Last Monday, 21 December 2009, former UN Undersecretary General for Children and Armed Conflict, Olara Otunnu, survived a spectacularly “unusual” road “accident” that only a Hollywood action flick could conjure. Everything about the accident, as Otunnu characterised it in a press conference later that afternoon, was “unusual.”
At the press conference, Otunnu and the team traveling with him narrated that about 0930 hours or thereabout, they came upon a convoy of military vehicles at Minakulu. A couple or so civilian vehicles ahead of them signaled and were given the go-ahead to overtake the stationary or slow moving Phalanx of military wares. As they approached, Otunnu’s party too signaled to be let by, and they were accordingly given the sign to drive past. No sooner had they gone by two of the seven vehicles, when the third military truck suddenly pulled out of the formation to block their way. Otunnu’s driver attempted a manoeuvre to avoid high impact collision, but was-as if on cue-promptly blocked by the second car which moved to cut them off.
Meanwhile, the first car they had passed, a heavy military truck, was bearing on them without any apparent intention to stop. Sensing danger and a terrestrial cat-and-mouse like drama akin to The Search For Red October, Otunnu’s driver exploited a small gap between the barricading cars, climbed over the embankment, avoiding a crowd of children and people burning charcoal, and came to a stop under a mango bush. Once stopped, they were surrounded by more than thirty PGB soldiers, brandishing weapons and shouting Otunnu’s name, the name of one of the men in his security team, and that of an American journalist in his party. At this point, villagers, witnessing the drama, abandoned their charcoal pits, tending their fields and whatever else they were doing in the vicinity, to inquire what had so terribly disturbed the quiet and tranquility of their still sleepy village.
Not cowed by the sight of menacing military men with their guns trained on hapless civilians, villagers exasperatedly demanded to know what had befallen Otunnu. Once he emerged from the banged-up vehicle, they questioned what the men in uniform had done or wanted to do to him.
Confronted by Otunnu and his party why guns were being pointed at them; who were they and who their commander was, the cats apparently took the tongues of dictator Yoweri Museveni's pampered, deathly private army. Perhaps their script scrambled and they lost for words, they started to awkwardly strip off their Velcro name tags, while lamely accusing Otunnu’s party of ramming their vehicles. Significantly, the soldiers never said Otunnu’s driver was speeding or drieng recklessly. Instead, one of the PGB corporals was awed by the skills and maneuvers of Otunnu’s driver, asking in wonderment, where on earth the man learnt his driving skills! Perhaps they thought there would be no escape?
As one resident of Minakulu suggested, Otunnu was lucky that his driver was not overspeeding and his vehicle did not overtun in the process of avoiding colliding with the military vehicles. According to the elderly man, had Otunnu's car overturned, the heavy truck would have run over them like a roller, crushing them in the process. Once they were trapped in the wreckage of their car, unhurt, injured, dead or alive, they might have been shot to finish them off and everything blamed on a car crash. For those who witnessed the accident, the septugenarian's theory seem to make a lot of sense, because the manoevres seem to have been aimed at trapping Otunnu's vehicle between two heavy military trucks, with the two jeeps acting like stalking horses.
Another thing of interest is that, the soldiers blocked Otunnu’s cameraman from filming the scene of the accident. At one point, they grabbed the cameraman and wanted to bundle him into their car and confiscate his equipment, but travelers in a Kampala-bound bus who recognized Otunnu and his entourage, jumped out of their bus like rats scurrying from a fire, to tussle and rescue the cameraman, the camera and all from the grasp of armed PGB boys!
Realizing that the police and the press had been called and were on their way to the scene of the accident, the two cars that had blocked Otunnu’s land cruiser were moved from the middle to the side of the road. As well, four of the military vehicles that were part of the convoy and incident, dashed off towards Gulu, instead of proceeding as they had been headed. Shortly afterwards, a PGB van that had earlier fled the scene of the “accident”, returned. When Otunnu and his party transferred into a bus and left for Kampala, with his damaged car hobbling along, the PGB boys were left still camped in the bushes of Minakulu, like a flock of scavenger birds disappointed they had arrived too late after a swarm of locusts had flown off.
Strangely, New Vision, the state owned daily, was the first to break the story. Capt. Edison Kwesiga, the PGB spokesperson was quoted to have said that Otunnu’s vehicle was over speeding, hit one of the military jeeps, then an anthill, and veered off the road into the bushes. Contrarily, I have seen video footages of the accident scene, shot by an American journalist who was traveling in Otunnu’s car, which shows a straight road without any anthills in sight, but tall grass, mango bushes and shrubs.
Another military spokesman, Capt. Ronald Kakurunguhe, of the Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF)-a force that has lost out to the PGB on the favorites game and is treated like the cat that ate the family canary-was quoted by Daily Monitor to have stated that the PGB could not have contrived to harm Otunnu, because it was the soldiers who helped pull Otunnu’s car out of the bushes and back onto the road. Which of course is blatant lie. It was the villagers and passengers in the bus that helped the party out of the bushes.
Indeed, as Olara Otunnu has emphasized in his press conference and interviews, the “accident” was “unusual” by all accounts.
First, the “accident” was “unusual” partly because it involved members of the elite Presidential Guard Brigade (PGB), Dictator Yoweri Museveni’s Doberman Pinschers-ferocious, aggressive, intimidating, fearless curs; loyal and protective of the master, at the sound of whose voice, they obsequiously spring to action. These units of private and personal army cannot be anywhere and cannot do anything without the express presence and concerns for the security of dictator Yoweri Museveni.
Second, whenever the president goes upcountry, by air or by road, it is standard practice to see the PGB personnel scurry away at breakneck speed to get back to base, once the head of state concludes his visit and departs. Sometimes, the hurried pace at which they leave a venue, airfield, or heliport, leave you wondering whether they are under stern instructions to get back to Entebbe or Kampala, before the helicopter bearing their boss does.
Third, on this particular Sunday of 20th December 2009, eye witnesses at Gulu Caltex petrol station had observed a part of the PGB troops leave town that evening unhurried. Early travelers on the Gulu-Kampala highway that morning of Monday 21st December 2009 thought they passed what they remembered as a stationary convoy of military vehicles similar to the ones described to have been involved in the “accident” at or close to the place of the mishap. The question is, why did the troops uncharacteristically stay back in Gulu or sleep by the roadside since the presient had left Gulu in a helicopter?
Fourth, eye witnesses at the coronation of the bishop of Northern Uganda diocese, which the president attended, observed that all the PGB vehicles in the president’s convoy on Sunday had number plates prefixed by “UG.” However, at the scene of the accident on Monday morning, all the vehicles had their registration plates removed or missing. Similarly, all the PGB personnel at the venue on Sunday the day before wore name tags, but at the scene of the accident at Minakulu, none of them wore name tags. One might be tempted to think that may be these were a different group or a group of “unknown gunmen in uniform.”
Fortunately or unfortunately, one of the PGB boys who was overzealous about cameras at the church the previous day, had actually personally blocked Otunnu’s cameraman from taking his equipment onto the grounds of the church where the coronation took place. As Otunnu quizzed them for their names, they began to give fictitious names but the cameraman remembered one particular soldier who gave a different name from the one he recalled from his name tag the previous day at the church. Why did these group of PGB soldiers try to conceal their identities, if this was an innocent road accident, without ill-intentions?
Finally, if Otunnu’s driver drove recklessly, hit a military vehicle, hit an anthill and came to a stop in the bushes, why would soldiers who are rushing to help-if we are foolish enough to believe Captains Kwesiga and Kakurunguhe-point guns at citizens who might be injured and staggering out shocked and dazed? Where were their name tags, vehicle number plates, and why did they remain behind after the presideent left, captains?
As words on the streets have it, Otunnu was lucky this happened during the day, and villagers rushed to the scene immediately and his driver had the presence of mind to extricate himself from a dangerous trap and drive off the road instead of being sandwiched between military vehicles full of armed men who seemed to have been on a mortal mission. Anything else is just damage control and the awkward and unintelligble mumbles of someone caught with their pants down.
Saturday 26 December 2009
Tuesday 3 November 2009
Uganda parliament tables bill to kill gays and lesbians
The press in Uganda this week is awash with homophobic hysteria against Gays, Lesbians, Bi-Sexual and Transgender (GLBT) Ugandans. This overt and shameless discrimination against a minority population of our citizens flows from the fact homosexuality is criminalised in Uganda. As if this was not enough suppression of personal freedom and civil rights, Ndorwa West Member of Parliament (MP), David Bahatia, has tabled a private member’s bill proposing a series of measures to control and punish GLBT activities in the country, including the death penalty for gays and lesbians caught living and expressing their sexuality.
This is not only cavalier violations of human rights, but a dangerous hate campaign and incitement to harm or kill members of the GLBT in Uganda. The people of Uganda, and all people of good will, must not sit and watch while this happens. The sponsors of the bill, their supporters and political leaders- inside and outside parliament- must be identified, isolated and ostracised by the entire civilised world that respect difference and diversity. Most democratising societies have laws that criminalise purveyors of hate and incitement of hatred against a person, persons or communities; and have robust bill of rights that protect citizens and minorities. Uganda should not be an exception.
However, it is not surprising that the state should be seeking such kind of personal control, to the extent of wanting to police what people do in their bedrooms, and who else they do it with and whether their partners are of the skirt or trouser wearing sorts.
First, this comes about because of the nature and character of the Ugandan state: it is a military dictatorship that shot its way to and kept itself in power by military force. What there is in terms of a fledgling parliamentary democracy is sheer gloss of veneer for the consumption of the democratic tourist. For twenty years (20) it outlawed political parties and suppressed freedoms of association and assembly, and the press is routinely knuckled. It rules by decree, not through free and open, well informed debate in a deliberative, democratic process. Therefore, like all autocrats, the Ugandan ruling clique is not about to deviate from the age-old practice of control and micromanagement of all the affairs of state, and particularly the censorship and directing of the thoughts and behaviour of its citizens. Control freaks love uniformity but are threatened by freedom, diversity, and difference.
The second reason why the hate campaign against GLBT is not surprising is that most of those connected to state power, for instance Nsaba Buturo & Co. are born-again, rigid, fundamentalist, revivalist Christians who bring to the public policy process and the management of state affairs, their religious bigotry that they pass off as public morality and ethics. They completely ignore the fact that although Uganda is a majority Christian nation-state, there are people of other faiths, as well as non-believers, to whom the Muslim and Christian moralities they are so quick to refer to, cannot and should not apply. In any case, the Ugandan state is separate from the Church or Mosque, and it would be prudent for public servants to refrain from using and imposing the teachings and morals of one religion on the diverse people of Uganda, with pluralities of religion, faith, spiritual and moral inclinations.
