Original subtitles

Over the last five years, I've been visiting countries with a bad reputation

see if the preconceptions... Sorry to interrupt. Can you just avoid saying bad

reputation because it implies that the countries are bad and from a position of

white privilege, it just doesn't look that great.

Yeah, but they do have like a bad reputation. I mean, that's the point.

Can you avoid it?

Also, I'm not white. I know.

And we support that decision.

I mean, it's not a decision, but OK.

Over the last five years, I've been visiting countries which some people

associate with somewhat negative preconceptions. Good.

To see if that reputation is justified.

That's good shit. Or if we should be giving them a second chance.

Offside. This time, I'm going above and beyond.

Travelling through the heart of Africa on a month -long journey.

Ron, can you not say heart of Africa? It sounds like the heart of darkness.

Okay, but that was in Africa.

Yes, but it might trigger some people.

OK, how about former British colonies?

That would trigger other people.

OK. Travelling through Africa on one long epic journey.

Is Uganda all about Idi Amin?

Wow, this is genuinely amazing.

Is Rwanda more than the horrors of the genital?

Oh, my God, I can't believe this. Is Madagascar full of animated talking

and singing lemurs?

Can we just say all species of lemurs, just in case we offend any lemurs?

The Misadventures of Romesh Ranganathan.

I began my odyssey in Kampala, capital of Uganda, a landlocked country of some

45 million people.

once described by Winston Churchill as the Pearl of Africa.

Before coming here, I sort of felt like I got sort of acclimatised to African

cities and how busy and hectic they are, but this is a level above. I mean, it's

proper mad.

Can you sort of explain how the traffic works?

Basically, the system is whoever's got the sharpest elbows gets in first.

It could do, if I'm being honest with you, I'm not a city planner, a couple of

roundabouts maybe.

And what's going on there? Well, there's been a collision between a motorbike

and a bicycle containing some sort of unspecified vegetable, and now they're

having an argument about it.

I'll be honest with you, I feel like filming it is only going to aggravate

situation, but listen, it's your choice.

So what are your preconceptions of Uganda?

When I think of Uganda, I think of Idi Amin, because we were so invested in

story, it's such a big thing, he was such a big character, what he did.

And then, you know, you know very little about the country since then.

And so that is kind of what you come into this thinking about and maybe the

ongoing legacy of that.

But then the other thing is, between us deciding to come here and us actually

arriving, Uganda has just passed a load of essentially anti -gay laws and

legislation.

So, you know, that's something that I'm hoping to kind of chew on during my time

here.

My co -host Alex has told me that I'm going to meet her somewhere here because

think she thinks that one of my things I'd like to do here is have a panic

attack.

I'm sort of this far away from just going down there and screaming Alex at

top of my lungs and seeing if she responds.

Alex!

Alex!

Oh, no, it's different Alex.

I'm looking for Alex.

You haven't seen her, have you?

Alex? Alex. Yeah.

I don't know Alex. OK, all right, no worries, man. Thank you.

I eventually located Alex, a 32 -year -old born and raised in Kampala.

In the middle of a bus station.

I mean, she wasn't raised in a bus station.

That's just where I caught up with her.

Roman! Alex, how are you? Fine, thank you.

Oh, OK, let's do it. Great, let's do it. I didn't know whether to do that or

not. How are you? No, it's a Ugandan thing. Oh, is it? You meet people and

give them a hug. Oh, OK. Welcome, welcome to Uganda.

I've only been here a short time. Yes.

It's been quite... I feel quite anxious. Why?

Well, because I reckon I've had a near -death experience 27 times since I've

arrived.

So... But in a good way, like everyone's friendly as they do it. Yeah, everybody

knows you're there, don't worry.

Do they? They won't knock you. Okay, because they don't make any eye contact,

they don't look like they know I'm there. No, subconsciously I think they

you're there. Okay, you promise? I promise.

That's why my life is now in your hands.

I'm just going to walk around not looking.

No, please do look. Oh, do look, okay. Yes, please do look, because you never

know what happens, right?

So, the only thing I know about Uganda, or as soon as you say Uganda to me, I

think Idi Amin.

Basically, I'm an open book. Yeah. I'm ready to find out all about it. Yeah. So

what's the best way? How are we going to start it? To get here, I took a bike

because driving here, I'd be late. So bike's the quickest?

Bike's the quickest. Okay.

Not the most safe, but it's the quickest. So it's quick but dangerous.

That's my nickname at school.

Alex told me we would spend a week venturing around Uganda, experiencing

staggering array of epic landscapes, incredible wildlife, learning about its

troubled past and addressing its modern complexity. But we would start with a

terrifying trip across town on a boda boda, a sort of death -defying cross

between a taxi ride and human pinball.

