Muniini K. Mulera

New prime minister offers hope to Lesotho

By Muniini K. MuleraNovember 1, 20220 comments

The Kingdom of Lesotho has a new prime minister. Samuel Ntsokoane Matekane was sworn in on Friday October 28, becoming his country’s tenth prime minister since independence from Britain in 1966. Matekane, a 64-year-old businessman, who is said to be the richest person ...

Counting (numbers) in Rukiga/Runyankore

By Muniini K. MuleraKigyezi Kigyezi CultureOctober 30, 20220 comments

#Okubara #omutwaro #akasiriira #akakeikuru #akakaikuru #akakaira #akahumbi #akatabarwa

Our ancestors had a counting system whose terminology was similar to or shared roots with that of Bantu language nations all over Africa. It appears that there were words for quantities/amounts up to, at most, ten thousand. It is very unlikely that there was an item that needed enumeration ...

Banyarukiga, there is power in unity

By Muniini K. MuleraKigyezi Kigyezi PoliticsOctober 30, 20220 comments

#Rukiga #Mparo #Muhanga #Bukinda #Kamuheesi #Kamwezi #Kashambya #Rwamucuucu

The advent of Rukiga’s transformation into a district filled me with hope for positive change. I was born in Kabaare, Kigyezi, to a Munyakabaare mother and a Munyakahondo father who went to Mparo to work in 1954. There they settled and we became dual citizens of Ndorwa and Rukiga ...

Political and administrative structure of Kigyezi Region

By Muniini K. MuleraKigyezi Kigyezi PoliticsOctober 28, 20220 comments

#Rukiga #Rukungiri #Kanungu #Kisoro #Rubanda #Kabale #Kabaare #Kigezi #Kigyezi

Kigyezi, a colonial construct in 1911, was a single administrative district throughout the colonial period (1911-1962) and the first eighteen years of Uganda's independence (1962). It was then subdivided into two districts in 1974, and then smaller districts in the years that followed. ...

Key events in the history of Kigyezi from 1500 t 1930

By Muniini K. MuleraKigyezi Kigyezi HistoryOctober 27, 20220 comments

#Kigezi #Kigyez #history #Kahondo #Muhumuza #Ntokibiri #Katuregye #Makobore #Miranda #Musinga #Muhoozi #Kahaya

It is believed, with reliable evidence from studies of pollens, that the area now known as Kigyezi had human settlements at least as far back as 2000 years ago. However, there is no reliable information about our ancestors before about 1500 AD. Likewise, the pre-colonial history ...

Kigyezi: the land and its people

By Muniini K. MuleraKigyeziOctober 26, 20220 comments

#Kigyezi #Muhabura #Bunyonyi #Kikuba #Mparo #Rukungiri #Kabale #Kisoro #Kanungu #Rukiga #Rubanda

Region: Kigyezi Districts: Kabaare (Kabale), Kaanungu, Gisoro (Kisoro), Rubanda, Rukiga, Rukungiri. Total Area: 5,098 sq. km. Population: 1.7 million people Map of Uganda Mount Muhabura, Bufumbira (Gisoro), Kigyezi (December 26, 2006) ...

No American, Briton or Ugandan is indispensable

By Muniini K. MuleraOctober 24, 20220 comments

#Uganda #Britain #United #Kingdom #USA #America #Trump #Sunak #Obama #FDR #Roosevelt #Kennedy #Churchill #Atlee #Macmillan #Reagan #Thatcher

British politics is in crisis. Prime Minister Boris Johnson resigned in disgrace on July 7. His successor, Prime Minister Elizabeth Truss, who took office on September 6, resigned in disgrace on October 20. The fall of the two prime ministers dented Britain’s reputation for ...

Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers Roots and Herbs

Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers: Roots & Herbs

By Muniini K. MuleraMy Kind of Music Jazz MusicOctober 20, 20220 comments

#Roots #Herbs #Art #Blakey #Jazz #Messengers #Lee #Morgan #Wayne #Shorter #Bobby #Timmons #Walter #Davis #Jr #Jamie #Merritt #Blue #Note #Mastermind #Birdie

Hard Bop, Blues and Soul – all here, in this Lee Morgan Edition of the Messengers that consistently set top-tier records to tape for Blue Note. The title tune is enchanting. One imagines one sitting with a skilled medicine man in Kahondo ka Byamarembo, in ...

