My brother took my dad to the airport once and came back with an American accent that lasted a whole week .

Someone once told me I say “minutes” like a Ugandan and for the longest time I was offended ,

“how dare you!” ,

but truth is ,

I am one.

Our accents have given us away long before our surnames could .

Tiata? Zulu? It’s Zulu, right ?

Ever since we moved here,

I have been asked to pronounce things the “right way”, as though English came in a one accent fits all description.Not that I didn’t try , I tried my best to stress and shape my tongue into what you prefered but my tongue is this stuborn campus pointing to where am from.

I failed so many times compared to your suppossed mastery of pronounciation in the english language .

I am sorry you failed to switch and fix my tongue , you would tell me , Imou

“It’s clothes not clothes

church not church

hashtag not hashtag

Umbrella not umbrella”

(all said in two different accents)

There is no potato potahto

argument here you were right. I will always have a Ugandan accent – here but back home , back home I can’t say my own name right ..Its Imou not Imou (2 different accents)

I am invisble to my own people they nicknamed me “Muzingu black”

“What is she trying to say?”

“Could you it slowly?”

” huh?”

I don’t have a Ugandan accent, what I do have is diversity ,

A little bit of dad’s accent here and

a little bit of mom’s accent there and

a whole alot of brainwashing from all the cartoons I watched growing up and thats why I sound like this !

But because of mankind’s need to stratify, classify and or put into ranks to separate oneself from that which is different , to feel safe , you concluded I sound Ugandan , which isn’t a bad thing . Accents define us and I am Ugandan . Most times .