Uganda's capital has ballooned from just 167 ,000 people when it became

independent in 1962 to 1 .6 million people today, most of them apparently

on injuring me.

I was eventually allowed off the bike to take a stroll up the ancient Mengo

Hill, once home to the royal family.

So this region was ruled by the Uganda.

Uganda. Uganda.

Uganda kingdom is where the Uganda people.

Uganda people from the Uganda kingdom?

Yes, sir. And so that's where Uganda got its name. It was a mispronunciation.

The British mispronounced it. Okay, I'm originally... Yeah, you guys did, yeah.

Us guys? Listen, I'm originally Sri Lankan. Oh, right. Okay, so the British

mispronounced it. But listen, I'm as angry about it as you are.

So... It was a mispronunciation. So hold on, so somebody said this is Buganda,

and then he went, you mean Uganda?

Yes, because in Swahili they don't have a boot.

A bee.

I'm actually a princess of Uganda.

So when I say my name, people know.

You're a princess?

Yes, I am.

So the king, I call him uncle.

Are you joking? No, I'm not. You're a princess? I'm showing you our lovely

Does that mean, does your lifestyle have to be more traditional than it

otherwise would have been?

Yes, they expect it. Really?

Luckily, they don't pick our partners anymore. So they used to pick your

partners? Yes.

tell people what to do like will you always get whatever table you want no no

no no so i would say that the because my father is not the king right i am

royalty but his children would get the special treatment live in the palace and

things like that do you get anything like a discount or anything at all no

there's quite a number of princesses okay how many are we talking Many. More

than I can count. Like, more than you can count? More than I can count. How

can you count? That sort of determines how big a number that is. If you can

count to nine... I guess how many in Uganda, that's a lot. OK.

Like a thousand?

More than a thousand. More than a thousand. There's more than a thousand

princesses.

Alex explained that although the royal family's role is now largely ceremonial,

the Bugandan kings have ruled here since the early 14th century.

This is the Mango Palace.

Those lions at the top, just like the lion is the king of the jungle, the

king is the most revered.

After independence, Buganda retained semi -autonomous status, but all that

changed in 1966 when the president sent the Ugandan army, led by young Idi Amin,

To storm the hill.

So the troops ran up this hill and they went into the palace after the king. To

get rid of the king. To get rid of the king. So the troops ran into the palace

and the king managed to escape and jump over the wall and get a taxi and went to

London.

He got a taxi?

He did do, yes.

He jumped over the wall. So the troops are coming up the hill.

He's in deep trouble.

Yes. I've got to get out of here. He jumps over the back wall, then... Taxi.

London. And then the driver goes, that's going to cost loads.

I think so. And I bet you had to pay double time.

Yes, he must have.

And then what happened to him in London?

He stayed there three years and unfortunately died in exile.

Okay, the damming endowment of London. Right, but the kingdom's still here.

it looks beautiful.

Yes, it does.

The Mengo Palace.

The next day, we drove out of Kampala, heading out to the River Nile for what

was promised to be a day of action and adventure on the water.

Are you, like, are you a proud Ugandan?

I love it. I tell you why. There's never a dull moment.

Yeah. I can guarantee it.

Ugandan... Well, I saw that just from that roundabout.

Everything is turned into something lovely.

Which is general positive vibes.

Yeah.

So what exactly do you do?

I'm a programme manager for a consultancy company, education project,

So is that quite...

A prestigious job, then?

It's a regular job, I think.

Jobs that people deem prestigious.

I like to be a doctor. It's a big deal here.

Yeah.

When was the first time my mum wasn't going to become a doctor?

We had to have a sit -down chat.

Oh!

Can you explain, why didn't you want to be a doctor?

Well, first of all, I didn't want to. Second of all, I wasn't clever enough.

So I'd say to her, you know, I could become a doctor, maybe one of those

incompetent ones that's constantly getting food for, like, malpractice or

whatever. Is that what you want?

We

eventually

arrived at Ginger, a few hours outside Kampala.

a once tiny town which has thrived off the back of the spectacular whitewater

rafting opportunities on offer along the Nile.

How are you feeling about this?

Scared. Scared? I thought you said good.

The one sort of consolation is we both look cool.

Hello. Hello.

You good?

I'm good.

Alex decided to take us whitewater rafting because it turns out, completely

unbeknownst to me, that Uganda apparently has some of the best

rafting in the world.

Big J is the leader.

So when you get in this boat here, you're going to sit like this.

And I, myself, I'm going to be the back, giving all the instructions, tell you

what to do.

Yes? Have you ever been injured?

Myself? Yeah. Yeah, look at my teeth.

That was from doing this?

Yeah, because most of people...

They get injured because of these.

If you make them swung around, you're going to hurt somebody.

Hold on to your paddle. You hold on to your paddle.

OK. Let's jump in.

