The Aid Earthquake and the Search for Solid Ground.

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To work in non-profit sector at this moment in time is to have your heart do backflips several times a month. When there is a strange item on the news. When there is a Devex analysis. When you do not understand the direction of forex exchange. When there is an X post. When the big foot under which we all live shifts. Shuffles. Twitches.

Just as you think the boat is settling, something hits it and you are back to that place of heart flip-flops. You are grateful you have a job. Exhausted from being grateful. From working ten times more because budgets are tight and personnel lean. And from not having the reward of stability and a clear growth path that you were promised diligence would deliver because, honestly, no one knows the future.

I rolled up my business sleeves two years ago because I wanted to concentrate on my career. Our business with mom was to go find beautiful pieces of land, process their titles and sell. We spent hours on weekends and public holidays scouting and doing due diligence. I brought the legal and mom brought the human. Together, Ugandan land fraudsters could not see us coming. An older woman and her daughter. What do they know?

Mom knew how to say she just had a feeling that something was wrong with the land. She was always right. After we visited land with brokers or perceived owners, mom would go back on her own without me. That is when the words would come tumbling out of the woman who smiled and welcomed us to buy the land.

“My sons are selling this land by force. My sisters are entitled to a portion of this land too. Last week I had to hide the kyappa from a buyer. That is how I protected the land…”

Oh, Ugandan land has stories. Land without a road. Land with the lone grave. Land with sixteen layers of ownership. So mom and I toiled so our clients would not. All the people who bought from us — incidentally, all amazing career women — got beautiful pieces of land with clean title.

Land with a hill view. Land with trees and fresh air. Land close enough to the swamp for you to hear the frogs and bugs but far enough for you to feel safe and conscientious knowing you are still one of the few Ugandans who refuse to encroach on a swamp.

Yes, the land business was rolling beautifully. But Geneva called and my career demanded more. Then the aid earthquake happened and every development professional must now think of a sustainable future. A sustainable future is nolonger a word we serve ‘beneficiaries’. It is a question we must start asking ourselves too. Is our future sustainable? What must we do now to make sure we are not destitute tomorrow?

Mom and I are back to finding beautiful pieces of land with clean title and selling it to you. We currently have an estate in Busika Vvumba. Land there is now at 16/17 million UGX. But ours is going for 15million UGX for a 50 by 100 plot.

Reach me on 256700964398 if you want the land. Or if you just want to talk about the uncertainties and complexities of working in aid.

Written by

Patience Akumu Sunshine

Award-winning journalist. Lawyer. Unapologetic feminist. Telling stories of food, of life...

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