Obviously, their positions on GLBT people are directly lifted from the dispositions and teachings of their churches. We all recall the continuing controversy over ordination of gay priests and the blessing of gay marriages in the worldwide Anglican Communion which has caused serious doctrinal and church practice schism between conservative and liberal wings of the church. It is this struggle into which the secular state is being enlisted. The democratic forces and the people of Uganda must oppose this interference, attempt to suppress our civil rights, and fuse the state with the church. The state and the public policy process must be inoculated from religious particularities.
But the NRM/A dictatorship have aligned its position on GLBT practices with church conservatives who reject a more liberal interpretation of Christian doctrinal positions on homosexuality. Not only do church conservatives oppose the admission and ordination of homosexuals, but even women bishops and ministers within the communion are unacceptable. Furthermore, they insist that, marriage is only possible between a man and a woman, and for the purpose of procreation. Anything outside of this is regarded as unnatural and irredeemable sin.
Some in this debate do not even seem to be aware that with advancement in reproductive technology, you do not need to marry anybody's son or daughter in order to have children of your own. So the thought that promoting homosexuality threatens the human race is all gibberish
There is already a bustling market and brisk business in human eggs and semen, which may account for more than 1% of some country's total births. All one has to have is the ability to purchase such services. Most of this has been to help heterosexual couples who cannot have children the natural and normal way. Moreover, those who do not want their wives to go through the barbaric “natural” processes of pregnancy and childbirth can rent a womb -euphemistically termed surrogate motherhood-for another woman to carry their child to term. Others may conceive naturally and carry their own babies to term, but opt for caesarean births.
All these are done sometimes for health reasons, but in most cases, it is for cosmetic and aesthetics fancifulness. Some go through the procedure so their wives are not aged and disfigured by the vagaries of childbirth. It is the same reason other women do not breastfeed so their breasts can remain firm longer. Such lifestyles and personal choices, and the technological response to problems within heterosexual relationships have also been serendipitous for gay couples who, like their heterosexual counterparts, want children and a fulfilling family life.
Personally, homosexuality is not for me. However, that is not sufficient reason for me to categorize it as a sin or a crime; even less so, to hate or incite hatred against those who practise it. I unconditionally accept and respect those who find themselves inclined that way, and I would even forgo my rights, if it would ensure that their civic and human rights are protected as much as mine and the next wo/man. This is because there is nothing-scientific or spiritual- and I do not think there will be any-to suggest that GLBT people are less human, less civic citizens than I am and undeserving of the moral, legal, and constitutional protection and social privileges heterosexuals claim for themselves.
To understand the silliness of those who hate others just because they do not look or behave like them, it may be useful to look at sexuality as being akin to the diversity of food culture. We would all be happier if we recognised the wisdom in the axiom that one wo/man's meat is another wo/man's poison. I came face to face with this truism in travelling and living among people from southern Africa-Zambia, Botswana, Malawi and Bophutoswana. Caterpillar is to these communities what white ants and grasshoppers are to Ugandans. And not to speak about the food and food culture of Europe and North America that even grossed me out the most. I won’t be caught dead eating frogs, snails, mussels, squids or jelly fish!
Close to home in Acholi itself, food culture varies from region to region. For instance, the Lamogi in Amuru are reputed for eating bats; the Padibe in Kitgum are famous for eating certain species of rats. To those from Agoro the northern most towns in Kitgum, from where my own mother came, crabs are delicacies- which my own people from Madi Opei detest vehemently and ridicule them for it. The point is that, throughout the world, food is food and what does not kill you, must certainly be good for you and welcome nourishment for your body, mind, and soul.
So sexuality itself, although not as voluntary as eating foods choices and culture is, its variety is certainly not unlike our national or global food culture. For instance, in Uganda, we have a diversity of sex culture within the heterosexual communities. In Makerere University lingo past, we used to say in Western Uganda, they do it with low-technology, shallow quarrying, with very little ecological footprints. On the other hand, eastern and northern parts of the country were categorised as being partial to deep-shaft mining and technology intensive. The point I am labouring to make here is that, it is unreasonable to think that what is not good for you, must not be good for someone else and vice versa. Or that we should imagine some dictator from Rwakitura banning Kwete, Ajon, Mwenge Migu, Kongo Ting, and decreeing god-knows-what as the “natural” drink for Ugandans!
Homosexuality is not a crime. Those who practise it do not harm anyone, when it is done between or among consenting adults. Violating minors or gaining carnal knowledge of minors is defilement and rape. Equally, having sex with adults against their will, regardless of their sex and gender, is rape and criminal. It does not matter whether the perpetrator and victim are heterosexuals or homosexuals; defilement or rape is defilement or rape; it is criminal and punishable. But no crime, even for rape, should be punishable by death among human communities living in the 21st Century.
Rationally, one would expect that Ugandans should be more tolerant and accepting of difference and diversity, since they have gone through two or more episodes of tragic violence and persecution based solely on identity, difference, and diversity. But the latest upsurge of hate campaigns by ministers, clergy, and their brainwashed religious cult communicants against homosexuality, makes it feel like we live in the times of Jesus and we were witnessing animated polemical debates between the Pharisees, the Sadducees and Christian adherents at Jewish temples and market places in AD 47.
Unfortunately in this debate, Africans have overplayed the mythologies of creationism and the bible is wielded as the answer to all our problems, struggles and interpretations of events and as sole source for moral rectitude. This has constricted and enfeebled our minds and given us up to irrational fears of difference and the unknown and surrender to fatalism. It is the reason no significant progress will come out of Africa, because we have erected a ring fire of religious and social taboos around our lives and thoughts, that venturing beyond is not only terrifying, but patrolled and policed by authoritarians like the NRM/A who hold us hostage to the myth that human progress beyond where we are in Uganda and Africa, is impossible. And that they must chaperone us on around, including how we express our sexuality which is an entirely private and personal matter in which the state has no business acting like a voyeur.
Our progress will begin with not being content with and challenging the ordinary and venturing into the realms of self-doubt and religious scepticism. Until Ugandan Christians can interpret their experiences and aspirations not only on the teachings and morals of the bible but also on factual and observed phenomena and material life- outside the mysticisms of Christianity, we will have to put another two thousand years behind us before we can break free of the shackles and limitations of mysticisms, nature, and social taboos.
It is not scientific, but a cursory observation would reveal that societies that have fewer sexual, social and personal taboos, have made tremendous progress and have shown greater imagination, ingenuity, innovations and inventiveness among their population. They cherish freedom of thought and respect civil liberties. Conversely, societies such as Uganda, where one man is in charge of awarding market tenders from Rukingiri to Lira and his word is the law; or where vice chancellors or chancellors of national universities are political appointees rather than meritorious professionals recognised in their fields and elevated by a professional body and academic peers, the degree of restrictions on personal freedoms and civil liberties have direct relationships with the state of scientific research, social development, ingenuity, curiosity and intellectual debate on matters of public policy and interest.
Given the state of our social, economic, and political development, homosexuality is the least of our worries and vices in Uganda, than irrational religious dogmas and the cooptation of the church, or one faith, to certify public moralities in a plural society. All human rights, democracy and civil liberties advocates worth their names; and every Ugandan citizen who loves personal freedom, ought to oppose the Anti Homosexuality Bill which is nothing but the expansion of the mechanisms of limiting all our civil liberties and personal freedoms.
However, the bill provides welcome opportunity for Ugandans to begin a robust national conversation on the protection of civil rights, which ensures that there is no discrimination based on race, colour, ethnicity, sex, gender, sexuality, religion, and party affiliation or political views, in the public domain. Such civil rights debate must endeavour to entrench the separation of the state from the church and uphold the integrity of Uganda as a secular state with plurality of faith and spiritual practices and without an official state religion.
In that regard, ministers, parliamentarians and other public servants should be prohibited from imposing Christian or Islamic ethics and moralities on the state and public; or to use their personal and private belief systems and morality as the basis for national, public policy, on matters outside the regulation of religious practices. Once we can ensure these, clowns like Nsaba Buturo, will think otherwise about flogging their personal beliefs and religious dogmas to restrict and control our bodies and personalities.
Ugandans and all people of good will should wake up and see Yoweri Museveni and the NRM/A government and its agents for who they are: Purveyors of hate, who have no qualms about killing those who disagree with them or are unlike themselves. No doubt, they are more dangerous to the people of Uganda, than gays and lesbians.
This is not only cavalier violations of human rights, but a dangerous hate campaign and incitement to harm or kill members of the GLBT in Uganda. The people of Uganda, and all people of good will, must not sit and watch while this happens. The sponsors of the bill, their supporters and political leaders- inside and outside parliament- must be identified, isolated and ostracised by the entire civilised world that respect difference and diversity. Most democratising societies have laws that criminalise purveyors of hate and incitement of hatred against a person, persons or communities; and have robust bill of rights that protect citizens and minorities. Uganda should not be an exception.
However, it is not surprising that the state should be seeking such kind of personal control, to the extent of wanting to police what people do in their bedrooms, and who else they do it with and whether their partners are of the skirt or trouser wearing sorts.
First, this comes about because of the nature and character of the Ugandan state: it is a military dictatorship that shot its way to and kept itself in power by military force. What there is in terms of a fledgling parliamentary democracy is sheer gloss of veneer for the consumption of the democratic tourist. For twenty years (20) it outlawed political parties and suppressed freedoms of association and assembly, and the press is routinely knuckled. It rules by decree, not through free and open, well informed debate in a deliberative, democratic process. Therefore, like all autocrats, the Ugandan ruling clique is not about to deviate from the age-old practice of control and micromanagement of all the affairs of state, and particularly the censorship and directing of the thoughts and behaviour of its citizens. Control freaks love uniformity but are threatened by freedom, diversity, and difference.
The second reason why the hate campaign against GLBT is not surprising is that most of those connected to state power, for instance Nsaba Buturo & Co. are born-again, rigid, fundamentalist, revivalist Christians who bring to the public policy process and the management of state affairs, their religious bigotry that they pass off as public morality and ethics. They completely ignore the fact that although Uganda is a majority Christian nation-state, there are people of other faiths, as well as non-believers, to whom the Muslim and Christian moralities they are so quick to refer to, cannot and should not apply. In any case, the Ugandan state is separate from the Church or Mosque, and it would be prudent for public servants to refrain from using and imposing the teachings and morals of one religion on the diverse people of Uganda, with pluralities of religion, faith, spiritual and moral inclinations.