You're joking.

This is the part I cannot do.

Come on, come in.

Alex's big problem was that she didn't trust the life jacket.

I believe she thought she was just wearing a jacket.

You'll be fine.

Can I hold you? Come over.

Just slide, slide like that. Yeah, perfect.

Let her go on the boat. You fall in the water, you're underwater for five

seconds, then you come up, and then they pull you on like a massive fish.

You essentially, in order to survive, have to act dead.

That's the irony of it.

OK.

Everybody back on your seat. Get on your position.

When you have that kind of fear, you know, she can go... If she's then going

overcome that fear and do it, it's an amazing thing. You can put some Adele on

underneath or whatever and it's going to be like a really cool moment.

This one is deep enough, no rock.

No rock.

There's no way you're going to hit a rock in case you fell out of the boat.

It hadn't even occurred to me that there'd be rocks.

Don't say it, man.

There's six grades or levels, if you like, of rappers that you can go

So level one is like very low grades, like somebody fighting in a bathtub.

Level two is

two people fighting in a bathtub.

Three is, I guess, like a large animal fighting

in a bathtub.

Anyway, the point is that they get stronger.

Alex found the whole thing really nerve -wracking. But despite all of that, fair

play to her. She did two of the rapids and she just, you know, she ducked out,

like, for the second half of it. I totally understand. I can't believe she

the first two rapids.

Turns out she made the best decision of her life because the next one, a grade

four, was insane.

I felt like praying to God to send my best wishes to my wife and children.

Get down!

Get up and paddle!

Get up and paddle!

Get up and paddle!

He's saying paddle. There's no water there.

The wave's here.

What do you want me to do? Paddle in front of my face? And then, like, he's

screaming.

Paddle, paddle, paddle!

Faster, faster, harder!

Fucking hell!

This feels like a fucking anxiety dream.

I actually thought I was going to die.

There is a thick.

You never do a thick, basically.

If you look down there, you see the water splashing.

No one go down this rapid.

Never, ever, you never, ever do a thick.

Unless, in the words of Big Jay, you want to die.

So I'll come back next year.

Yeah, I think we've both learned a little something.

I've learned that Uganda's got great whitewater rafting. You can have a great

time. And Alex has learned to sort of think about organising water -based

activities if you can't swim.

The next day, like explorers of old, we journeyed upstream to find the source of

this epic river.

So this is the way to the source of the Nile? Yeah.

Because it looks like the way to Mahatma Gandhi's statue meant home by a bank of

rovers. I'm just saying.

For a period in the mid -19th century, the hunt for the origin of the world's

longest river became a Victorian obsession, making household names of

who eventually pinpointed a spot here on the edge of Lake Victoria as the

beginning of the longest, most majestic and most romantic...

River on Earth.

Is this the thoughts right now?

Yeah.

Mind ahead.

Oh, yeah.

Thank you.

Well, this is exciting.

Success. Oh, wow.

So this is it.

This is it. Doesn't look like the start of anything, does it?

You know what I mean? Yeah. You did something in the middle.

I mean, if you moved it 100 yards that way, nobody would notice.

You know what I thought?

Honestly.

When you hear about the source of a river, it's like the top of a mountain

something. We'd be by a melting glacier.

The Nile does here.

Feels quite corporate, doesn't it? How do you feel about the beer sponsorship?

They took advantage of the name.

I think the river came first, didn't it?

I've just got to say, what a magical experience to come to the source of the

Nile, brought to you by Nile Special in association with Coca -Cola.

All right, she's going to get gifts. I'm going to buy a bead necklace or

something. Yeah, the earrings are quite cute. Yeah, I'll have to get my ears

pierced. Do you reckon he does that as well?

Oh, this is Uganda. Anything is possible.

We doubled back on ourselves, heading west across a country that's the size of

the UK, but somehow felt at least ten times bigger.

The plan was to explore some of Uganda's natural beauty.

taking in crater lakes formed by ancient volcanoes and its abundance of awe

-inspiring wildlife.

The mission that would involve, unfortunately for Alex, more water.

Alex explained that although it's long since lived in the shadow of its more

popular neighbour Kenya, tourists are beginning to come back, drawn in by the

world -class wildlife spotting on offer.

After an epic eight -hour drive, we entered Queen Elizabeth National Park,

after Queen Elizabeth.

Oh, wow, look at this.

It's pretty cool. Well done.

You keep saying well done like a Ugandan. Do Ugandans say well done?

Oh, extremely.

Well done.

I haven't done anything.

Maybe I've just got more Ugandan in me than I thought.

Oh, my.

Wow.

The idea was to hike Shambura Gorge.

Created millions of years ago by volcanic activity, it's an amazing

biodiversity.

crammed into a 12 -mile section 100 metres deep and home to a supposed

of monkeys.

