family relationships

Ugandan culture revolves around family relationships. The family spans much more than just the immediate family. If you hire someone, they will begin bringing you their relatives for you to hire also. If you need a certain kind of person, they will bring whatever relative fits that description the best. And its just the accepted way to go about business here. Also, there are rarely any orphans without some family to take them in. I know a man about 30yo with several dependants, none of them his kids or wife. They are just family with him as the closest relative with a job.

Because of this cultural focus, Ugandans understand familial relationships much better than work-related or others. When I went to Soroti, Hannah asked me who my father was in Uganda. Puzzled, I tried to explain my dad was still in the states. No, who is your father here, who looks after you. For example, her father here is Calvin. The answer for me is Henry. He is the father to all those living in his house. If anyone has a problem with how I act, they go to Henry first with the issue. That is why when people ask if im his wife, I correct them with “daughter”. Claiming status as daughter or sister is much easier than trying to say im just a friend.

How anyone acts here reflects on their father, their family, and also their tribe. Who needs punishments when a system like that is upheld? That system also affects work relationships. Say someone introduces me to another person to work with. If I act badly, that person will go to the one who introduced us and take the issue to him. What I do reflects on the one who introduced me. Its much harder to act up and still keep a job.