Obviously, their positions on GLBT people are directly lifted from the dispositions and teachings of their churches. We all recall the continuing controversy over ordination of gay priests and the blessing of gay marriages in the worldwide Anglican Communion which has caused serious doctrinal and church practice schism between conservative and liberal wings of the church. It is this struggle into which the secular state is being enlisted. The democratic forces and the people of Uganda must oppose this interference, attempt to suppress our civil rights, and fuse the state with the church. The state and the public policy process must be inoculated from religious particularities.
But the NRM/A dictatorship have aligned its position on GLBT practices with church conservatives who reject a more liberal interpretation of Christian doctrinal positions on homosexuality. Not only do church conservatives oppose the admission and ordination of homosexuals, but even women bishops and ministers within the communion are unacceptable. Furthermore, they insist that, marriage is only possible between a man and a woman, and for the purpose of procreation. Anything outside of this is regarded as unnatural and irredeemable sin.
Some in this debate do not even seem to be aware that with advancement in reproductive technology, you do not need to marry anybody's son or daughter in order to have children of your own. So the thought that promoting homosexuality threatens the human race is all gibberish
There is already a bustling market and brisk business in human eggs and semen, which may account for more than 1% of some country's total births. All one has to have is the ability to purchase such services. Most of this has been to help heterosexual couples who cannot have children the natural and normal way. Moreover, those who do not want their wives to go through the barbaric “natural” processes of pregnancy and childbirth can rent a womb -euphemistically termed surrogate motherhood-for another woman to carry their child to term. Others may conceive naturally and carry their own babies to term, but opt for caesarean births.
All these are done sometimes for health reasons, but in most cases, it is for cosmetic and aesthetics fancifulness. Some go through the procedure so their wives are not aged and disfigured by the vagaries of childbirth. It is the same reason other women do not breastfeed so their breasts can remain firm longer. Such lifestyles and personal choices, and the technological response to problems within heterosexual relationships have also been serendipitous for gay couples who, like their heterosexual counterparts, want children and a fulfilling family life.
Personally, homosexuality is not for me. However, that is not sufficient reason for me to categorize it as a sin or a crime; even less so, to hate or incite hatred against those who practise it. I unconditionally accept and respect those who find themselves inclined that way, and I would even forgo my rights, if it would ensure that their civic and human rights are protected as much as mine and the next wo/man. This is because there is nothing-scientific or spiritual- and I do not think there will be any-to suggest that GLBT people are less human, less civic citizens than I am and undeserving of the moral, legal, and constitutional protection and social privileges heterosexuals claim for themselves.
To understand the silliness of those who hate others just because they do not look or behave like them, it may be useful to look at sexuality as being akin to the diversity of food culture. We would all be happier if we recognised the wisdom in the axiom that one wo/man's meat is another wo/man's poison. I came face to face with this truism in travelling and living among people from southern Africa-Zambia, Botswana, Malawi and Bophutoswana. Caterpillar is to these communities what white ants and grasshoppers are to Ugandans. And not to speak about the food and food culture of Europe and North America that even grossed me out the most. I won’t be caught dead eating frogs, snails, mussels, squids or jelly fish!
Close to home in Acholi itself, food culture varies from region to region. For instance, the Lamogi in Amuru are reputed for eating bats; the Padibe in Kitgum are famous for eating certain species of rats. To those from Agoro the northern most towns in Kitgum, from where my own mother came, crabs are delicacies- which my own people from Madi Opei detest vehemently and ridicule them for it. The point is that, throughout the world, food is food and what does not kill you, must certainly be good for you and welcome nourishment for your body, mind, and soul.
So sexuality itself, although not as voluntary as eating foods choices and culture is, its variety is certainly not unlike our national or global food culture. For instance, in Uganda, we have a diversity of sex culture within the heterosexual communities. In Makerere University lingo past, we used to say in Western Uganda, they do it with low-technology, shallow quarrying, with very little ecological footprints. On the other hand, eastern and northern parts of the country were categorised as being partial to deep-shaft mining and technology intensive. The point I am labouring to make here is that, it is unreasonable to think that what is not good for you, must not be good for someone else and vice versa. Or that we should imagine some dictator from Rwakitura banning Kwete, Ajon, Mwenge Migu, Kongo Ting, and decreeing god-knows-what as the “natural” drink for Ugandans!
Homosexuality is not a crime. Those who practise it do not harm anyone, when it is done between or among consenting adults. Violating minors or gaining carnal knowledge of minors is defilement and rape. Equally, having sex with adults against their will, regardless of their sex and gender, is rape and criminal. It does not matter whether the perpetrator and victim are heterosexuals or homosexuals; defilement or rape is defilement or rape; it is criminal and punishable. But no crime, even for rape, should be punishable by death among human communities living in the 21st Century.
Rationally, one would expect that Ugandans should be more tolerant and accepting of difference and diversity, since they have gone through two or more episodes of tragic violence and persecution based solely on identity, difference, and diversity. But the latest upsurge of hate campaigns by ministers, clergy, and their brainwashed religious cult communicants against homosexuality, makes it feel like we live in the times of Jesus and we were witnessing animated polemical debates between the Pharisees, the Sadducees and Christian adherents at Jewish temples and market places in AD 47.
Unfortunately in this debate, Africans have overplayed the mythologies of creationism and the bible is wielded as the answer to all our problems, struggles and interpretations of events and as sole source for moral rectitude. This has constricted and enfeebled our minds and given us up to irrational fears of difference and the unknown and surrender to fatalism. It is the reason no significant progress will come out of Africa, because we have erected a ring fire of religious and social taboos around our lives and thoughts, that venturing beyond is not only terrifying, but patrolled and policed by authoritarians like the NRM/A who hold us hostage to the myth that human progress beyond where we are in Uganda and Africa, is impossible. And that they must chaperone us on around, including how we express our sexuality which is an entirely private and personal matter in which the state has no business acting like a voyeur.
Our progress will begin with not being content with and challenging the ordinary and venturing into the realms of self-doubt and religious scepticism. Until Ugandan Christians can interpret their experiences and aspirations not only on the teachings and morals of the bible but also on factual and observed phenomena and material life- outside the mysticisms of Christianity, we will have to put another two thousand years behind us before we can break free of the shackles and limitations of mysticisms, nature, and social taboos.
It is not scientific, but a cursory observation would reveal that societies that have fewer sexual, social and personal taboos, have made tremendous progress and have shown greater imagination, ingenuity, innovations and inventiveness among their population. They cherish freedom of thought and respect civil liberties. Conversely, societies such as Uganda, where one man is in charge of awarding market tenders from Rukingiri to Lira and his word is the law; or where vice chancellors or chancellors of national universities are political appointees rather than meritorious professionals recognised in their fields and elevated by a professional body and academic peers, the degree of restrictions on personal freedoms and civil liberties have direct relationships with the state of scientific research, social development, ingenuity, curiosity and intellectual debate on matters of public policy and interest.
Given the state of our social, economic, and political development, homosexuality is the least of our worries and vices in Uganda, than irrational religious dogmas and the cooptation of the church, or one faith, to certify public moralities in a plural society. All human rights, democracy and civil liberties advocates worth their names; and every Ugandan citizen who loves personal freedom, ought to oppose the Anti Homosexuality Bill which is nothing but the expansion of the mechanisms of limiting all our civil liberties and personal freedoms.
However, the bill provides welcome opportunity for Ugandans to begin a robust national conversation on the protection of civil rights, which ensures that there is no discrimination based on race, colour, ethnicity, sex, gender, sexuality, religion, and party affiliation or political views, in the public domain. Such civil rights debate must endeavour to entrench the separation of the state from the church and uphold the integrity of Uganda as a secular state with plurality of faith and spiritual practices and without an official state religion.
In that regard, ministers, parliamentarians and other public servants should be prohibited from imposing Christian or Islamic ethics and moralities on the state and public; or to use their personal and private belief systems and morality as the basis for national, public policy, on matters outside the regulation of religious practices. Once we can ensure these, clowns like Nsaba Buturo, will think otherwise about flogging their personal beliefs and religious dogmas to restrict and control our bodies and personalities.
Ugandans and all people of good will should wake up and see Yoweri Museveni and the NRM/A government and its agents for who they are: Purveyors of hate, who have no qualms about killing those who disagree with them or are unlike themselves. No doubt, they are more dangerous to the people of Uganda, than gays and lesbians.
Friday 28 August 2009
Olara Otunnu has a role to play for democratic change in Uganda
In "Gambling on Otunnu", in The Uganda Independent, Ms. Melina Platas takes the political pulse of the country on the homecoming of Olara Otunnu. She sounded out a number of prominent Ugandans on what role if any, Olara Otunnu can play.
In their responses, Hon. Professor Ogenga Latigo, Hon. Abdu Katuntu, and Dr. Jean Barya, highlighted a number of issues concerning who Olara Otunnu is, what contribution he can make to the democratic struggle in Uganda, and how the struggle can be organised and led. Not only were some of their comments contentious, but also specious and contradictory.
First, that Olara Otunnu is out of touch with the country, the people, and issues. But Olara Otunnu has written and spoken extensively about the NRM dictatorship, corruption, poverty, national fragmentation on ethnic lines, land-grabbing, rights abuses and possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Uganda generally and northern Uganda specifically. It is doubtful that there are esoteric socio-political issues only accessible through local residency in Uganda. Moreover, there are people who have lived in Uganda for the life of this regime, but are unaware of the extent to which our nationhood has been damaged, or the levels of impoverishment and social inequalities that have been imposed on our citizenry along social classes, region, ethnicity, party allegiances, and patterns of voting.
Olara Otunnu, like many Ugandans in the country and abroad who care about their country, is aware of these problems, and the extent to which their resolutions must be approached as a national project, rather than as a one-man derring-do. That is why, he is more attuned to consensus building, coalition making, and unifying Ugandans to work together to resolve these problems as shared national goals and citizen responsibility. Otunnu by no means presents himself as the man who knows all and has all the solutions; nor as the one who can and will bring change all by himself.