So the gorge is teeming with life, right? There's lots of monkeys,

kinds of birds. Uganda is known for that kind of birds.

It looks unbelievable.

Yeah, I look forward to seeing it. I think the ranger's going to tell us more

about it.

OK, I'm very excited.

Hello, Ruth. Hello.

Nice meeting you. Thank you, Alec. Ruth is my name.

Hello, Ramesh. Nice meeting you, Ramesh.

We're about to hike through the gorge, hopefully taking in the various types of

wildlife that the gorge has to offer.

We're going to gorge ourselves on flora and fauna.

I wish I hadn't said that.

But anyway, that's what we're doing. We're hiking through the gorge.

Ramesh, are you OK there? I'm fine. I don't like downhill, really, as a rule.

But I'm fine.

Ruth, what do you have the gun for?

So how

many chimpanzees are there here?

What do you

see, Ron?

I thought they saw something, but it was a tree.

More facts about chimpanzees, that chimpanzees eat meat.

Do they? They do. And they do hunt other monkeys.

What?

Yes.

I cannot believe that.

Hunting comes in at a certain period of the year.

And it is a planned arrangement that today we won't have meat.

So killing the monkey, they use these big trees.

They'll grab the monkey and hit his head on the branch.

So they are smart in a way that they do not want that monkey to die a painful

death.

They will hit his head, he will lose his senses, and then they will tear up.

How is that not a painful death?

Can you see anything, Ron?

There's more space.

Chimpanzees.

So I prefer we walk back the same way we came. Because the chimpanzees are

inviting us.

They're inviting us? They are letting us know that we are going in the wrong

direction.

Apparently the chimpanzees, we've said they're communicating to

let us know we're going the wrong way.

Fucking hell.

I've got a bump now.

What are you doing?

The chimps.

The chimps? Yeah.

Ruth thinks that she's figured out roughly where the chimpanzees are.

But, um, they're very clever.

So it's not beyond the realms of possibility that they just thought,

lead these three twats on a merry chimp chase?

Where are you heading on to now?

I guess it'll be through some more trees and then on to the Crater Lake, which

has an incredible amount of pressure on it, I would say.

If I turn up at the Crater Lake and Kendrick Lamar's not doing a gig,

I'll be absolutely furious.

Or what would be an amazing end to this is we get to the Crater Lake and all the

animals from here are waiting there.

I'm going to just go, surprise!

Eventually, we emerged from the gorge and hobbled towards the twin lakes of

Kaima and Kamweru.

Oh, my God.

Wow.

They were formed by a volcanic eruption at some point between 400 and 12 ,000

years ago, depending on who you believe.

This is the escapement, the western wall of the Rift Valley.

This is incredible.

Is it worth it now?

Yeah, this is actually.

It's absolutely amazing.

Ruth, thank you so much for looking after us today. Please, it has been a

pleasure. It's genuinely stunning.

We headed further north, careering across the equator and heading deeper

rural Uganda.

Alex explained that the country is still highly religious.

81 % of the Christian population attend church every week, and society is built

on a bedrock of highly traditional, conservative faith.

Where do you sit in the scale of...

your generation of people. Are you quite more traditional than the average

person of your age or less or about the same, would you say?

I think I'm a bit more traditional.

Right.

But again, people from the royal family were expected to behave in a way you...

to protect... protect its norms, protect its values. Yeah. A lot.

I'm old school.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So do you look at, like, the fight in the UK and feel like it's lost its way a

little bit then?

Is that kind of...? Yeah. Yeah. I think so.

In terms of what?

Because I think, you know, a lot of people in the UK would agree with you,

I mean, what's your kind of take on it?

OK, from what we see on social media and we see that there's a

lot more acceptance for people acting on how they feel.

Right. Which, for us, your feelings are valid, but they're not the most

important thing.

Okay. So society has rules, so to say, and we abide by them.

Okay. So what you mean by that is... Men and men.

Men and men and women and women. Women and women.

You don't overcomplicate it. It's basics.

Just the basics.

If you... Would you ever be in a relationship where the man was the one

stayed home and looked after the children and you were the one that went

worked? No. No?

No. I think that he would not be happy.

Okay. With me being the one that's bringing the money home.

I don't think he would. And I would not be happy.

I mean, speaking personally, I'd be delighted.

You would?

I think so.

Well, why are you not doing it now?

Because my wife is terrible at comedy.

Oh, don't.

That evening at the hotel, We had a drink at the bar.

As amazing as Uganda had been so far, I was aware that there was an elephant in

the room.

Uganda's new so -called anti -gay laws.

The legislation, which passed a few weeks before I arrived, outlaws

homosexuality and punishes anybody promoting it with a prison sentence of

20 years, or potentially even the death penalty.

