory, Aki and Popo (short Nigerian actors) went to Ediofe, Forest Whitaker (American filmstar who won the 2006 Oscar Award for Best Actor for portraying Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland), Sudhir Ruparelia (Richest Man in East Africa) who owns property in Arua too, Owobusobozi Bisaka (who is revered by some Ugandans in place of JESUS), etc. |
One day while travelling by bus with two Bantu youngmen beside me around the early 2010s, they kept belittling West Nilers; I did not say anything in defence of my people, but commented on other topics during the daytime-journey. I believe their contemptuousness was based on hearsay and prejudice mixed with ignorance. When we crossed Pakwach Bridge, I shamelessly told the first-time travellers to Arua that am from this side, but they refused to believe because I had "intel". I did not argue with them about West Nile's low status in the other parts of UG (Knew the reputation well), but after gliding past the Arua Hill Roundabout, the pair confessed that Idi Amin was the only president who left his hometown in a good state: At least, it looked urban, not rural and some roads were tarmacked. Amin actually used to drive his rally cars near that roundabout in the 70s before I was born. I had kept quiet about how Arua looks on the ground all along so that they could judge for themselves like I was pleasantly surprised at the turn of the new millenium. I even witnessed some roads going through several pothole-patching makeovers before everything was removed and new longer-lasting layers tarmacked. Nevertheless, some roads were never finished due to corruption eg Mango Road. |
Back when airtime was sold on scratchcards, I was sent with my half Lugbara, half Itesot 2nd cousin to buy a card. As we walked towards Mvara on Oluko Road, he kept abusing people in English (while asking them: Do you know Kampala?) like they had never been outside Arua; I tried to calm him down in vain. Somewhere near Missions Cafe (before it was opened), a senior citizen rose up as if rushing to beat him, but I begged him in Lugbara to forgive the youngun. What is it with city lads undermining people who live far away from urban centres? Is it because of taller buildings (Multiple storeys) or just in-born arrogance? The food is not very different, people are similar (just fewer) and many commodities come from the same manufacturers. There is sunshine and rain too plus rivers and trees. What is the difference between a grassroofed and ironsheet-covered house? The former shelter is intercooled and cheaper though prone to fire while the latter is more expensive, but longer-lasting. Arua's Tallest Building can fit among Uganda's Top 100 Tallest. |
When my parents moved their home from KLA to Arua in 2001, they set up a shop at the old Arua Central Market and asked me to design a doorpost on wood for "Ndedra Stores"; that was my first signpainting in Arua; others include: Springs Kindergarten (2017), Charis International School, etc. In 2016 while anticipating Arua's transition from municipality to city which happened in 2020, I re-designed the Arua Municipal Council emblem with tonnes of love a day before Women's Day in memory of Kawino, the 1st neighbour's daughter I loved like myself in Jinja (Found out from my mother in 2003 that she was poisoned in Andruvu). In 2021, it was chosen from my AruaCartoons blog and emblazoned on the West Side of the market. When I discovered that fact while watching Smart24 TV alone at exactly 10am one sunny day, I jumped up in the air with my right fist up and proclaimed: GOD is great! That day was truly special because in the evening, an American humanitarian on a refugee mission in UG bought me dinner at Golden Courts Hotel. The President's son (Muhoozi Kainerugaba) had just visited Arua at the Golf Course nearby 10 days behind. Meanwhile in 2018, I drew my own Arua Channel combination logo with four masts on a hill plus Maracha View (Rock my world!); the following year, I drew my Lugbara crest in a circle. |
Arua City Tower is the Tallest Monument in East and Central Africa, but 2nd in Sub-Saharan Africa after Senegal's African Renaissance Monument. It was commissioned on MTN Uganda's 27th birthday in October 2025, a month after Arua hosted the national World Tourism Day celebrations at the Golf Course nearby. Symbolic of West Nile's cultural diversity, it includes digital advertising screens, small museum, coffee restaurant and an observation deck offering panoramic views of the city as well as DR Congo on the western horizon. An effigy of a leopard with 300 spots (Lugbara tribal totem) lies on the southside. |
Three things I admire deeply about Arua are: Ori Yo [No Fear]; Young Mothers and Mputa [Nile Perch (fish)]. |
One Friday, I travelled from KLA to Arua by private means. Then a friend in KLA called me and I told him that I would be in Najjanankumbi the following Tuesday. I was so tired because of the journey that I briefly forgot that Mt. Wati Road (Anyafio Village in Arua) was hundreds of kilometres away from Entebbe Road. When I looked outside the window, I realised that I was not in Kyebando, but the sitting room I was in felt like KLA City. For a crazy moment, I thought I would just board a taxi for less than an hour and meet him, but had to apologise that I couldn't make it. I even posted that old feeling on Twitter when Arua was declared a city by Parliament and it was shown on Urban TV during Northern Connection (Music show). Words either damage (bring down) or mend (build up): Arua is the Sweetest Place on Earth! Some people look for a lovely place, others make a place lovely. From personal amazement (Found several unseen before developments), Arua changes every two months plus can expand into a metropolis. There is something you can learn from Arua. For me, Arua felt like a city from my first pilgrimage in Y2K until official declaration and after. |
