When we say that Uganda, & Africa in general, doesn& #39;t have a critical mass of intelligent p& #39;ple - or of p& #39;ple whose minds are predisposed towards intelligent reading material -- we& #39;re fiercely challenged by those who& #39;ve never staked anything on the idea that such a mass exists.

It& #39;s true that, in the Western world, as in Uganda, tabloids are popular. Indeed, the UK& #39;s best-selling papers are tabloids. But the point is that while a publication like The Economist has been commercially possible in the UK since 1843, it& #39;s not commercially possible in Uganda.

There are millions of Americans that subscribed to Playboy before pornography shifted to the internet. But, in the same country, publications such as New Yorker are possible. In Uganda, Red Pepper is possible, but a high-brow publication is not. Those who& #39;ve ever tried to...

...start such publications know how impossible they are. But those who have never tried don& #39;t know it, and will be the quickest to rise in disagreement when one says that, in our country, there is no critical mass of intelligent people. What have you ever staked to test the idea?

A man like Timothy Kalyegira who started a high-brow publication called The African Almanac in the late 90s is in position to comment on the intelligence of Ugandans b& #39;se he knows how they responded to the publication. But people challenge him when they& #39;ve done something similar.

If you want to challenge those of us who have staked money on the idea that Ugandans are intelligent, and suffered loss as a result, first do something that actually tests the idea. We aren& #39;t saying everyone is slow. We& #39;re saying there is no critical mass of intelligent people.