At a certain level, Professor Latigo's and Hon. Katuntu's sentiments are understandable. They come across as consummate tutelages of Museveni’s personal merits and no-party politics, with its entitlement claims. We fought, therefore we must rule. Or we endured the dictatorship; therefore, our scars give us prior rights at the head of the leadership queue.
As a national project, the current phase of the democratic struggle cannot be looked at from the interest of one individual or one party, but what specific, necessary resources and qualities are available to be deployed where and when, to progress the democratic objectives. It is Olara Otunnu, more than Prof. Latigo or Hon. Katuntu, who reads more correctly, the needs and national mood of our oppressed and impoverished citizens. It is clear that, Latigo and Katuntu believe that the democratic struggle in Uganda is limited to competition for the presidency, hence their emphases on a presidential candidate, and the narrow political spectrum they use to understand the political, moral, intellectual, and diplomatic impact of Olara Otunnu on the democratic struggles in the country.
Second, that Olara Otunnu lacks a constituency and political base. This is an area where Prof. Latigo, Dr. Jean Barya, and Hon. Katuntu, all contradict themselves. Drawing on their contention that Otunnu has been out too long and he is virtually an outsider, they rule him out as possible presidential candidate, whether for IPC or UPC. However, when asked what role Otunnu could play, whether in UPC or in IPC, they paint a picture of someone different from the Otunnu they earlier dismissed as insignificant in the politics of the country because he is an outsider, without a constituency and lacking political base.
Unless they have a different conception of " political base", how can someone without a political constituency, be expected to among other things: bring back UPC members who had defected; strengthen the UPC; resolve internal UPC feuds or reconcile warring factions; bring into play, former UPC strongholds of Bugisu, Busoga, Bushenyi and Kigezi; and unify UPC in northern Uganda to shore up the IPC in 2011? Or play influential role to mobilize for IPC and greatly improve the national fortunes of IPC presidential and parliamentary candidates?
Obviously, these roles, tasks and expectations would be for someone who has solid political base and clout in these constituencies. Are Prof. Latigo and Hon. Katuntu, merely playing politics, and therefore waging turf wars, or are they seriously committed to the democratic struggle as a national project, that will require collaboration and collective efforts?
Third, is Otunnu’s alleged political Baggage. The worry that Otunnu will be attacked by the NRM, linked to the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), and 1985 military coup, is curious. False claims and negative campaigns are part of competitive politics. In any case, the NRM should have no moral concerns about coup plotters and political usurpers. Questions about the 1985 coup are only relevant to internal UPC debate, but of no political benefit for the NRM as a national issue. Alleged links with the LRA, is a smear that Hon. Latigo himself, together with other opposition politicians and critics of the regime, should be familiar with, having been tarred with the LRA brush many times.
If Hon. Latigo's worries about what the NRM may or may not say about Otunnu is curious, Hon. Katuntu's claims that dOtunnu is an old guard, part and parcel of the problems and no better than Museveni, is pitiful. Katuntu has no basis to make these kinds of statements, because he knows they are patently false. Furthermore, he considers Otunnu an outsider, not part of "us"; perhaps "us" as in opposition members of parliament, or leaders of opposition steeped in the NRM political culture of exclusion, corruption, self-aggrandisement and insensitivities that make them benefit three or more times from car schemes for members of parliament, when schools in their constituencies are run under trees!
There may indeed be no void for political leadership for Otunnu to fill, as Hon. Latigo asserts, but there are certainly wide, gaping moral, intellectual and principled leadership gaps among the opposition forces that need to be filled. It is best for the opposition to approach the next elections by objectively assessing their strategic objectives, the forces that work for and against them, and the strengths and weaknesses of the possible people who must lead the organising for change. To look at the issues and what political advantages or disadvantages new comers like Olara Otunnu bring, from the narrow, self-interested vantage point of protecting respective individual or party political turfs, rather than advancing collective efforts and goals, would be counterproductive.
Going by media reports of speeches on the trails of his homecoming journey, highlighting the breadth of the policy crisis, national challenges, and the imperatives for opposition forces to come together and struggle for change as a national, rather than a one-man or one-party project, it is Olara Otunnu, rather than Prof. Latigo and Hon. Katuntu, who seems more in touch with the country and the yearnings of its citizens for urgent change; and it is Otunnu who seems to correctly capture and express the national urgency and imperatives for change.
In their responses, Hon. Professor Ogenga Latigo, Hon. Abdu Katuntu, and Dr. Jean Barya, highlighted a number of issues concerning who Olara Otunnu is, what contribution he can make to the democratic struggle in Uganda, and how the struggle can be organised and led. Not only were some of their comments contentious, but also specious and contradictory.
First, that Olara Otunnu is out of touch with the country, the people, and issues. But Olara Otunnu has written and spoken extensively about the NRM dictatorship, corruption, poverty, national fragmentation on ethnic lines, land-grabbing, rights abuses and possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Uganda generally and northern Uganda specifically. It is doubtful that there are esoteric socio-political issues only accessible through local residency in Uganda. Moreover, there are people who have lived in Uganda for the life of this regime, but are unaware of the extent to which our nationhood has been damaged, or the levels of impoverishment and social inequalities that have been imposed on our citizenry along social classes, region, ethnicity, party allegiances, and patterns of voting.
Olara Otunnu, like many Ugandans in the country and abroad who care about their country, is aware of these problems, and the extent to which their resolutions must be approached as a national project, rather than as a one-man derring-do. That is why, he is more attuned to consensus building, coalition making, and unifying Ugandans to work together to resolve these problems as shared national goals and citizen responsibility. Otunnu by no means presents himself as the man who knows all and has all the solutions; nor as the one who can and will bring change all by himself.
At a certain level, Professor Latigo's and Hon. Katuntu's sentiments are understandable. They come across as consummate tutelages of Museveni’s personal merits and no-party politics, with its entitlement claims. We fought, therefore we must rule. Or we endured the dictatorship; therefore, our scars give us prior rights at the head of the leadership queue.
As a national project, the current phase of the democratic struggle cannot be looked at from the interest of one individual or one party, but what specific, necessary resources and qualities are available to be deployed where and when, to progress the democratic objectives. It is Olara Otunnu, more than Prof. Latigo or Hon. Katuntu, who reads more correctly, the needs and national mood of our oppressed and impoverished citizens. It is clear that, Latigo and Katuntu believe that the democratic struggle in Uganda is limited to competition for the presidency, hence their emphases on a presidential candidate, and the narrow political spectrum they use to understand the political, moral, intellectual, and diplomatic impact of Olara Otunnu on the democratic struggles in the country.
Second, that Olara Otunnu lacks a constituency and political base. This is an area where Prof. Latigo, Dr. Jean Barya, and Hon. Katuntu, all contradict themselves. Drawing on their contention that Otunnu has been out too long and he is virtually an outsider, they rule him out as possible presidential candidate, whether for IPC or UPC. However, when asked what role Otunnu could play, whether in UPC or in IPC, they paint a picture of someone different from the Otunnu they earlier dismissed as insignificant in the politics of the country because he is an outsider, without a constituency and lacking political base.
Unless they have a different conception of " political base", how can someone without a political constituency, be expected to among other things: bring back UPC members who had defected; strengthen the UPC; resolve internal UPC feuds or reconcile warring factions; bring into play, former UPC strongholds of Bugisu, Busoga, Bushenyi and Kigezi; and unify UPC in northern Uganda to shore up the IPC in 2011? Or play influential role to mobilize for IPC and greatly improve the national fortunes of IPC presidential and parliamentary candidates?
Obviously, these roles, tasks and expectations would be for someone who has solid political base and clout in these constituencies. Are Prof. Latigo and Hon. Katuntu, merely playing politics, and therefore waging turf wars, or are they seriously committed to the democratic struggle as a national project, that will require collaboration and collective efforts?
Third, is Otunnu’s alleged political Baggage. The worry that Otunnu will be attacked by the NRM, linked to the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), and 1985 military coup, is curious. False claims and negative campaigns are part of competitive politics. In any case, the NRM should have no moral concerns about coup plotters and political usurpers. Questions about the 1985 coup are only relevant to internal UPC debate, but of no political benefit for the NRM as a national issue. Alleged links with the LRA, is a smear that Hon. Latigo himself, together with other opposition politicians and critics of the regime, should be familiar with, having been tarred with the LRA brush many times.
If Hon. Latigo's worries about what the NRM may or may not say about Otunnu is curious, Hon. Katuntu's claims that dOtunnu is an old guard, part and parcel of the problems and no better than Museveni, is pitiful. Katuntu has no basis to make these kinds of statements, because he knows they are patently false. Furthermore, he considers Otunnu an outsider, not part of "us"; perhaps "us" as in opposition members of parliament, or leaders of opposition steeped in the NRM political culture of exclusion, corruption, self-aggrandisement and insensitivities that make them benefit three or more times from car schemes for members of parliament, when schools in their constituencies are run under trees!
There may indeed be no void for political leadership for Otunnu to fill, as Hon. Latigo asserts, but there are certainly wide, gaping moral, intellectual and principled leadership gaps among the opposition forces that need to be filled. It is best for the opposition to approach the next elections by objectively assessing their strategic objectives, the forces that work for and against them, and the strengths and weaknesses of the possible people who must lead the organising for change. To look at the issues and what political advantages or disadvantages new comers like Olara Otunnu bring, from the narrow, self-interested vantage point of protecting respective individual or party political turfs, rather than advancing collective efforts and goals, would be counterproductive.
Going by media reports of speeches on the trails of his homecoming journey, highlighting the breadth of the policy crisis, national challenges, and the imperatives for opposition forces to come together and struggle for change as a national, rather than a one-man or one-party project, it is Olara Otunnu, rather than Prof. Latigo and Hon. Katuntu, who seems more in touch with the country and the yearnings of its citizens for urgent change; and it is Otunnu who seems to correctly capture and express the national urgency and imperatives for change.
Monday 17 August 2009
Are Africans giving god the wrong street addresses and post codes?
I have been wondering whether god / gods did not create different people with different languages and different spiritual practices, symbols and rites for a reason. It occurred to me that, perhaps different races with peculiar languages and spiritual beliefs systems and rites were purposefully to serve as different but distinct routes of accessing god/gods. And each ethnic group or race, like road networks with bridges and over and underpasses, had markers and identifiers not unlike highways and expressways that lead from our metropolises to the different subarbs and countryside from where people pour into the cities for work and other cultural activities everyday.
Come to think of it. Like roads and airline routes, you gotta take the one that takes you to your destination, if you hope to get there. Excepting Christopher Columbus, how many of us would rather head west, when we meant to go east? And see what happened to Columbus; poor Chris!