The laws have been described as some of the harshest of their kind anywhere on

the planet.

But I wanted to find out what the Ugandan perspective was.

So, between us deciding to come to Uganda and make this show,

and us arriving in Uganda to make this show, a new set of laws and legislation

were put in place.

So I guess my first question would be, how popular is that?

I think it represents what we believe as a people.

OK.

That women marry men.

That's it.

There's no in -between.

It comes from a religious thing, right? And a cultural thing.

And actually, people were happy when the president signed the bill.

I was for it.

For full clarity, I'm coming from a country that has a completely different

attitude to that. And also, my own personal views are different. I'm giving

idea of what my bias is in this. What is your bias, if I may ask?

My belief is that it's no more a choice to be homosexual than it is to be a

choice to be heterosexual.

So you're saying, in my opinion, I want to make it illegal for you to be

who you are.

It's the same thing as saying to me, we're going to make it illegal to be

Do you know what I mean?

That's kind of how I see it.

How do you feel about the idea that...

They have no choice about who they are. I think you do.

You think so? Yes, please.

So you think, in your opinion, every gay person has chosen to be gay?

I mean, how else are they gay?

Well, I didn't choose to be heterosexual.

I am heterosexual by nature.

Yeah. I don't believe there's any difference for homosexual people.

I think they're a bit different.

Sex is not something that you tell children.

It's not something that's open.

We don't do that.

We had incidents where books were taken to schools.

Right. In the library.

And that caused an outrage.

And so the Ministry of Education said, we won't be having this in the school.

So that's what happened.

The first thing was to protect children. Okay.

Protect children from what, though?

From that kind of content.

Let's assume that homosexuality is a choice.

What's wrong with letting people make that choice?

Do we allow people to make all choices? They just make the choices they feel?

Well, I mean, within limit.

Exactly. This is a limit.

We have guardrails in everything.

I think it's okay.

No offense, but I feel like in the West, your guardrails are very wide

in the UK.

They are told it's normal, right? In Uganda, they will be told it's not

That's the difference.

So there must be lots of people in homosexual relationships.

Lots? Yeah, I would say lots.

I have never in my life met a homosexual couple.

I've never met it.

Never ever? Never. Okay. I think that if you became really close

friends with somebody and then you later on discovered that they were homosexual

and then this law was passed, I think you'd have a different attitude to it.

I don't think so.

If you like... I would, as a person, I would love them.

I still don't agree with what they're doing, but I love them. Okay, but then

would you support them going to prison for 20 years for being who they are?

Is that who they are?

That is who they are.

Oh, that's who they've chosen to be.

I think the fundamental difference between what my viewpoint is and what

viewpoint is and where we're never going to meet, regardless of what we think

about the treatment of this, is that I don't believe it's a choice and you do.

Yes.

And that is kind of the crux of the problem.

Yes. Alex's insistence that this law has widespread support does seem to be

broadly true.

Only one MP voted against it in Parliament, with 371 in favour.

I put a question that the anti -homosexuality bill 2023 be read the

time and do pass those in favour stand to a contrary name.

The ayes have it.

I got that the country is religious and that that would have shaped opinions,

but clearly some Ugandans feel otherwise.

Although it was hard to find anyone able to speak openly on the subject, I did

manage to contact an activist from Uganda's LGBTQ community to try and

understand what life is like for gay people in modern Uganda.

Her voice has been distorted to protect her identity.

Hello there, it's Romesh here.

So how are you feeling at the moment with everything that's going on, the new

laws that have passed?

Before this bill was passed, what was life like for the gay community in

So you're saying they've basically linked homosexuality with child abuse.

Do people believe this?

For lesbians, there's also another component of sexual violence that they

because corrective rape is very common.

Right. So many times groups of men will rape a lesbian couple or a lesbian woman

because they're assuming you like other women because you don't know what it

feels like to be with a man.

And right now, to be honest, that is my biggest fear at this moment.

A lot of rape is going to happen to us.

It sounds so awful.

How do you feel about people visiting Uganda with this way of life in place,

with this kind of thing going on? I mean, how do you feel about that whole

thing?

You know,

the honest truth is I find it incredibly upsetting.

I just, my heart goes out to people I can't even imagine.

If you are a member of the gay community or a supporter of the gay community,

your life here is incredibly challenging.

People feel empowered to be homophobic because they're backed up by law.

It's horrible. It's disgusting.

I mean, when I came to the country, I was hoping that...

I could somehow kind of justify what's happened with these new laws and that

they hadn't been supported and this is something that people are up in arms

about. But having spoken to Alex, who I think is fairly typical of the views in

this country, I think not only is it a well -supported law, I think it's a

celebrated one.

I mean, the truth is that I really get on with Alex. She's been an amazing

She's been a really effusive and...

energetic advocate for Uganda as a country.

