30 November 2020

The recent demise of one of the most spoken-about legends of The Beautiful Game, the saga of the latest Presidential Elections in the USA, the extrajudicial killings of innocent Ugandans. …. Three topical events that leave this simple soul pondering two statements of old that seem to be self-evidently true.

ONE: "Nothing is prefect: every good thing has seeds of failure that must be proactively weeded out, or else they do overtake the good things." ___ Source Unknown.

TWO: “The most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose.” ___ James Baldwin in The Fire Next Time.

Divine and Damned

There is no doubt that Diego was a mesmerizing footballer. The man had brain in both his head and his feet – he could think with his feet! I even heard someone say that Maradona could see behind him without turning his head!! A brilliant fellow! Whether on or off the pitch, he had the gumption to pull off and get away with outrageous antics. He said and did the sort of things that most people would be shy to show off to their primary school teachers, let alone to their mothers, spouses or children. Was the good in this fallen man crowded out, both literally and figuratively, by the weeds and other pestilences that inevitably grow in any field that men and women cultivate or any venture they undertake? Did he have anything to lose, whether he scored with his hand or his head or his foot?

The Economist newspaper titled its article on Maradona’s death as: DIVINE and DAMNED. That applies to all of us We each have a bright side and a dark side. So, we must each reach down into the deep recesses of our own beings and apply the two axioms (that of the Unknown Source and that of James Baldwin) to our own lives. We can leave this world with tributes that effectively read, "Please, excuse this guy; he was flawed. He did what he did. He did it his way. He scored the point or goals he was assigned to get; he cheated on and outsmarted all of friends and foes; he drank and drugged and enjoyed himself out of this world. He had nothing to lose."

Without denying or glossing over our dark and vulnerable nature, each one of us also has the option to leave this world with tributes that speak to the redeeming human goodness of our existence – such as: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. This is what the Luganda language and culture refers to as “obuntu bulamu”. Both literally and literarily, obuntu bulamu translates as “humanness that has life” or “humanness that is life-giving”. We all have the divine side to us and the damned side to us. It better for the bright or living side of our humanness (obuntu) to be known and applied when we are still alive. Otherwise, when we pass away, our family and friends are left with the difficulty task of start looking for and even fabricating the “obuntu bulamu” (humanness that has life) that was not present in our lives.

We can also apply the two axioms to our countries.

Equality and  Dehumanisation

Why did the USA, all of a sudden, with the ascendance of Donald Trump, start to eerily resemble Uganda of the last 58 years (under Obote 1, Idi Amin, Obote 2 and the son of Kaguta)? ____ Answer: For more than 200 years, the USA covered up and did not deal with the weeds that are now threatening to strangle and choke it – that is, the darkness of racism, slavery, child exploitation, greed, sexism, etc etc. For varieties and combinations of reasons, many Americans decided to dehumanise other people. They did this both individually and systematically. Eventually, a leader appeared that lived up to the standards of the weeds that had taken over the American soul. Donald Trump has no compunction about being a racist, applauding slavery, boasting about kissing people and grabbing people’s pelvic areas without their consent, cheating on his spouses, cheating on his government, cheating on his business associates, lying at every turn, and letting a pandemic envelop his country. With his insistent refusal to honour the choice of voters who did not favour him in November 2020, Trump is cutting the rappels of democracy and the rule of law in his country. How could a person like Trump have been elected in 2016 and was almost re-elected in 2020 to be President in the so-called “God’s country”. How is it conceivable that Trump has the overwhelming support of the so-called “evangelical Christians”?

It is easy to blame Trump’s ascendance to the highest office in the land on the vulgarities of the Electoral College and other such oddities of American electoral systems. However, the truth-to-God honesty answer is surely this: somewhere, along the way, the USA lost its soul. The good seeds that were sown in the American Constitution – things like “all people are created equal” – are being choked and strangled by evil weeds. More than 150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation (or Proclamation 95) in 1862, there is raw racial prejudice and even a hunkering for the restoration and reimposition of slavery. The teachings of the Jewish Rabbi who told his followers 2,000 years ago things like “love one another as I have loved you”, have been lost to political, economic, commercial and racialistic expedience.

For all their loud amens and lyrical choruses of “praise God!”, the so-called American evangelicals are mere resounding gongs and clashing cymbals. Nothing deeper than that exists. There is no obuntu bulamu (humanness that has life) in their existence. This is not a harsh call on my part. For, consider that 80-90 percent of evangelical Americans support Trump and his racist, xenophobic, sexist, nepotistic and hate-filled agenda. Truth be told again, if Christ were to reveal himself in America today, the biggest surprise for Americans and the world would unarguably be the miniscule number of true followers that Christ has in that country. Left blowing in the wind, would be the overwhelmingly substantial number of self-centred, humanity-hating and spiritless people that loudly and pompously proclaim themselves as people of God.  