I believe that Africans and other colonised and dominated people who abandoned their traditional spiritual practices and beliefs, lost their ways. In embracing Christianity and Islam and praying in Latin, French, Portuguese, Spanish, English, Arabic and what have you, they are like the aircraft that did not file a flight plan and surprised the aircontrollers. No one would know what to do with it except to ensure that all the other aircrafts cleared for takeoffs or landings, are safely airborne or on the runways before anything can be done to the intruder.
Likewise, Angel Gabriel & Co are expecting the Luo, for instance, to come through Jok or Juok, and speak Luo. But when we go to church, mosques, and other foreign places of worship and use other people's languages and delve into rituals of other people's spiritual practices, using their peculiar symbols, not ours, we actually miss out because the gods do not hear our prayers since we are not using our dedicated routes and verbal signals. Like people who do not make appointments, we are kept waiting, because no one, no god or gods expected us. And until all the other people who adhered to the rules and made appointments are attended to, those who came unannounced, must wait until it is convenient to attend to them. And am sure Africans and the Luo, have been waiting for intercession since. What with the genocides in Gambella (Ethiopia), Acholi (northern Uganda), southern Sudan, and discrimination and assasination of the Luo of Kenya!
When we continue to sing in churches and other places of worship, using christian and other foreign practices rather than our own god given markers and signals, we ask for blessings for people whose practices we have adopted, and whose languages we use. I believe that is why colonised and dominated people, particularly Africans, who abandoned their own traditional spiritual practices and rites, have the lion's share of all worldly afflictions. Because all the blessings we ask for, we do in a foreign language, through a foreign belief system whose identifiers light up on god's control panel, showing that the beneficiaries are either English, Portuguese, French, Germans, Spaniards, Greeks or Jews, but not Africans, we miss out on god's attention. It is also possible our gods do not hear and understand us anymore, because we speak foreign languages alien to them. Of course they never went to school to have learnt English, French, German, Portuguese or Spanish.
It is like giving someone else's street address and postal, post or Zip code. Imagine it for a minute. If you mailed something to your friends or relatives, but instead of their street addresses and post codes, you put the wrong address and post codes, would the parcels go to them? Of course not!
So why do we, for instance, the Luo, think that abandoning Jok or Juok, which is our spiritual post, postal, or zip code, known to god /gods the postmasters as such, expect that our cries for blessings and healings and peace from worldly strifes are gonna be heeded, when we go through the church, the mosque, or christianity or Islam, which are post codes for a different group of people? Who do you think receive the blessings and healings and intercessions that we daily ask for?
You got it right; the people these spiritual beliefs and practices are native to. Like talents, god/the gods gave us different and distinct routes of getting to them. If you want the letter "Z" impression, you must hit the "Z" on your keyboard. You cannot get "Z" by hitting "7" or "K", however hard and repeatedly you hit. So before you rush to church or the mosque this Sunday or next Friday, ask whether you are really using or following your desginated spiritual routes so that your god / gods could answer your prayers.
It is as if we do not know this already. It is like calling the wrong number, when you want to call your Mum or Grand Ma. However much you try, unless you know Grandma's number or dial it correctly, you will not reach her. Moreover, you cannot call someone else's grandmother, even if you knew one. Why try to reach your god/ gods or Grandma using someone else's god's or grandmother's number?
You want to know why we suffer and we seem like we have been abandoned by god / gods? Because the shrines are gone. It is like a closed village post office. No more mail deliveries to the village. Sooner or later, mail directed to a boarded up address, or a demonlished street number, will be returned to sender (RTS). Isn't that what has happened with Africans and their gods?
Let us stop giving god the wrong street addresses and post, postal and zip codes, and our prayers shall be heard and our sufferings ended and we shall be blessed.
Empty the churches and mosques; build more shrines and pour libations. And NO ONE SAY AMEN!
Come to think of it. Like roads and airline routes, you gotta take the one that takes you to your destination, if you hope to get there. Excepting Christopher Columbus, how many of us would rather head west, when we meant to go east? And see what happened to Columbus; poor Chris!
I believe that Africans and other colonised and dominated people who abandoned their traditional spiritual practices and beliefs, lost their ways. In embracing Christianity and Islam and praying in Latin, French, Portuguese, Spanish, English, Arabic and what have you, they are like the aircraft that did not file a flight plan and surprised the aircontrollers. No one would know what to do with it except to ensure that all the other aircrafts cleared for takeoffs or landings, are safely airborne or on the runways before anything can be done to the intruder.
Likewise, Angel Gabriel & Co are expecting the Luo, for instance, to come through Jok or Juok, and speak Luo. But when we go to church, mosques, and other foreign places of worship and use other people's languages and delve into rituals of other people's spiritual practices, using their peculiar symbols, not ours, we actually miss out because the gods do not hear our prayers since we are not using our dedicated routes and verbal signals. Like people who do not make appointments, we are kept waiting, because no one, no god or gods expected us. And until all the other people who adhered to the rules and made appointments are attended to, those who came unannounced, must wait until it is convenient to attend to them. And am sure Africans and the Luo, have been waiting for intercession since. What with the genocides in Gambella (Ethiopia), Acholi (northern Uganda), southern Sudan, and discrimination and assasination of the Luo of Kenya!
When we continue to sing in churches and other places of worship, using christian and other foreign practices rather than our own god given markers and signals, we ask for blessings for people whose practices we have adopted, and whose languages we use. I believe that is why colonised and dominated people, particularly Africans, who abandoned their own traditional spiritual practices and rites, have the lion's share of all worldly afflictions. Because all the blessings we ask for, we do in a foreign language, through a foreign belief system whose identifiers light up on god's control panel, showing that the beneficiaries are either English, Portuguese, French, Germans, Spaniards, Greeks or Jews, but not Africans, we miss out on god's attention. It is also possible our gods do not hear and understand us anymore, because we speak foreign languages alien to them. Of course they never went to school to have learnt English, French, German, Portuguese or Spanish.
It is like giving someone else's street address and postal, post or Zip code. Imagine it for a minute. If you mailed something to your friends or relatives, but instead of their street addresses and post codes, you put the wrong address and post codes, would the parcels go to them? Of course not!
So why do we, for instance, the Luo, think that abandoning Jok or Juok, which is our spiritual post, postal, or zip code, known to god /gods the postmasters as such, expect that our cries for blessings and healings and peace from worldly strifes are gonna be heeded, when we go through the church, the mosque, or christianity or Islam, which are post codes for a different group of people? Who do you think receive the blessings and healings and intercessions that we daily ask for?
You got it right; the people these spiritual beliefs and practices are native to. Like talents, god/the gods gave us different and distinct routes of getting to them. If you want the letter "Z" impression, you must hit the "Z" on your keyboard. You cannot get "Z" by hitting "7" or "K", however hard and repeatedly you hit. So before you rush to church or the mosque this Sunday or next Friday, ask whether you are really using or following your desginated spiritual routes so that your god / gods could answer your prayers.
It is as if we do not know this already. It is like calling the wrong number, when you want to call your Mum or Grand Ma. However much you try, unless you know Grandma's number or dial it correctly, you will not reach her. Moreover, you cannot call someone else's grandmother, even if you knew one. Why try to reach your god/ gods or Grandma using someone else's god's or grandmother's number?
You want to know why we suffer and we seem like we have been abandoned by god / gods? Because the shrines are gone. It is like a closed village post office. No more mail deliveries to the village. Sooner or later, mail directed to a boarded up address, or a demonlished street number, will be returned to sender (RTS). Isn't that what has happened with Africans and their gods?
Let us stop giving god the wrong street addresses and post, postal and zip codes, and our prayers shall be heard and our sufferings ended and we shall be blessed.
Empty the churches and mosques; build more shrines and pour libations. And NO ONE SAY AMEN!
Monday 3 August 2009
How Museveni could yet survive Washington and Uganda Opposition in 2011
President Yoweri Museveni’s once bright star- visible throughout Africa and the West-is dimmed. How could someone, once revered by the West, be suddenly down on his luck?
The answer to this question is long and complicated. For Museveni, it is a combination of indictable misadventures in Rwanda, Congo, and northern Uganda; corruption, electoral theft, and heavy-handedness in dealing with political opponents at home.
Simply put, 23 years in power is a long time. One is bound to make as many enemies as friends- at home and abroad -along the way. Consequently, incumbency reaches deleterious point of diminishing return; when it has nothing more to offer but personal insecurities and corresponding obsession with retaining power, defending ill-gotten wealth, and protecting cronies.
Despite his dwindling political, diplomatic fortunes, Museveni could yet rescue himself from being discarded-like all utility men before him-for becoming a liability, rather than continued asset to his Western benefactors.
Unfortunately for Museveni, nothing as earth-shaking as ( 1) the fall of the Berlin Wall; (2) the end of history and the last man; (3) September 11 and the Global War On Terror (GWOT), are likely to occur in the immediate future for him to exploit to re-invent himself.
When the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Empire crumbled, bringing down socialist, left progressive politics with it, Museveni discarded his olive combat fatigues for expensive, Saville- Row, tailored, pinstripe suits. Even the jackboots, gave way to fancy brogues, standard issue for the corridors, boardrooms of the IMF and the World Bank. From Deep inside the sanctums of these capitalist midwives, he exchanged dog-eared copies of the Ten Point Programme and the Communist Manifesto, for the Structural Adjustment Programmes(SAP).
Henceforth, the people were damned. Our “liberators” embarked on a war path of creating a middle class. A middle class was necessary for capitalist street credibility and bona fides. Life within city limits of the end of history and the last man, required cultural conformity forged through deep, irreparable structural damages to our national economy, oracled by the Washington Consensus. The operational credo of neo-liberal globalism, entailed thorough and complete economic liberalisation, privatisation, state divestiture from the economy, and the introduction of cost-sharing aimed at letting the market alone be the rational, equitable, fair allocator of values, and distributor of goods and services.
The impact of such radical about-face- from aspirations for an independent, integrated, self-sustaining and self-sufficient economy- on the ordinary citizen, in whose names Uganda had been gang-raped over and over, was immediate. Sights of premature babies skewering on Charcoal stoves, in place of incubators, in the hospitals of eastern Uganda, were tips of the iceberg signalling remarkable failures of the experiments in market-led development strategies to benefit ordinary people in peripheral capitalist economies.