But the fact of the matter is we are fundamentally opposed in our sets of

And it's not coming from a bad place with her. It's coming from a place where

she feels family is important and she wants it to be protected.

I also feel family is important and I want it to be protected. But what our

views are, what families look like, are completely different. And we'll never

agree on that.

It's left me feeling like I'm not really sure how I feel about Uganda.

You know, I've had nice experiences, I've got on with Alex, but it's

I'm just going to have to ponder over the next few days, I think.

The next morning, we headed further into the Ugandan countryside in the

direction of Murchison National Park to experience more of rural Uganda.

We popped along to the village and we did like a... I would describe it as a

smorgasbord of village activities.

The first one was to meet up with a man whose family has been responsible for

providing the village with banana -based beverages.

Hello, sir. You are welcome.

Thank you. Hello, how are you? I'm good. I'm Ramesh.

I'm Mugabe Robert.

Nice to meet you. His name was Mugabe Robert.

I'll let you figure out who he's named after.

It takes like 15 minutes.

There are three stages to those beverages.

First is banana juice.

When you distill that, you get yourself banana beer.

Distill that again, you get yourself banana gin.

No muscle, no juice.

Oh, no muscle, no juice.

So there's an art to it.

Put your shoulder in it, like this, like this.

Absolute banana carnage.

The way you make banana juice is you squash some bananas.

Oh!

Loads of muscle, loads of juice.

And you add water to it.

You then get banana leaf and use that to make a banana filter.

You pull the banana liquid through the banana filter into a banana juice jar,

and that, my friend, is banana juice.

And I would describe that taste as a lot like bananas with water. And then you

distill that and it becomes banana beer. Thank you, that'll do. Cheers, Mugabe

Robert. For us here, we say bonga.

Bonga!

Bonga. Bonga.

Oh, you've already started? OK.

And I'd describe that taste as a lot like bananas with water and mud.

And then finally, that is distilled again to make the banana gin. Bonga!

Then I'll describe that as bananas with fire.

Woo!

You sort of get an initial banana -y taste, and then you feel like, I would

describe it as an intense chemical burn.

It felt like it undone all of the Yakult I'd drunk in my life.

There's literally nothing left inside me.

Take a sip, just.

And sip.

Oh, I should have knocked it back like a heathen, didn't I? Sorry.

Do you want to make some juice?

No, it's fine, it's fine. I like it. I like it uncut.

It killed not only bacteria, but emotions and feelings.

I've not felt anything since.

Bonga! You've got a half measure there, mate.

That is good stuff, man.

Congratulations.

I am battered. How many fingers?

I couldn't tell you that even without being drunk.

Wow, okay.

That's enough.

This is dangerous.

I was licked.

I was banana split.

I was absolutely hammered. And I was so drunk.

that I thought, this can't be how I'm going to feel going forward. This must

like an initial banana buzz, and then I'm going to overcome it. But no, that

how I felt for the rest of my day in the village. It did not subside at all.

Hey, I'm Ramesh.

Anit. Anit.

OK, hello.

The idea of sort of starting the day with nine tots of banana gin and

it with needlework...

It doesn't seem that smart to me, but that is what we did.

It has to go through the... OK.

If anybody wants to have a go at basket weaving, do it sober would be my tip.

Tell me, can you tell the bit where I started? Yes, please.

Put some energy into it. It has to be tight, man.

This is bad, isn't it? It's not so bad.

It's bad, isn't it?

I asked her to check my work and she undid everything I'd done.

I can't even see this, let alone myself, mate.

Three weeks of work from Annette, seven minutes of work from Romesh to

completely ruin it, and then I had to go and meet a herbalist. I thought, that's

the last thing I need.

Would you mind giving some examples of what some people in the village have

to you, what kind of problems they've come to you with?

And how does the, just I'm picking one at random, how does the Viagra work on

the body?

There's a root that if you grind it into a powder and add it to your coffee or

your tea, it makes you fiercely sexual.

He sort of said, you know, you can take this, it's going to give you an

erection, but...

Once you get that erection, you've got to do something with it.

Do you know what I mean? Like, otherwise it's a wasted hard -on.

Why would you take it if you're not going to have sex?

I guess if you just wanted to, I don't know, if you wanted to change your

shadow.

If you wanted to...

We took another especially long drive north, long enough even for me to

from the banana beer.

We eventually arrived at our final destination, Murchison National Park,

an embarrassment of wild animals and spectacular waterfalls.

First, though, we headed over to the ruins of an old hunting lodge, once home

the country's notorious dictator, Idi Amin.

What is the perception of Idi Amin in Uganda?

When you say Idi Amin, at least for me, I know...

Many people died. Right.

Right. So it's not positive.

That's for sure. Yeah.

It doesn't come up much in chat. No, he does not.