Since 2020, Arua is the Regional City of West Nile Subregion (which has 8 to 13 districts). Arua Hill Stadium and Business Park is a different, head-turning and multi-purpose venue under construction that will feature a 20,000-seat stadium, shopping mall, Arua Hill Hotel, banks and hospital. 2ambe Health Club has a fenced artificial football turf with floodlights for nighttime activities. Martin Anguandia (Unique Rider) in Ambeko (Between Mvara and Muni) made a small 4-wheel car using a Senke motorcycle engine and has driven it to Koboko. He also assembled a pedal-assist electric bike that he wants to equip with a solar panel. Island Resort Beach (Ogurugu) behind Otokoa Market provides boat rides and fishing in a 100-metre long pond. Meanwhile, Aqualand Farm in Ombaci also has several fish ponds, but no rides. Drone fishing can be another activity introduced. Visit Adriko's Factory near Enyau River or Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC) at the Ombaci Earth Satellite Station next to Nile University! Cassava Enyasa [Slap food] is the staple food in Lugbaraland since colonial days. Za [Meat] feasting (Yamari Wedding Banquets) never end. Mangoes ripen mainly in May and December. Seasonal butterfly migration and fireflies at night are superb spectacles during mid-year. There is also weekly birdwatching eg gaagaa (black and white crows), small redbirds, vultures, brown kites, marabou storks, etc. Other animals I've seen near Arua include: cows, goats, sheep, chicken, ducks, rabbits, donkeys, ostriches, camels during festivities like Eid, guineafowls [ope], forest-green moths, grey and white monkeys, purple snakes, river crabs, red monkeys, monitor lizards, etc. Three rain seasons are: Spring (March to May), Summer (June to August) and Autumn (September to November) plus a Dry Winter with little to no rain from December to February. |
Why do Lugbara want to study English, Swahili, French, Japanese, Arabic, German, Spanish, Russian plus Chinese, but ignore their own language (Trinity Peace Gorondru of the Sudanic Academy calls it "inferiority complex")? Why can't I master Lugbara like English? Is it because our land or civilisation is not considered more interesting than the others? I want to be delusional and actually think Lugbara is also interesting and Arua is the destination to be. On the 3rd Agofe's 90th birthday, I snapped and created my own encyclopedic digital Lugbara Dictionary (Arguably the first and Biggest of its kind on the Web). |
Madi-Lugbara Community Museum at Social Centre on Ediofe Road offers you a glimpse of shared local culture while the (Sultan) Isara Memorial Cultural and Community Library in Eruba (Vurra) opens your mind to new possibilities in this world. The Lugbara cultural symbol is a leopard with 300 spots while each clan has its own totem eg Aringa (Ram), Ayivu (Bull), Maracha (Grasshopper), Terego (Rat) and Vurra (Pumpkin) while the Madi have: Moyo and Adjumani (White Rooster), Obongi (Fish Eagle) plus Madi Okollo (Goat). |
There is this notion that if you go to New York City, London, Dubai, Beijing or any of the World's biggest capitals, then you have lived. There is also life in Arua (Lugbara capital); am grateful to GOD for peace and tarmac. I can sit in the grass and chill; boredom is a choice. Synthetic Happiness is deliberate elevation of mind; detached from conditional reality. Does Arua have electricity? Yes! West Nile Rural Electrification Company (WENRECo) headquartered on Rhino Camp Road was formed in 2003 to replace UEB and powered the locality from Osu Village near San Siro and Pangisa Ward at Aci Engine (with a noisy diesel generator-set later taken to Moyo). Supplemented by another plant in Ewuata on Nebbi Highway (which got four new generators in 2021 at the same time Uganda Airlines got Bombardier jets); WENRECo also supplied hydropower from Nyagak Dam in Zombo before West Nile was connected to the National Grid with power from the 600 MegaWatt Chinese-built Karuma Dam. When WENRECo started, it supplied 18 constant hours of power from 6am until midnight; more stable than the load-shedding in Kampala (Capital City of UG) though got issues that made locals protest for it to be disbanded, but still bounced back until they became the Best Brand in West Nile. You can also use off-grid solar electricity. |
While in KLA before Twenty13, I used to review tourism maps of Uganda (eg in Eye Magazine and so on) and find West Nile blank; not even Ajai was mentioned nor Pakwach Bridge, Salia Musala, various rivers besides Enyau, waterfalls, etc. So, I made it my business to do research. I hope Arua is mentioned somewhere annually as a (cultural, church, water or urban) tourism destination in the Pearl of Africa Tourism Expo. |
Architecture (Tallest Buildings in Arua/ Bha Da Sende Tawuni-a Tipasi/ The Stones Will Praise GOD): Desert Breeze Hotel near Osu River (10-storey Extension), Noble Unit Building (9 floors on Adumi Road), Arua Hospital Doctors Quarters (8 house-stomaches or floors), Shopping Centre blocks (7 floors), Aza Plaza (6 storeys), Sinai Plaza, Le Tsuba (Tap of Luxury), Orasea Complex (5 floors), ML Building, John Boboli Koboko Building, Nyadri Block, Star Plaza (4 floors), Tropical Suites Hotel, Concord Business Centre, KKT Plaza on Duka Road (3 floors), RICE West Nile on Awudele Crescent, ASIL Complex, Rippons Motel Building, Rose Villa Hotel, Golf View Inn, Wazalendo Complex, Electoral Commission West Nile Regional Centre, etc... |
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