Just when we thought their luck had run out and national disaffection was coalescing against neo-liberalism to force the” liberators” to account for the lack of social and economic dividends to the ordinary Ugandans, Osama bin Laden and Al Qaida struck the nerve centres of global capitalist imperialism in New York and Washington. Aware of the opportunity and lifeline 9/11 portended, Museveni hung onto every word US President George W. Bush uttered outlining US plans against global terror following the attacks. Immediately, Museveni re-baptised the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) from “backward”, “primitive”, and “common criminals”, to “terrorists”. Washington instantaneously included the LRA as a global terrorist organisation, gifting Museveni invaluable political, diplomatic lease of life.
Returning the favours, our “liberator” joined the Coalition of the Willing (COW), to attack an innocent country, effect regime- change, depose a dictator, and search for weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq.
The man from Kisozi Ranch, likely mistook the acronym COW, to mean an association of cattlemen, through which America was distributing free cattle from Bush’s ranch at Crawford, Texas! The herdsman that he is, Museveni was first in line, even as intermediate global powers- France, Germany, and Canada- rejected to be stampeded into regime-change folly. But opportunistically, Museveni wanted to, and milked, the GWOT cow as much as he could. The GWOT cow, which he now zero-grazes and milks in Somalia, has guaranteed milk and continued access to hay in Washington. However, Somalia and GWOT will not sufficiently provide regime sustenance and maintenance from depreciation for much longer. Why?
In major speeches in Cairo and Accra, US President Barack Obama let it be known that Washington will no longer turn a blind eye to brutal dictators simply because they are America’s own strategic instruments. Henceforth, free and fair elections will be critical measure of democracy and good governance. Elections will no longer be perfunctory events the kinds Ugandans witnessed in 1996, 2001, and 2006. There have to be universal standards met:
• Independent electoral commission;
• Prohibition of security forces from interfering with electoral processes;
• Complete freedom for people , political parties, groups, to organise and campaign freely throughout the country;
• Independent verification, update, and public display of voter’s register at polling centres long before election dates;
• Level playing field for all political parties and candidates;
• Restraining incumbents, ruling parties, from unfairly using state resources for own campaigns.
Therefore, GWOT and Somalia alone may no longer be enough to ingratiate Museveni to the West, or save his dictatorship. The changing mood in Washington and rising doubts in the West about the utility of the Nyampala in Kampala, coincides with Ugandan citizens’ resolve to cause change through opposition unity, robust national campaigns for democracy and justice.
Undoubtedly, Museveni’s star is merely a twinkle on the global horizon. But he could yet regain luminescence and save his regime by intervening to personally remove global logjams on some particularly Western pet peeves:
1. Somalia-Fights like never before; completely defeats , uproots the Islamic insurgents opposing the interim government;
2. Darfur-Fires junior minister Henry Oryem Okello to lure Omar el Bashir to Uganda; arrests and hands Bashir over to the ICC for trial for genocide in Darfur;
3. Zimbabwe-As in Operations Lightning Thunder, infiltrates UPDF Special Forces into Zimbabwe, topples, arrests and hands over Robert Mugabe to the West;
4. North Korea-UPDF special forces knock out Kim Jong Il and obliterate his nuclear facilities;
5. Iran-UPDF Special Forces assassinate Mahmmoud Ahmedinajjad, pulverise Iranian nuclear facilities;
6. Al Qaida-An experienced guerrilla foxhound, Museveni single-handedly hunts down Osama Bin Laden, hangs him at City Square, and mounts Laden’s corpse on a marble plinth and invites himself to the White House bearing this macabre gift-Operations Sane "Jaruos."
Failing all these by September 2010:
7. Uganda 2011-Museveni assembles the press and announces he has quit. That, Kaguta family sacrifices for ungrateful Ugandans, particularly Buganda, is over. In full battle fatigues, and on foot, he leads the UPDF, PGB, ESO, ISO, JATTF, CMI, NRM, his wife, brother, son, daughters and sons-in-law out of Kampala to unknown destination....in a last march past mounted for the citizens of Uganda.
The answer to this question is long and complicated. For Museveni, it is a combination of indictable misadventures in Rwanda, Congo, and northern Uganda; corruption, electoral theft, and heavy-handedness in dealing with political opponents at home.
Simply put, 23 years in power is a long time. One is bound to make as many enemies as friends- at home and abroad -along the way. Consequently, incumbency reaches deleterious point of diminishing return; when it has nothing more to offer but personal insecurities and corresponding obsession with retaining power, defending ill-gotten wealth, and protecting cronies.
Despite his dwindling political, diplomatic fortunes, Museveni could yet rescue himself from being discarded-like all utility men before him-for becoming a liability, rather than continued asset to his Western benefactors.
Unfortunately for Museveni, nothing as earth-shaking as ( 1) the fall of the Berlin Wall; (2) the end of history and the last man; (3) September 11 and the Global War On Terror (GWOT), are likely to occur in the immediate future for him to exploit to re-invent himself.
When the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Empire crumbled, bringing down socialist, left progressive politics with it, Museveni discarded his olive combat fatigues for expensive, Saville- Row, tailored, pinstripe suits. Even the jackboots, gave way to fancy brogues, standard issue for the corridors, boardrooms of the IMF and the World Bank. From Deep inside the sanctums of these capitalist midwives, he exchanged dog-eared copies of the Ten Point Programme and the Communist Manifesto, for the Structural Adjustment Programmes(SAP).
Henceforth, the people were damned. Our “liberators” embarked on a war path of creating a middle class. A middle class was necessary for capitalist street credibility and bona fides. Life within city limits of the end of history and the last man, required cultural conformity forged through deep, irreparable structural damages to our national economy, oracled by the Washington Consensus. The operational credo of neo-liberal globalism, entailed thorough and complete economic liberalisation, privatisation, state divestiture from the economy, and the introduction of cost-sharing aimed at letting the market alone be the rational, equitable, fair allocator of values, and distributor of goods and services.
The impact of such radical about-face- from aspirations for an independent, integrated, self-sustaining and self-sufficient economy- on the ordinary citizen, in whose names Uganda had been gang-raped over and over, was immediate. Sights of premature babies skewering on Charcoal stoves, in place of incubators, in the hospitals of eastern Uganda, were tips of the iceberg signalling remarkable failures of the experiments in market-led development strategies to benefit ordinary people in peripheral capitalist economies.
Just when we thought their luck had run out and national disaffection was coalescing against neo-liberalism to force the” liberators” to account for the lack of social and economic dividends to the ordinary Ugandans, Osama bin Laden and Al Qaida struck the nerve centres of global capitalist imperialism in New York and Washington. Aware of the opportunity and lifeline 9/11 portended, Museveni hung onto every word US President George W. Bush uttered outlining US plans against global terror following the attacks. Immediately, Museveni re-baptised the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) from “backward”, “primitive”, and “common criminals”, to “terrorists”. Washington instantaneously included the LRA as a global terrorist organisation, gifting Museveni invaluable political, diplomatic lease of life.
Returning the favours, our “liberator” joined the Coalition of the Willing (COW), to attack an innocent country, effect regime- change, depose a dictator, and search for weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq.
The man from Kisozi Ranch, likely mistook the acronym COW, to mean an association of cattlemen, through which America was distributing free cattle from Bush’s ranch at Crawford, Texas! The herdsman that he is, Museveni was first in line, even as intermediate global powers- France, Germany, and Canada- rejected to be stampeded into regime-change folly. But opportunistically, Museveni wanted to, and milked, the GWOT cow as much as he could. The GWOT cow, which he now zero-grazes and milks in Somalia, has guaranteed milk and continued access to hay in Washington. However, Somalia and GWOT will not sufficiently provide regime sustenance and maintenance from depreciation for much longer. Why?
In major speeches in Cairo and Accra, US President Barack Obama let it be known that Washington will no longer turn a blind eye to brutal dictators simply because they are America’s own strategic instruments. Henceforth, free and fair elections will be critical measure of democracy and good governance. Elections will no longer be perfunctory events the kinds Ugandans witnessed in 1996, 2001, and 2006. There have to be universal standards met:
• Independent electoral commission;
• Prohibition of security forces from interfering with electoral processes;
• Complete freedom for people , political parties, groups, to organise and campaign freely throughout the country;
• Independent verification, update, and public display of voter’s register at polling centres long before election dates;
• Level playing field for all political parties and candidates;
• Restraining incumbents, ruling parties, from unfairly using state resources for own campaigns.
Therefore, GWOT and Somalia alone may no longer be enough to ingratiate Museveni to the West, or save his dictatorship. The changing mood in Washington and rising doubts in the West about the utility of the Nyampala in Kampala, coincides with Ugandan citizens’ resolve to cause change through opposition unity, robust national campaigns for democracy and justice.
Undoubtedly, Museveni’s star is merely a twinkle on the global horizon. But he could yet regain luminescence and save his regime by intervening to personally remove global logjams on some particularly Western pet peeves:
1. Somalia-Fights like never before; completely defeats , uproots the Islamic insurgents opposing the interim government;
2. Darfur-Fires junior minister Henry Oryem Okello to lure Omar el Bashir to Uganda; arrests and hands Bashir over to the ICC for trial for genocide in Darfur;
3. Zimbabwe-As in Operations Lightning Thunder, infiltrates UPDF Special Forces into Zimbabwe, topples, arrests and hands over Robert Mugabe to the West;
4. North Korea-UPDF special forces knock out Kim Jong Il and obliterate his nuclear facilities;
5. Iran-UPDF Special Forces assassinate Mahmmoud Ahmedinajjad, pulverise Iranian nuclear facilities;
6. Al Qaida-An experienced guerrilla foxhound, Museveni single-handedly hunts down Osama Bin Laden, hangs him at City Square, and mounts Laden’s corpse on a marble plinth and invites himself to the White House bearing this macabre gift-Operations Sane "Jaruos."
Failing all these by September 2010:
7. Uganda 2011-Museveni assembles the press and announces he has quit. That, Kaguta family sacrifices for ungrateful Ugandans, particularly Buganda, is over. In full battle fatigues, and on foot, he leads the UPDF, PGB, ESO, ISO, JATTF, CMI, NRM, his wife, brother, son, daughters and sons-in-law out of Kampala to unknown destination....in a last march past mounted for the citizens of Uganda.
