Kampala - Post Report Question and Answers
Is it easy to make friends with locals here? Are there any prejudices or any ethnic groups who might feel uncomfortable here?
No. And it's not encouraged to make friends with your staff. There is a lot of imbalanced taking advantage. I have been able to make friends with other expats. - Jan 2024
Yes. - Jun 2022
Yes, it is easy and people seem to like making friends with expats. Ugandans are very friendly. Our experience - most of the local friends we made ended up asking for jobs, money, school fees, food, rides, helping with family issues. It is just normal practice for people to ask for assistance. You can make your own decisions and be honest with them. Sometimes this can be exhausting to those who are not used to this type of interaction. Prejudices - While we were there, at the beginning of lockdown, any Asians who look like Chinese were targets of harassment, then Italy’s Covid situation made locals uncomfortable with Caucasians. Even after the lockdown was eased, villagers in rural areas of Uganda did not seem to like seeing light-skinned expats for fear of the Covid virus. It seemed prejudice happened here because people were not well-informed or educated. - Dec 2021
No prejudices that I can think of. That being said, it seems to take quite a bit of effort to make local friends. Most places that expats go are frequented by primarily other expats. I imagine if you made a concerted effort to go other places you would make Ugandan friends, as they can be quite friendly. - Aug 2020
Ugandans are very nice, polite people. - Nov 2019
Ugandans are friendly and like to smile. I felt welcome. - Oct 2019
Yes, but we hang out more with expats. There is a pretty big discrepancy between 'normal' Ugandans (quite poor) and the wealthy (hugely wealthy). So it is easier to find common ground with other expats. - Mar 2019
Not easy at all. - Feb 2019
Easy to make friends with locals ; it's quite integrated in Kampala. Unsure about ethnic prejudices. - Jan 2019
Ugandans are very nice and polite, they tend to want to help you if they can. - Dec 2018
