Historical Jinja Article by Luuk Eickmans, Jinja resident, promoter of Jinja heritage and director of Cycling out of Poverty Foundation and Bikeventures Bicycle Tours and Rentals.
Welcome To The Eye Magazine Directory
- All Locations :
Welcome To The Eye Magazine Directory
Historical Jinja Article by Luuk Eickmans, Jinja resident, promoter of Jinja heritage and director of Cycling out of Poverty Foundation and Bikeventures Bicycle Tours and Rentals.
Jinja is East Africa’s Capital of Adrenaline. But Jinja however has another underexposed attraction: its rich and unique heritage. Its history, its architecture, its palm trees waving in the lake breeze and its streets lined with giant Mvule trees make Jinja City a gem well worth visiting.
There are many buildings in Jinja with a stunning architecture. But unfortunately, most Jinja residents pay little attention to the beauty that the city holds and don’t value the heritage value. They rather want to see skyscrapers been build, more tarmacked streets and more shopping malls.
Over the years I have seen a lot of buildings with beautiful features reminding us of its history being torn down and replaced by new, modern and standardized and – honestly – boring buildings. And even though I do understand the ambition of the youth to develop a prominent city, it has become my personal goal to encourage fellow residents and visitors to embrace Jinja’s beauty and history and appreciate and conserve its rich heritage before it is too late. I want to show that conserving a rich heritage past can go hand on hand with developing a prominent, modern city.
Together with a befriended Historical Jinja fan, Tim Sliedrecht, I started the Historical Jinja Facebook Group. This page is about collaboratively sharing, exploring, learning from, celebrating, and preserving the history of Jinja and its historical sites still standing today. Everyone is free to contribute their photos, memories, stories, experiences, insights, and discoveries in relation to Jinja’s rich past. I also developed the Jinja Historical Bicycle & Walking Tour with Bikeventures Tours and Rentals, geared towards exposing the stories behind some of the most iconic features of the city.
Take for instance Amber Court Club. From the early 50s to the late 70s it was the place to be. One of Idi Amin’s most popular hangouts in Jinja and it once hosted Queen Elizabeth II when she visited Jinja in 1954 to commission the Owen Falls Dam. Amber Court Club was also home to Jinja’s first public swimming pool. Nowadays the pool with diving board only fills up when it rains, the snooker tables are left abandoned, but when you walk around the Club you can still feel the splendor it once had. Many people today in Jinja have forgotten about Amber Court. Likewise, to the Ripon Falls Hotel. This grandeur hotel was built in 1950 but has now turned into a shabby building but with many stories to tell. Amber Court Club and Ripon Falls Hotel are actually good examples of the lost glory but are at the same time a symbol of Jinja’s vast heritage potential. But there are also a lot of small things which remind you of Jinja’s past: like lamp post designs, mail boxes, and markings on buildings.
Luckily the Uganda Tourism Board-UTB have said they are shifting their focus that was hugely based on marketing Uganda’s landscape and wildlife to architectural tourism. Hopefully this will add to attracting more visitors to Jinja to visit its historical monuments and architecture. This mind shift has already put some buildings under protection as part of Jinja’s heritage sites. Like the iconic post office which was founded in 1906 and is the oldest post office that is still operational in Uganda. Also, the Madhvani House, the first double storied building in Jinja has been well restored in its former glory and received a National Heritage Award for protecting this building. With the opening of the Uganda Railway Museum at the Jinja Railway station in 2022, Jinja has again taken another step to become a successful heritage city where the conservation of the rich historical past goes hand in hand with the developments to become a prominent city in future with all the economical benefits which come with it. It however needs a continuous developing of a culture that recognizes, appreciates, maintains and improves the status of Jinja’s iconic buildings and sites.
If more visitors come to Jinja purposely for seeing its heritage sites, it will show and convince residents and local government that historical Jinja heritage is appreciated and of value to the country. So come visit Jinja and we will guide you through the British colonial quarter, we will stroll along the beautiful facades of Main Street and will visit the hidden gems of Jinja together.
Bikeventures offers bicycle tours and walking tours which bring you back to these days of grandeur. The tours will give you great stories and historical facts, and we will show you photos of these hidden gems in their heyday. You will find out that Jinja is a very Instagrammable place! The Historical Jinja Bicycle and Walking Tours are offered daily by Bikeventures (+256.778.366.007). For more guided bicycle tours, visit https://www.bikeventures.org, because Bikeventures does not only offer Jinja City tours. It also does various bicycle tours to the Source of the Nile, single-track mountain bike tours on the banks of the river Nile visiting tea estates, pineapple and sugar cane plantations, and cycling through picturesque villages and the Bujagali area. Or for instance mountain bike tours through Mabira Forest. So don’t hesitate to call Bikeventures for a splendid day out in Jinja.
And by taking a bicycle or walking tour with Bikeventures, you are supporting students, health workers and entrepreneurs with bicycles. Because all proceeds of Bikeventures are donated to Cycling out of Poverty Foundation Uganda to support Jinja residents with bicycles. Find out more about these bicycle projects at our office in Jinja.