Tuesday 14 July 2009
Ugandans Launch Campaign for Free and Fair Elections
PRESS RELEASE
Ugandans Launch Campaign for Free and Fair Elections
Kampala, Boston, London, Toronto
11thJuly, 2009
Today a broad spectrum of Ugandans launched a major national and international campaign for free and fair elections in Uganda. This collective patriotic mission is called Campaign for Democracy and Justice in Uganda (CDJ).The interim president of CDJ, Mr. John Mayanja, stated: “Previous elections conducted by the Museveniregime, which has been in power for 24 years, were massively rigged and manifestly lacked a levelplaying field. We must absolutely change this. This is the primary reason for the formation and launchingof CDJ.”CDJ will campaign for the following norms and standards:
genuinely free and fair elections;
transparent democratic practice and process;
the rule of law and accountability;
justice and equity for all Ugandans;
national unity.These norms and standards constitute the foundation for democracy and good government in Uganda and worldwide.
CDJ is not a political party. It is a non-partisan advocacy project committed to advancing the norms,principles, and standards set out above. CDJ is not affiliated with any particular political parties inUganda; it is a broad-based network of Ugandan patriots, within the country and in the Diaspora, of diverse political affiliations and persuasion.
A particularly important date is approaching on the Ugandan political calendar. The country is preparingto hold national elections in 2011. CDJ will not support any parties or candidates in the forthcomingelectoral contests. Its preoccupation is to mount a vigorous campaign for genuinely free and fair elections, with a level playing field for all.The interim chairman of CDJ, Olara A. Otunnu noted: “Today, Uganda is a country in the throes of agrave national crisis and distress. The best way to combat this malaise is the institution of genuinedemocratic practice and process, beginning with free and fair elections. This would allow the Ugandanpeople to freely choose and shape their own destiny. It would ensure that leaders are held fullyaccountable for their actions before the law and the electorate. Democratic process also is the best way toprevent resort to violent conflict.” CDJ calls on Ugandan patriots of all hues, both within the country and in the Diaspora, to come togetherand mount a robust campaign for free and fair elections in 2011. The interim secretary, ProfessorAloysius Lugira stated: “The norms and standards for free and fair elections are now universally accepted.Uganda must not continue to be a perennial exception to universally accepted standards”.
This campaign is in support of the demands for electoral reforms which have been jointly tabled by the political parties in Uganda. The campaign is being launched today on the occasion of President BarackObama’s speech in Accra; we are inspired by his seminal message, in particular on free and fair elections, accountability, anti-corruption, anti-ethnic sectarianism, anti-nepotism, and equitable opportunity, asindispensable components of democratic governance.
Significantly this campaign also echoes and is inline with observations and recommendations made in 2006 by all election observers, including the European Union, the Commonwealth, and Ugandan civil society led by the Uganda Joint ChristianCouncil (UJCC) and the ruling of the Supreme Court of Uganda. 2011 must inaugurate a new era for Uganda--an era of free and fair elections, with a level playing field.
Ugandans demand, deserve and will accept nothing less. As President Barack Obama stated today,“History is on the side of these brave Africans.”
Signed by:Mr. Olara A. Otunnu (Interim Chairman)
Mr. James Ssemakula (Interim Deputy Chairman)
Mr. John Mayanja (Interim President)
Mr. Mubiru Musoke (Interim Treasurer)
Professor Aloysius Lugira (Interim Secretary)
For further information, contact:
Mr. Jude MbabaaliFoundation for African Development [FAD]P.O. Box 2326, Kampala
Tel: 041 4510 486/041 4269 562 Mobile: 0772 444 663 Email: mbabaalij@yahoo.com; fad@infocom.co.ug
Professor Aloysius LugiraTel: 617-522-3539 or 781-439-3875 Email:lugira.cdj@gmail.com; lugira@bc.edu
Ugandans Launch Campaign for Free and Fair Elections
Kampala, Boston, London, Toronto
11thJuly, 2009
Today a broad spectrum of Ugandans launched a major national and international campaign for free and fair elections in Uganda. This collective patriotic mission is called Campaign for Democracy and Justice in Uganda (CDJ).The interim president of CDJ, Mr. John Mayanja, stated: “Previous elections conducted by the Museveniregime, which has been in power for 24 years, were massively rigged and manifestly lacked a levelplaying field. We must absolutely change this. This is the primary reason for the formation and launchingof CDJ.”CDJ will campaign for the following norms and standards:
genuinely free and fair elections;
transparent democratic practice and process;
the rule of law and accountability;
justice and equity for all Ugandans;
national unity.These norms and standards constitute the foundation for democracy and good government in Uganda and worldwide.
CDJ is not a political party. It is a non-partisan advocacy project committed to advancing the norms,principles, and standards set out above. CDJ is not affiliated with any particular political parties inUganda; it is a broad-based network of Ugandan patriots, within the country and in the Diaspora, of diverse political affiliations and persuasion.
A particularly important date is approaching on the Ugandan political calendar. The country is preparingto hold national elections in 2011. CDJ will not support any parties or candidates in the forthcomingelectoral contests. Its preoccupation is to mount a vigorous campaign for genuinely free and fair elections, with a level playing field for all.The interim chairman of CDJ, Olara A. Otunnu noted: “Today, Uganda is a country in the throes of agrave national crisis and distress. The best way to combat this malaise is the institution of genuinedemocratic practice and process, beginning with free and fair elections. This would allow the Ugandanpeople to freely choose and shape their own destiny. It would ensure that leaders are held fullyaccountable for their actions before the law and the electorate. Democratic process also is the best way toprevent resort to violent conflict.” CDJ calls on Ugandan patriots of all hues, both within the country and in the Diaspora, to come togetherand mount a robust campaign for free and fair elections in 2011. The interim secretary, ProfessorAloysius Lugira stated: “The norms and standards for free and fair elections are now universally accepted.Uganda must not continue to be a perennial exception to universally accepted standards”.
This campaign is in support of the demands for electoral reforms which have been jointly tabled by the political parties in Uganda. The campaign is being launched today on the occasion of President BarackObama’s speech in Accra; we are inspired by his seminal message, in particular on free and fair elections, accountability, anti-corruption, anti-ethnic sectarianism, anti-nepotism, and equitable opportunity, asindispensable components of democratic governance.
Significantly this campaign also echoes and is inline with observations and recommendations made in 2006 by all election observers, including the European Union, the Commonwealth, and Ugandan civil society led by the Uganda Joint ChristianCouncil (UJCC) and the ruling of the Supreme Court of Uganda. 2011 must inaugurate a new era for Uganda--an era of free and fair elections, with a level playing field.
Ugandans demand, deserve and will accept nothing less. As President Barack Obama stated today,“History is on the side of these brave Africans.”
Signed by:Mr. Olara A. Otunnu (Interim Chairman)
Mr. James Ssemakula (Interim Deputy Chairman)
Mr. John Mayanja (Interim President)
Mr. Mubiru Musoke (Interim Treasurer)
Professor Aloysius Lugira (Interim Secretary)
For further information, contact:
Mr. Jude MbabaaliFoundation for African Development [FAD]P.O. Box 2326, Kampala
Tel: 041 4510 486/041 4269 562 Mobile: 0772 444 663 Email: mbabaalij@yahoo.com; fad@infocom.co.ug
Professor Aloysius LugiraTel: 617-522-3539 or 781-439-3875 Email:lugira.cdj@gmail.com; lugira@bc.edu
Tuesday 2 June 2009
Imperial Britain's Bastards
Imperial Britain’s Bastards
Imperial Britain’s Bastards
Imperial Britain’s Bastards
Following Treasure Trail
Of Robbers
Plundering Africa
Ransacking Asia
And the Caribbean
By Air, Sea, Road and Rail
They Come
Peering Through Hatches
Of Britain’s Racial Fortress
Impenetrable it stands
Imperial Britain’s Bastards
From Africa and Indo-China
Disinherited scions of Imperial Rape
Brazenly clawing their way in
From Cairo to Cape
From Timbuktu to Goa
Poor Illegitimate kin
Of Bounty-Laden Britannia
Imperial Britain’s Bastards
Powerless To Snatch Crumbs
From Sticky fingered Rulers
House-Boy Afro-Asian Despots
Waiting Globalisation Tables
Superintending Sweat Shops
Bell Boys Contorting for Tip
From USAID and DFID
Twenty-First Century House Niggers
Forbidding Trade Union Rage
Outlawing Minimum Wage
Humouring at capitalist Raves
Robbing Communal Land
Polluting Rivers, Streams and Lakes
Clearing Forests, Draining Wetlands
Erecting Play Grounds
For the Master Race
Imperial Britain’s Bastards
Dispossessed Regal Heirs
By Sea, Air, Road and Rail
They Come
Knocking at Imperial Gates
Black, Brown, Yellow Vermin
Groped with latex-gloved hands
Herded behind Razor-Wired Walls
At Brook and Tinsley Houses
West Sussex Detention Centres
By Xenophobic Dastards
Imperial Britain’s Bastards
African, Indo-Chinese Intrepid
Seething With Anger and Self-Hate
Flailing out At Each Other
At the Slightest Provocation
Inclined To Prison-Like Fate
They Eat, Shit and Stink
They come able to think
But gradually sink
Dehumanising Squalour
Of A Storm-Tossed Slave Ship
On The High Seas
Consume Them
While in London and New York
African Diamond Gold Stock Glow
In Nairobi, Lagos and Cairo
Black Immigration Agents Bow
Before Aryan Gods
Caucasians Leap-Frog Visa Queues
Like: “Why Bother Filling Forms”!?
Whiteness Is a Trump Card
A Universal Privilege Club Pass
Racial Master Keys
To Global Privilege
Imperial Britain’s Bastards
X-Rayed and Strip-Searched
At Heathrow and Gatwick Airports
Hot Branded: “ Poverty Refugees”
Escaping Africa’s Primeval Darkness
Paragons of Stupidity and Ignorance
Must Be Stopped At All Costs
By Claustrophobic UKB Agents
“ American Passport!?”
“Yes, Ma’am”.
“You Are Canadian!?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“You Travel A Lot! Don’t You!?
“What, Do You, Do!?”
