Famed for his weekly Monday blogs, the man from Serere has become some kind of pathfinder amongst bloggers. He is a man with a simple background and immense love for social media. Be it Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the rest, he has an existing account on all these platforms.
Known to many as Beewol, I first met him at Iguana Bar and Restaurant two years ago. We later kicked it off when he invited me to take part in a 40Days40Smiles charity event. 40Days40Smiles is a charity organization that is mainly powered by Ugandan youths garnering support through social media and word of mouth. They have built a dorm, fed the little kids and so on and so forth. I had last directly partaken in Charity 5 years prior to that. Being in a mood to get to know some of these people I always interacted with online, I agreed to this rather interesting ‘movement’ and one thing led to another…. Rock lovers know him quite well. He presents the Party People show on Touch FM at specific nights of the week. Gone are the days when I used to listen to uncoordinated music on radio. But I can’t say the same for the reggae Sundays.
Men have been venerated in all manners possible but Bernard has managed to idolize himself through his infamous Monday Blogs. Known for all kinds of satire and mind opening ideas, his blog has grown famous as people have continuously looked forward to it with every falling Monday. He will curate a simple blog out of the events that happen in his life, only for the reader to absently associate.
When you hear Bernard talk, you might think he is one of those all talk but no walk kind of men. Unknowing to the fact that he has engineered some of the most famous trending topics known to Ugandans on Twitter (for those who remember #PLE2012 and #TheYearIs2050). Imagine an unsteady gazelle walking through the park with the faculty of the King of the jungle. That is how he enters a room. With all the might of a would-be leader, he will talk and you will listen… Most of the times I have.
With the immense zeal of a man defining his road to opulence, he orders for his Guinness and takes the first sip like he has just discovered the last remaining oasis in the Kalahari. He talks about the love he has for his mother and how she has supported him. He says it with a lot of pride that I can’t help but envy such a relationship. This is a guy I have known for quite some time and I consider him as a friend. We support the same football teams (SC Villa and ManUtd), we support the same Formula One Team (Ferrari). He is a big Formula One fan and he knows how it hurts to be underperforming (just like what is happening with ManUtd).
As the night gets deep, the calm conversations become a fortissimo of sentences struggling to compete with the music. It is one of our usual nights at our favorite gin mill. This is where we come to forget the day’s problem at work and at home. Not so much for your usual ‘let me refer it to my uptown friends’ kind of bar, but when we are here, we are served like we are nobility itself. We discuss all ranges of topics from women to sports to social media and we go on and on as one by one, the people around us become inebriate. Some nights I want to stay in the bar until my body forcefully takes me home. Other nights I just want to have my fair share of stout and walk off into these forlorn nights that I have grown accustomed to. Tonight, we part ways hoping to find life’s answers at the break of dawn. Cheers…
PS: This is the first profile I have ever written that is not work related. I hope I have not bored you to the point of plucking your eyes out.
A Man from Serere. Famed for his weekly Monday blogs, the man from Serere has become some kind of pathfinder amongst bloggers.