Business | Quality Supermarket Ntinda Closed

So, Quality Supermarket Ntinda has folded. 

It looks like the purchasing power for the folks that shop from, or stay around Ntinda was overestimated. Or maybe the projections were wrong. 

For a business in such a prime location, one would have expected them to stay afloat. After all, a couple of competitor stores remain in business and – seemingly – doing well.

The guys at Tuskys’ seem to have gotten over that rotten chicken scandal and turned their fortunes around – at least going by the shopping traffic. Capital Shoppers does remain solid, too. 

Now, since management deemed it wise not to communicate the reason for this move, we shall be left to speculate on what could have gone wrong; 

1) Variety and pricing. Each of the other competitors had a better variety of products. 

Quality Supermarket had no food section, aside from a small area of the building that featured cakes and – seldom – oily beef Samosas.

Compare this with Tuskys and Capital shoppers that have a wider range of services ranging from food to bits of furniture and other products. 

Unless I had a particular item I wanted from Quality, it was always going to be difficult for me to make Quality Supermarket my first port of call. 

2) Business hours. For the few times I tried accessing the place past 9PM, the staff were always in retirement mood. 

It wasn’t uncommon to find those mean-looking security guards manning a wet entrance with puddles of filthy water. 

If you went to Quality Supermarket wearing some thin-soled footwear, you were almost certain to earn yourself a free muddy footbath. 

Cleaning for the next day would have commenced already. 

3) Parking. Despite the seemingly ample parking at the complex that housed the supermarket, it wasn’t always easy to find parking. 

This could also probably be due to the different businesses in the area. The guys who occupied most of the parking were probably doing different business, for the tills almost always had no queues.

4) Probably the landlord saw it fit to increase rent, and the guys couldn’t cope. This is another theory that has been thrown around. We can only speculate. 

Any positive points? 

It certainly wasn’t always gloom at Quality. Some items were fairly priced. They also had a knack of having that one item that would have eluded you elsewhere in the neighborhood.

They had some decent cake, and their in-house bakery had that 1Kg bread that always felt 1.5 times heavier than the 1Kg inscribed on the sachet.

Oh, and the customer service wasn’t exactly as awful as that at any of those Mega Standard Supermarket branches.

Music | 18 years later, the Lingala Influence on our music still lives on

"Natamboli na mokili yo, oh! /

Nzambe, pesa ngai nguya. Nakobala mwasi kitoko" – Jaribu (Fille ft Samie Rich, 2016)

"Natomoni miso na ngai na likolo namoni te, lokola yo" – Ujuwe (David Lutalo, 2015)

"Mo, motema. Motema na ngai /

E-leli yo, mingi /

Elingi mingi, nakokende/

…

Linga ngai, Cherie /

Linga ngai, oooh!" – Mutima (Keko ft. Charmant Mushaga, 2014)

"Nalingi mwasi kitoko, kobina na ye tonight" – Pretty (David Lutalo, 2014)

"Ma big big God-o /

Tango nyonso azali Nzambe kitoko /

Tango, tango nakoyemba nakokanga, eeeh /

Afanya na nakembo /

...

Big big God-o

Maboko likolo, likolo, likolo likolo /

Likolo, likolo, likolo,likolo,likolo / " – Big God-O (G-Way ft. Cooper, 2013)

"Olobi ndenge nini, bana Congo, bapewe fasi" – Beyi Kali (Jose Chameleone, 2004)

These and many others highlight the heavy prevalence of Lingala undertones in most of today's local music.

Did they say they were doing away with anything Congolese in our music? Looks like the influence just won’t go down without a fight, seeing as our artistes still smuggle in a few Lingala lines in some of their songs (Okay, guys like Charmant aren’t exactly ours. We just "import" them from DRC).

Once in a while. you’ll have artistes go full circle with the instrumentation and all (Ragga Dee’s Muziki and Daxx Kartel’s Lyomboka).

Probably this is the point where we have to give credit to our Naija "brodas" for doing some bit of genre reinvention, albeit the fact that it is, also, almost getting overdone.

Some still manage to sound a bit fresh though – like "Rihanna" (Awilo Longomba's collabo with Yemi Alade) – while others have already become too monotonous.

DJ Coublon – the Nigerian producer responsible for songs like Applaudise (Iyanya), Marry Me (Frankcee), Laye and Woju (Kiss Daniel, both), springs to mind.

You listen to one song and you’ve listened to them all.

Culture | Noun Similarities (Continued)

If you’ve followed Ugandan music for some time, you must have listened to a certain song called Maoko na Maoko (Shona for "hands to hands") by Jose Chameleone.

But did you notice the similarity of the wording to a couple of other Bantu languages? "Maoko" sounds similar to its Kinyarwanda equivalent – Amaboko (You may come across alternative names like "Umukono". Both apply).

Coincidentally, this Kinyarwanda version is similar to its Lingala equivalent. Only the first letter is removed in the plural form (Maboko).

