Ugandans light up Canadian Heritage fete
By Special Correspondent
6th August 2012:
Excitement never stops among the Ugandan community. They are known for their partying – and it’s just those back home in Uganda. Ugandans living in Edmonton-Alberta in Canada took part in the 37th annual Heritage Festival at Heritage Park.
The festive weekend, normally characterised with food and musical fete, started on Friday, August 3 and will run for up to four days.
Although sharply divided along political lines back home, Ugandans here are united and are among the fifty or so countries taking part in the long weekend, which is listed as a statutory holiday on the Canadian calendar.
The Heritage festival, which falls every first Monday of August, saw many Albertans turning up to test Ugandan cuisine. Prior to the event, authorities here had predicted that because of the good weather, the numbers for this year’s celebration could exceed 500,000 – great for exhibiting Uganda’s rich cultures.
“…It is a simple event – just well-marked. Everyone is welcome to make their choices from the big menu on our stall,” said Martin Ntege, the Chairman of Uganda Community in Alberta Province, which is roughly three times the size of Uganda.
Although they are thousands of miles away from home, Ugandans living in this part of the world are still able to have a bite of Matooke.
“…We are exploring how to get matooke on the menu. We don’t have a lot of it here – so we may need to go up to Toronto and it takes four days to do a round road trip”, said the community vice chairperson, Nabaggal.
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