It is laudable indeed that in November 2020, most Americans chose to elect a new President – instead of Trump. I believe in redemption. I pray for the redemption for America. I pray that Americans may be reconciled with each other and with their Creator. However, the new President and everyone else still need to contend with the fact that almost half of the Americans support Trump and his nihilistic road show. Can the USA find its soul and put it back at the centre of its life? Without a soul, the USA could surely go the way of the banana republics that the United Food Company fostered in the last century. If the US were to deteriorate into a Banana Republic, the progress, security, and safety of the entire world would be at stake. Can the new President and his team lead America back to a path of soul-searching path of living on the right-side of history?

Eden and House of Slaughter

What about Uganda? I have a Dutch agriculturalist friend named Karl who tells me every time I see him that if one is ever looking for the location of the original garden of Eden, it is where Uganda is today. Among many other things, Karl says that one is never too hot or cold in Uganda; the temperature is just as God intended it for human beings. Moreover, Karl goes on, one only has to throw seeds here and there in Uganda, and abundant food will grow. It is not an exaggeration. The hospitality of Ugandans, that is, the human welcome that they extend to other people, whether visiting, looking for education and work or looking for refuge, is legendary. Ugandans are educationally and entrepreneurially astute with schools and universities that produce world class scholars, inventors, and managers. Ugandans are in important leadership, management, and technical positions across the world, from Japan to the US and Sweden to South Africa. What then is Uganda’s problems?

Uganda’s problem is that even after almost 60 years of Independence, the country has never found its soul. In many ways, Uganda has never even tried to find its soul. For all of Uganda’s excellent natural ambience and for all its rich human resources, it is extremely hard to find a Ugandan who can say clearly what Uganda is about. Why should it exist as corporate nation? What human values or elements of human goodness does Uganda engender, multiply and provide as nourishment to its children? Since the declaration of the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, around 200 people in Uganda have died from the virus. During the same periods, hundreds more Ugandans have been killed by state agents on the pretext of ‘preserving the security of the country’. Such extra-judicial killings have been on-going for almost 60 years. How can that be?

The leadership of Uganda, ever since Independence, offers important lessons in understanding why and how governments in Uganda (but not all individual Uganda) does not live up to the calling of human goodness. Practically all of Uganda’s leaders have looked for and supported their positions only for the benefit of themselves and no one else.

A few days ago, I was speaking to a group of Grade 5 students at a school in New York state. A 12-years old boy asked of me, “Without telling us all of the long history of Uganda, please, tell us about one incident that that you think was important in fostering this bad business in Uganda.” I told the class that so far as I can remember, one of the most pivotal moments in Uganda’s degeneration into its present state was when the then Prime Minister arrested a number of his own Cabinet Ministers because he was afraid that those Ministers were going to present a motion of no confidence in his leadership. After arresting the Ministers, other things followed, including: an armed stand-off with the Kabaka of Buganda; the abolition of the Independence Constitution; the imposition of a new Constitution which was written by the Prime Minister and his Attorney General; the declaration of an indefinite state of emergency; the declaration of a one-party state; and so forth. The class and I had a lively time comparing and contrasting Prime Minister Obote’s action in the face of a Constitutional crisis (that is, the planned vote of no confidence by the Cabinet) with President Trump’s refusal to accept the 2020 Presidential Election results and to undermine the electoral system itself.

It would be speculative to talk about the trajectory that Uganda’s history might have taken if Prime Minister Obote had decided to allow the planned debate and vote by the Cabinet on his leadership to take place on that fateful day. What is remarkable is the fallout of that attempted ‘constitutional coup’. For, that from that point forward, everything that Obote did or said was about keeping himself in power. More people were jailed, some for reasons that they did know; and security forces were empowered and given almost el carte license to mistreat citizens with impunity. Governance in Uganda was taken over by the “end justifies the means” type of motivation that always brings out and amplifies the darkest and the most cursed side of individuals, and communities and countries.

For almost 60 years, since Independence in 1962, Uganda has been ruled by strongmen (Obote 1 – 1962-1971; Idi Amin – 1971- 1979; Interim post-Amin regimes – 1979-1980; Obote 2 – 1980-84; Tito Okello – 1984-1985; and Yoweri Museveni 1985-Present). All of Uganda’s leaders have conducted what is supposed to be matters of state with the self-assured confidence that they were ordained to be the rulers of the country and that they alone know what is best for Uganda. There have never been any effective checks and balances, especially as respective Parliaments and the judicial system have only been able to do what the leaders allow them to do. Except, may be, for the first one to two years after Independence and the period between Idi Amin and Obote 2 in 1979-1980, leaders and their enablers have engaged in gross violations of human rights, committed grand larceny against citizens’ property as well as against communal and national resources – all in the name of staying power and enriching themselves and their cronies.   

How and where can Uganda find its soul? This is a most perplexing question. Fully 80% of Ugandans were born in or after 1985. Out of the remaining 20%, 17% were born between 1962 and 1985, and a miniscule 3% of us (including President Yoweri and Mrs. Janet Museveni) were born before Independence in 1962. Thankfully, nature is gradually taking away the old pre-Independence guard. The hope is that today’s young people will rise up, take hold of their destiny, and build and live in a country that is not dominated by the selfishly nihilistic attitudes and practices that pervaded their parents’ and grandparents’ generations.