He's sort of seen as the ultimate kind of mad dictator. Do you know what I

Like in terms of like, obviously he did a lot of stuff, but just he did a lot of

stuff that was like kind of just a bit wacky. He challenged the president of

Tanzania to a boxing match. Yeah. That was funny.

And then he said.

Muhammad Ali would be the referee, winner.

I'm sure Muhammad Ali said, wow.

A former British soldier, Idi Amin became president of Uganda after a coup

1971. So, help me God.

At first welcomed as one of a new breed of outward -looking modern African

leaders, Amin's reign quickly descended into a brutal mixture of bloodletting

and farce.

His idiosyncratic style has become legendary.

He declared himself the King of Scotland and launched the Save Britain Fund to

help with the UK's financial woes.

In 1972, he ordered that all Asians must leave the country within 90 days.

An apparently popular move... that served to collapse the entire economy

isolate his regime in the eyes of the world.

What will happen to these people if they don't go by the time then?

I think they will be sitting like they are sitting on the fire.

I will tell you this. You just wait after three months.

What will you do to them?

OK, you will see.

By 1974, he was engaged in a reign of terror.

Rumours swelled of cannibalism and madness.

as 300 ,000 people were killed.

In a desperate attempt to forge national unity, in 1978, Amin started a war with

neighbouring Tanzania.

The strategy failed, and Amin was driven into exile in Saudi Arabia, where he

eventually died in 2003.

He was survived by his six wives and 43 children.

He's quite a colourful dude. You'd almost like him if it wasn't for the

that... He did a load of horrible stuff when he was in charge.

I've got this name here, right? This is what he called himself.

Okay. So Idi Amin called himself His Excellency, President for Life,

Field Marshal Al -Hajji Dr. Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of all the

of the earth and fishes of the seas, and conqueror of the British Empire in

Africa in general and Uganda in particular.

Well... I mean, what do you think of that? I mean, some of those claims are

true. He had humour.

Well, yes, he was, uh... I mean, part of it sounds like the tagline of a Marvel

film.

What would your title be?

Um... Yeah. Princess of Uganda.

Yeah. And Uganda in general.

Might as well. Yeah, yeah. Lover of Jeans. Yeah. Lover of Jeans.

And Meat.

Yeah. I love meat. I think mine would be Romesh Ranganathan.

Uh -huh. Vegan father.

Oh. Husband to disappointed wife.

Ruler of comedy.

In Britain and Crawley in particular.

And purveyor of lazy eye. There you go.

He did other things that were a bit strange, so to speak.

Yeah. People weren't allowed to walk on the street in slippers.

Yeah. And so they were made to eat them.

Okay, well, I mean, apart from the eating thing, I do sort of agree with

Hello. Hello.

You're most welcome, sir.

Thank you very much. Yes, my name is Silva.

We met a ranger who'd agreed to show us what remained of Idi Amin's game lodge

and ensure we didn't get eaten in the process.

Me and my colleague just checked a few minutes back to make sure we are safe

walking there. We saw like prints for Leopard.

But we made sure we checked every corner of the structure, and we didn't find

any. So we are safe to move there. Hey, can we walk there? Yes, after you.

Seeing lots of concrete, it used to be such a powerful lodge.

What happened to it?

This one was looted, and in the process...

There was no control.

This lodge just caught fire. And it's how it got destroyed.

Yes, you can step down.

Down here?

Okay. It was actually one of the most beautiful lodges in the park.

Did Amin come to this lodge?

Yes, there is actually another point where he wanted to put the headquarters

his district.

So we've talked a bit about Idi Amin and the sillier things, his long name, you

know, some of the things he got up to. But there is a much darker side to what

he did. During his time in power, 300 ,000 people died.

Do you know people who lost family members during his time?

I mean, the king who was exiled.

Amin wasn't the president then, but he was really in charge of the army that

came to attack our...

palace, so that is the closest relationship I have.

But my mum told me it was difficult when Idi Amin was president. She was working

in government.

People disappeared, people died, so you had to be careful, is what I remember

her saying.

And can I ask you a question and give me an honest answer? I won't get offended.

I will try.

Is it slightly annoying for you?

That for somebody that wasn't even alive at the time, you're now having to field

questions about Idi Amin because I want to find out about Uganda.

I mean, is that something that you thought I would ask you about? Is that

something you think, why the hell is he asking you about this?

It was such a long time ago.

Everybody I meet only knows Idi Amin.

Like when you say I'm from Uganda, oh, Idi Amin.

We've had so many presidents between him and now we have a president that has

been here for a long time We do have an Asian community. We've got Asian

businessmen that have been here for a while But the really interesting thing

after Idi Amin left It didn't get any better. It got worse. There was a civil

war, lots of wars, killings Uganda wasn't a fun place to live.

