I WAS NOT SURPRISED TO read that during these last two weeks of extremely hot and unbearable weather conditions in Uganda, there were national leaders in this country presenting a report requiring fellow adults to wear European-style suits.

My current work conditions allow me to be much more sensible about what I wear and when. But even before finding myself at this station of life, I have campaigned long and hard against European style suits as generally (un)suitable (no pun) for our tropical African climate here in East and Central Africa.

Two years ago, a conference in Nairobi burst into applause while laughing when I told them that they could not possibly create African solutions to our problems while holding discussions in foreign languages, clad in European clothing.

That particular discussion went much further because we were talking about growing the economy through sectors such as textiles, yet less than ten percent of us in the room were clothed in anything that supported the textile value chain in Africa.

Jas Bedi, one of Africa’s foremost textile captains of industry, has worked hard at reversing this, starting in East Africa with operations like Fine Spinners in Uganda and Bedi Textiles in Kenya.

In both countries, he fought hard to establish the understanding that our cotton-growing fields from the early 1900s had not yielded much for our economies because we had never tried to own the retail clothing side of the chain.

Instead, we were somehow convinced that Africans are so poor that we can only afford second-hand clothing from the West—sent here as donations and yet sold to us as commercial products.

Ironically, the phrase ‘dirt-cheap’ that comes to mind around those second-hand clothes too many of us wear does not refer to their cost but to their very texture after years of wear in those Western climates.

President Yoweri Museveni is one of Jas Bedi’s biggest supporters because Jas walks what the president has talked about for decades now; in fact, we now all know that the Ugandan President wears shirts made and purchased from Jas’ Fine Spinners as evidence of what we should be doing.

So I always find it strange that there are so many other people who claim to be as patriotic and nationalistic and pan-African and sensible as President Museveni and yet go on doing exactly the opposite of what he says.

Will we one day see the entire cabinet in a post-meeting photograph all clad in Fine Spinners’ shirts made in Uganda from Uganda cotton and designed by Ugandan designers?

Can we hope that one day there will be a requirement that only people wearing clothing made in East Africa by East Africans out of East African fabrics will be allowed to attend national or regional events?

Be Serious.

Even when we are uncomfortable and in agony, our leaders are insisting on wearing hot and stuffy European suits, so who’s going to lead us into common sense?

I say common sense because, honestly speaking, during these last few weeks of temperatures as high as 34 degrees Celsius, did you not see people in suits and neckties walking Kampala streets?

Yep, in 2025.

And their leaders are holding discussions about how it is necessary to wear European suits and ties, mbu.

Off the website of the Parliament reporting on this, you will read:

‘“A pair of long trousers with a jacket, kanzu and jacket, safari suit, and decent traditional wear should be removed from the rules. The only acceptable dress code for male members should be a suit, shirt, and tie. This will uphold decorum and ensure consistency and uniformity in the dress code for male members of Parliament,” Katuntu, also Bugweri County MP, said.

Remove the kanzu from the rules?

Written history says the Arabs first arrived in East Africa in about the 8th Century AD—13 centuries ago—and they introduced to us the robes that they wore back then that were called dishdasha or kandura, among other terms.

The Baganda eventually called it the kanzu and today here we are, using it as our formal and informal traditional clothing.

I wear the kanzu regularly at home because it is comfortable clothing on any given day for lounging. So when this heatwave intensified I realised I was being foolish sticking – quite literally – to ‘regular’ clothing.

My smarter kanzus were deployed for official working hours. I started breathing so much easier that I had to order in more (off jiji.ug I randomly selected one Mustafa Kitaka because he responded fast and first).

Like most people, he assumed I was a Muslim, perhaps planning for the Holy Month, and even asked, “Can I also send some caps?”

The kanzu is not Islamic garb; it is a tunic or robe that should be our national dress, especially for weather such as this.

According to my AI friend called Claude (claude.ai), these traditional robes are designed for hot (desert) climates because they are loose, lightweight, and typically white—all engineering to “provide optimal cooling and protection from intense heat.”

We know this. And yet, for some reason linked to our poor education, we insist on wearing European suits and ties. Claude compares the two as expected: “In contrast, European suits made of darker, heavier materials like wool or polyester absorb more heat, restrict air movement, prevent efficient body cooling and create more skin contact, trapping heat and moisture.”

I mean…wearing those European suits in tropical Africa only makes sense if you own a deodorant factory, and most rooms you walk into these days prove that few people around here own deodorants, let alone a factory making them.

And yet, Clive adds: “The traditional Arab robe is not just a cultural garment but a brilliantly practical solution to extreme heat, demonstrating how traditional clothing evolves to meet specific environmental challenges.”

So what makes our brains fail to recognise this? The same brains that have us wearing them to our cultural events for full days of comfort amid the heat and bustle of those celebrations?

It must have something to do with the heat being so concentrated by those wool and polyester suits and the effect of that on the inside of our skulls.

Those who have not yet suffered the damage, make the change now. Switch to the kanzu. If you need an excuse, Ramadan has started, so you will have lots of company amongst our Muslim brothers out there. Just ensure you say to them: Ramdadan Kareem!

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Simon Kaheru

www.skaheru.com
@skaheru