Free for All: The best Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers record?

By Muniini K. MuleraMy Kind of Music Jazz MusicOctober 18, 20220 comments

#Art #Blakey #Jazz #Messengers #Wayne #Shorter #Cedar #Walton #Reggie #Workman #Free #for #All #Blue #Note #MMMJ

Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers: Free for All Blue Note – BST 84170 Is this the best Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers? That’s a hard question, of course. However, to my ears, the answer is yes. Well, until I listen to other Blakey and TJM recordings by ...

Freedom is the foundation of America’s ingenuity and success

By Muniini K. MuleraUSAOctober 18, 20220 comments

#USA #America #Liberty #Voyager #1 #Voyager #2 #Bennu #asteroid #comet

America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, is a great country. Its openness about its character and the happenings that fill the news cycles have often created the impression of a dangerous country that is best avoided. The seemingly worsening incidents of ...

Uganda at 60 – Poisoned Eden: Part 2 - The moral for the Uganda nation of the parable of Salesman Willy Lowman and Speaker Jacob Oulanyah

By Bbuye Lya MukangaUgandaOctober 17, 20220 comments

Central message: Uganda is in a very precipitously dangerous position. Ever since Independence 60 years ago, the key existential threat to Uganda as a nation has been the ill-conceived, selfish, self-centred, corrupt and hapless dreams, plans and actions of the nation’s leaders. ...

Uganda at 60 – Poisoned Eden – Part 1 – A parable of two deluded losers: Arthur Miller’s Willy Loman and Uganda’s Parliamentary Speaker Jacob Oulanyah

By Bbuye Lya MukangaUgandaOctober 17, 20220 comments

Central message Ever since Independence sixty years ago, Uganda has been led by people who have the fatal characteristics of Willy Loman, the failed and eventually suicidal salesman in Arthur Miller’s drama DEATH OF A SALESMAN. Jacob Oulanyah, the late Speaker of Uganda’s ...

Music for Intore and other African dances: Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers’ A Night in Tunisia

By Muniini K. MuleraMy Kind of Music Jazz MusicOctober 16, 20220 comments

#Kozos #waltz #Night #in #Tunisia #Art #Blakey #Intore #Lee #Morgan #Jamie #Merritt #Wayne #Shorter #Bobby #Timmons #Jazz

Jazz music, rooted in the African slave experience and its aftermath in America, is music that has maintained the link with the African American’s ancestral homeland. No instrument exemplifies this better than drums and, to my ears, Art Blakey was one of the greatest purveyors ...

The Big Beat: Art Blakey and the jazz messengers

By Muniini K. MuleraMy Kind of Music Jazz MusicOctober 15, 20220 comments

#Art #Blakey #Jazz #Messengers #Lee #Morgan #Wayne #Shorter #Jymie #Merritt #Bobby #Timmons

This is indispensable jazz. How can a record sound so fresh after multiple listening sessions over four decades? I first "met" Art Blakey and this edition of his jazz messengers in 1978. Full credit to George Cook Jr. of Columbus, Ohio who introduced me to Jazz in Maseru Lesotho. ...

Freedom - Kenny Burrell's hidden masterpiece

By Muniini K. MuleraMy Kind of Music Jazz MusicOctober 12, 20220 comments

#Kenny #Burrell #Freedom #Blue #Note #Cuscuna

FREEDOM! This swinging album led by Kenny Burrell, the great guitarist from Detroit, was first released in Japan in 1980. Recorded in 1963 & 1964 for Blue Note, the tapes sat in the vaults untouched until they were discovered 16 years later by Michael Cuscuna. (Mr. ...

Ready for Freddie - a Desert Island Disc

By Muniini K. MuleraOctober 10, 20220 comments

#Freddie #Hubbard #Ready #for #Freddie #McCoy #Tyner #Art #Davis #Elvin #Jones #Blue #Note

The date: August 21, 1961 The venue: Van Gelder Studio, Englewood, New Jersey, USA The musicians: Freddie Hubbard (trumpet), Wayne Shorter (tenor sax), Bernard McKinney (euphonium), McCoy Tyner (piano), Art Davis (bass), Elvin Jones (drums). Engineer: Rudy Van Gelder Label: Blue Note ...