I don't know how my mom made it.

And what do you think of the state of Uganda now in terms of how it's being

and stuff?

There's always an opportunity to do better. When you came in, you saw all

potholes. I think we could do better in governance, just administration of our

resources to make sure we maintain what we have. I think we could do better.

Having the oil is really great for our country.

There's challenges that come with having so much oil.

But I think it's a good thing we have these additional resources because our

government has been trying to diversify income, and this is one of the ways.

We do have peace.

which, according to people who are older than me, is... I mean, they always say,

you don't know what you have until you lose it, right? So for them, having

is enough.

Yeah. By comparison.

Yeah.

I don't think there'll ever come a time when we'll completely draw a line and

forget about it. It's just not possible.

But there will come a time where...

It's not the main issue.

It's not the main point of discussion.

I do hope that is good.

I think it will be.

If we do a part two to this, you know, if I ever come back to do another

Show, my first question will be, tell me about Lake Victoria.

You promise?

I won't even mention Idi Amin. Good.

Okay. Unless they uncover something new about him.

in which case it would be my duty on behalf of the BBC.

As the final stage of our journey, Alex had arranged for us to visit the world's

famous Murchison Falls from a boat. Something for the crocodiles to chew on.

Right.

Journeying upriver whilst dodging the numerous deadly animals on the shore,

which would lie perhaps in wait.

how fast do they swim People in water, they can get up to 7 .8 kilometers per

hour. On land, 30 .2. On land, they're quite fat.

That's annoying, because I'm 7 .7 in the water and 30 .1 on the land.

After a while, they would catch me.

Real shame. Let's get out of here.

Holy shit.

How close are we going to get to this?

They can get up to five to six metres long, and they can live up to 100 years.

It's always part of, you know, once you've done perfect, you see it's alive.

Try. Try and throw something.

Oh, it's moving. It's heading towards the crew boat.

Cool, it's disappeared.

Let's get the fuck out of here.

Oh, my God, I love elephants, man.

Look at that.

Wow. Wow.

Whoa.

That is crazy, isn't it?

These falls, sometimes known as the Caballega Falls, are arguably the most

spectacular thing that happens to the Nile during its 4 ,000 -mile journey, as

the enormous river is forced through a gap just seven meters wide, plummeting

down 141 feet before heading out west to Lake Albert.

It has been described, by people who are almost certainly wrong, as the world's

most powerful waterfall.

Wow.

This is incredible.

It feels a bit threatening to me.

Like, oh my God, I'm going to get you, that kind of thing.

Wow. Come on now.

Yeah.

Welcome to Maction Falls.

This is amazing.

It is.

It gets really intense. I don't know.

Thank you so much. I mean, I know you didn't make this, but... You're welcome.

This is category shit yourself and die. Die.

Genuinely amazing.

Have you got your swim stuff?

When I

first

came here, I knew nothing about this country, really, just the idea I mean.

But Uganda has got a handful of once -in -a -lifetime experiences. It's got all

of the stuff that I was sort of expecting in terms of natural beauty,

but it's got that and then some.

For those things alone, it's been an amazing experience.

And on top of that, people are fantastic.

Everybody, pretty universally, is friendly and welcoming and they give you

feeling that they're delighted to see you in the country.

So what I mean, you're just doing a little piece of camera and off it pops

That's what it's like here. It's like being in Narnia.

There's amazing wildlife.

It's just set up beautifully for you to come and have a visit.

On the other hand, you've got a country that has just passed what I would

describe as a disgusting law that has widespread support, violence against

people from the...

from the gay community is essentially being sanctioned and being supported.

horrific.

The question is, would I visit this country knowing all of that?

And the truth is, despite all of the wonderful things that Uganda has to

I don't think I could.

I don't think I can wholeheartedly recommend this as a place to come.

I've made my opinion, but I think that is up to you.

It's a matter of whether you can come here knowing that that's in place.

You've got an amazing country that has loads to offer. The people are

friendly. And so I think it's up to everybody to make their own personal

Next on our trip, I'm off to Rwanda.

I'm very, very excited about it.

That's on the one hand. On the other hand, we are one third through the trip,

and I'm absolutely exhausted.

I'm very grateful. Thank you so much.

Enjoy Rwanda.

I will do.

I would say that these chats are going to be slightly lower energy as we go

forward.

By the time we get to Madagascar, I'm going to have to get someone else to do

them.

Oh, my.

Too close.

Too close, too close, too close.

It's good shit.

Get close to all that good stuff now. Watch the whole series on iPlayer. For

more sedate adventuring, join Rob and Rylan as they delight in art, history

dressing up.

Press red and join the grand tour on iPlayer.

Now then, gird your loins, for we are headed inside number nine next.

What murky japes await, you may ask.

But I didn't say I'd answer.