The singular versions, however, differ. While the Kinyarwanda version for a single hand is "Ukuboko" (or "Umukono" as earlier explained), the Lingala version is "Liboko".

Once in a while, you'll hear your favorite Congolese musician singing "Maboko likolo" (Hands up in the air). Now you know what they mean by that phrase.

Different languages, similar nomenclature. 

Lifestyle | Of school, development and other "fees"

As if normal fees were not high enough already, schools came up with what they collectively call development fees. This, I have seen on fees slips for a couple of schools.

The figure for Gayaza High School is "a modest" 290,653 UGX. A modest 290K because it pales in comparison to St. Mary’s College Kisubi (SMACK), whose development is so special that anyone who wishes to have their child admitted at the school will have to fork out all of 500,000 UGX.

So, what exactly does this development fee entail? Any teacher, student or school administrator in the house?

Is it the normal development as understood by a layman like me? Like, does the school have such specialists that they will look into the kid’s eyes and tell that he is not meant for school and he is better off becoming a footballer or a gym instructor?

In the event that they realize the child won’t turn into some bald-haired professor, does this fee ensure that the same child achieves their maximum potential elsewhere?

Is it part of this fee that funds printing costs of the letter that the school will write to the parent telling them that their child will achieve little else even if they did books for the next 50 years?

***

In the midst of all this, some parent somewhere hasn't garnered the guts to ask all this stuff. They are hustling for the 500K – in addition to the other fees – just so their child will go to school like the rest of his peers.

Somewhere in this city, in an unfortunate corner of one boiling bedroom that has been turned into a temporary war-zone, some guy has been declared "not man enough" because he hasn't raised enough money to cover the required school fees.

On one side of the bed, he sits, rather desolately. Arms folded and head bowed, he takes in barb after another. He secretly hopes that Xavier, his beer buddy eventually cracks that deal he’s been chasing so he can lend him the top-up or else his kid’s friends will also know that he is not man enough.

If the deal doesn’t materialize, he will coil himself on his side of the bed like a frightened schoolboy and stifle tears for the rest of the night.

The prospect of another barren day is so unnerving that little blood will flow to his South over the next couple of days. Which means no recreational action in the house until the financial graph goes up again.

A couple of months later, they'll be back for a two-week holiday and the cycle resumes. This will go on until the child is done with Education.

If you are lucky, this will mean graduation, probably with flying colors. If you are lucky enough, they'll even get a job. But if you are not, you could be having one of an upcoming artiste, a pastor or a vagabond (among others) on your hands.

Or they could turn out to be an entrepreneur – which (most likely) means a future motivational speaker. One who'll be telling school kids to focus and work very hard and persevere and not lose hope, and that things will turn out fine if they work hard.

Happy School fees week!

Tech | The Vision Group e-paper collection: What you need to know

So, Vision Group slashed prices for the online versions of their publications several weeks back. The latest figures show all English publications (New Vision, Saturday Vision, Sunday Vision and Kampala Sun) at a flat rate of 1,000 UGX, while all the locals are now at 500 UGX with the sole exception of Bukedde that goes for 800 UGX.

Access to the same is pretty straightforward – all one has to do is access their page at: https://vpg.visiongroup.co.ug, choose a paper of their choice and pay for it. There are several options. One may use MTN mobile money, Visa, MasterCard or even Airtel money.

Of the four, I find MTN mobile money most convenient. It’s just a two-step process that only requires you to input your number and go ahead to approve the transaction on your phone (tech junkies like Simon Peter will call it a debit request).

Cue the other option and mother of all bureaucracy comes into play. You will be asked to input about five types of your particulars before you are ushered to the next page that has a further six options including Ezee Money (which, actually, does not work).

Depending on which option you choose, you will still meet another boring catalogue of instructions that you are supposed to execute before you can complete your transaction.  

If you choose Visa, you are supposed to supply your full names, email, address, town, Zip Code and lots of what looks like irrelevant data. I suspect they will soon be asking about the last time you slept on an empty stomach.

While at it, they continue to remind you about how your payment will be processed via Pesapal so that you won’t bitch about it when Pesapal eventually sends you some redundant email seconds after completion of your transaction.

It is a similar story when you choose Airtel Money. There is a business number (111222) you are supposed to send money to, so they can send you a transaction ID that you will feed into that payment portal. You just have to properly quote the reference though – pp – and you are good to go.

Of course Pesapal won’t be done with you, yet. They’ll still tell you how they have successfully completed your transaction. And then the mail will follow, of course. Just in case you are the smart-alec that will demand for transaction confirmation.

The beauty of this is that you will still get your e-paper in pretty much the same format and layout as the printed version. The default view may appear small and illegible, but the bottom panel does have an option of zooming one’s current page to a more user-friendly view.

The default view shows the current version, but you still have the option of checking a paper that was published in the past (I am not sure how far back the history goes, though).

Dan A.