Whatever You Damn Do
UKBA Use Imperial Racial Order
To Decipher Motives
Bringing Global Citizens
To Distant Shores
Americans or Canadians
Need No Visas to Britain
But Afro-Asian Denizens
Imperial Britain’s Bastards
Sequestered At Ports
And Frontiers
Deprived of Pleasures
From Looted Afro-Asian
Regal Treasures
Their Waitress Rulers
Fight for Scraps
Falling Off Imperial Tables
They Dutifully Tend
Political Independence
May Have Come
To the Motherlands
Boy’s Quarters
May Have Given Way
To State Houses and Palaces
But Them Tenants
In Perennial Roles
Have Remained the Same
House Niggers and Slave Drivers
Nannies and House Boys
Lynching kith and kin
For Tipples at the Court
Of Britannia
And Anglo-Saxondom
Imperial Britain’s Bastards
Hopelessly Praying To Aryan God
Deluded He’s Different
Than His UKBA Brethren
Illegitimate Offspring
Of Loveless Imperial Rampage
Begotten of Imperial Pillage
Denying Native inheritance
In Ashanti and Azania Goldfields
Tanzanite Diamond Mines
And Niger Delta Oil Wells
Imperial Britain’s Bastards
Arrive On British Shores
Chasing Cecil Rhodes’ Mirage
Cape- To- Cairo Dreams
Living the Whiteman’s Burdens
Lugard’s Imperial Dual Mandate
In Tropical Africa
Externalities on Balance Sheets
Of Imperial British East Africa
And The East India Companies
Imperial Britain’s Bastards
Afro-Asian Heirs Tracking Booties
Burgled By Adventurers
Century Empire Builders
And Fortune Hunters
Artefacts gracing imperial palaces
Filling Metropolitan Museums
Windfalls Lining Pockets
Of Blood Diamond Hawkers
Trusts Bankrolling Endowments
At Cambridge and Oxford
By Wills of Robber Baron
Philanthropists
While Timbuktu and Ile Ife
In Shambles Lie
Imperial Britain’s Bastards
Mansa Musa’s Princes
Condemned To Penury
Erstwhile Servitude
Abdicating their thrones
At Monomatapa and Timbuktu,
Evacuating Great Zimbabwe
Meroe and Songhai
Surrendering their Titles
To the Great Karoo And Veld
Voiding Ancient Claims
To Kenya’s “White” Highland
Ceding Lobengula’s Matapo Hills
To the Corpse of Cecil Rhodes
They Head Europe-wards
Like Rats Scurrying
From grass huts Burning
Rudely stopped in their tracks
By Aryan-White Immigration Walls
Imperial Britain’s Bastards
Lost in a Maze of Locks and Bolts
Awaiting Extraordinary Rendition
To Distant Shores
Huddled Together Like Cattle
At Salt Licks
Swapping Invariable Solicitor Stories
That Fail to Scale English Racial Everest
Cursing Ancient Powerlessness
Of African Forebear Heroes
Lamenting Omission by Osei Tutu
Groaning at deference of Olaibon Lenana
Pained by the Tragedy of Hendricks Witboi
Yearning for Kabalega, Samori Toure
Rwot Awich of Intemperate Acholi
And Valorous Shaka Zulu
With Assegai Warriors
In Cow-Horn Formation
Protecting Africa
From Peripatetic Aliens
Like UK Border Agents Do
Great Britain
Imperial Britain’s Bastards
Deride House Boy Autocrats
House Niggers lording it
Over Brethren
Hawking Precious Inheritance
To Imperial Finance
For Pittance
Porous Afro-Asian Borders
Whiteness Seeps Through
Like Water through Parched Sand
Sneering at Africa’s permissive
Immigration Laws
Scorning Her Waitress State Agents
Valet Ministers, Concierge Presidents
Tripping Over Themselves
Making Gory Offerings
At thirsty Aryan Temples
Committing Crimes
Mass Sacrificing African Lives
Nursery- School- Children- Profs
Singing London’s Burning Rhymes
Unheeding African Need
Unseeing African Reality
Turning the motherland
Into franchise Continental Hotel
Open Twenty-Four-Seven
To Weary White Travellers
Catering to esoteric Whims
Of Investor Trophy hunters
State Houses and Lodges
Are Modern Imperial Outposts
Slave Markets and Forts
Imperial Britain’s Bastards
Asphyxiated by Great Britannia’s
Octopus Tentacles
Hapless Dolphins in Death Throes
Caught in A Killer Whale’s vice grip
Livelihoods sucked out
By Britannia’s Suction Lip
The Motherland’s Waitress Buffoons
Shamba Boys and House Niggers
At State Houses and Lodges
At Ports and Frontiers
At Embassies and Missions
Wait Imperial Tables
Like Domesticated Baboons
Rewarded with bananas
While in London and New York
African Mining Portfolios soar
Apace with tides of woes
Ravaging the Continent.
Okello Lucima
Imperial Britain’s Bastards
Imperial Britain’s Bastards
Following Treasure Trail
Of Robbers
Plundering Africa
Ransacking Asia
And the Caribbean
By Air, Sea, Road and Rail
They Come
Peering Through Hatches
Of Britain’s Racial Fortress
Impenetrable it stands
Imperial Britain’s Bastards
From Africa and Indo-China
Disinherited scions of Imperial Rape
Brazenly clawing their way in
From Cairo to Cape
From Timbuktu to Goa
Poor Illegitimate kin
Of Bounty-Laden Britannia
Imperial Britain’s Bastards
Powerless To Snatch Crumbs
From Sticky fingered Rulers
House-Boy Afro-Asian Despots
Waiting Globalisation Tables
Superintending Sweat Shops
Bell Boys Contorting for Tip
From USAID and DFID
Twenty-First Century House Niggers
Forbidding Trade Union Rage
Outlawing Minimum Wage
Humouring at capitalist Raves
Robbing Communal Land
Polluting Rivers, Streams and Lakes
Clearing Forests, Draining Wetlands
Erecting Play Grounds
For the Master Race
Imperial Britain’s Bastards
Dispossessed Regal Heirs
By Sea, Air, Road and Rail
They Come
Knocking at Imperial Gates
Black, Brown, Yellow Vermin
Groped with latex-gloved hands
Herded behind Razor-Wired Walls
At Brook and Tinsley Houses
West Sussex Detention Centres
By Xenophobic Dastards
Imperial Britain’s Bastards
African, Indo-Chinese Intrepid
Seething With Anger and Self-Hate
Flailing out At Each Other
At the Slightest Provocation
Inclined To Prison-Like Fate
They Eat, Shit and Stink
They come able to think
But gradually sink
Dehumanising Squalour
Of A Storm-Tossed Slave Ship
On The High Seas
Consume Them
While in London and New York
African Diamond Gold Stock Glow
In Nairobi, Lagos and Cairo
Black Immigration Agents Bow
Before Aryan Gods
Caucasians Leap-Frog Visa Queues
Like: “Why Bother Filling Forms”!?
Whiteness Is a Trump Card
A Universal Privilege Club Pass
Racial Master Keys
To Global Privilege
Imperial Britain’s Bastards
X-Rayed and Strip-Searched
At Heathrow and Gatwick Airports
Hot Branded: “ Poverty Refugees”
Escaping Africa’s Primeval Darkness
Paragons of Stupidity and Ignorance
Must Be Stopped At All Costs
By Claustrophobic UKB Agents
“ American Passport!?”
“Yes, Ma’am”.
“You Are Canadian!?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“You Travel A Lot! Don’t You!?
“What, Do You, Do!?”
Whatever You Damn Do
UKBA Use Imperial Racial Order
To Decipher Motives
Bringing Global Citizens
To Distant Shores
Americans or Canadians
Need No Visas to Britain
But Afro-Asian Denizens
Imperial Britain’s Bastards
Sequestered At Ports
And Frontiers
Deprived of Pleasures
From Looted Afro-Asian
Regal Treasures
Their Waitress Rulers
Fight for Scraps
Falling Off Imperial Tables
They Dutifully Tend
Political Independence
May Have Come
To the Motherlands
Boy’s Quarters
May Have Given Way
To State Houses and Palaces
But Them Tenants
In Perennial Roles
Have Remained the Same
House Niggers and Slave Drivers
Nannies and House Boys
Lynching kith and kin
For Tipples at the Court
Of Britannia
And Anglo-Saxondom
Imperial Britain’s Bastards
Hopelessly Praying To Aryan God
Deluded He’s Different
Than His UKBA Brethren
Illegitimate Offspring
Of Loveless Imperial Rampage
Begotten of Imperial Pillage
Denying Native inheritance
In Ashanti and Azania Goldfields
Tanzanite Diamond Mines
And Niger Delta Oil Wells
Imperial Britain’s Bastards
Arrive On British Shores
Chasing Cecil Rhodes’ Mirage
Cape- To- Cairo Dreams
Living the Whiteman’s Burdens
Lugard’s Imperial Dual Mandate
In Tropical Africa
Externalities on Balance Sheets
Of Imperial British East Africa
And The East India Companies
Imperial Britain’s Bastards
Afro-Asian Heirs Tracking Booties
Burgled By Adventurers
Century Empire Builders
And Fortune Hunters
Artefacts gracing imperial palaces
Filling Metropolitan Museums
Windfalls Lining Pockets
Of Blood Diamond Hawkers
Trusts Bankrolling Endowments
At Cambridge and Oxford
By Wills of Robber Baron
Philanthropists
While Timbuktu and Ile Ife
In Shambles Lie
Imperial Britain’s Bastards
Mansa Musa’s Princes
Condemned To Penury
Erstwhile Servitude
Abdicating their thrones
At Monomatapa and Timbuktu,
Evacuating Great Zimbabwe
Meroe and Songhai
Surrendering their Titles
To the Great Karoo And Veld
Voiding Ancient Claims
To Kenya’s “White” Highland
Ceding Lobengula’s Matapo Hills
To the Corpse of Cecil Rhodes
They Head Europe-wards
Like Rats Scurrying
From grass huts Burning
Rudely stopped in their tracks
By Aryan-White Immigration Walls
Imperial Britain’s Bastards
Lost in a Maze of Locks and Bolts
Awaiting Extraordinary Rendition
To Distant Shores
Huddled Together Like Cattle
At Salt Licks
Swapping Invariable Solicitor Stories
That Fail to Scale English Racial Everest
Cursing Ancient Powerlessness
Of African Forebear Heroes
Lamenting Omission by Osei Tutu
Groaning at deference of Olaibon Lenana
Pained by the Tragedy of Hendricks Witboi
Yearning for Kabalega, Samori Toure
Rwot Awich of Intemperate Acholi
And Valorous Shaka Zulu
With Assegai Warriors
In Cow-Horn Formation
Protecting Africa
From Peripatetic Aliens
Like UK Border Agents Do
Great Britain
Imperial Britain’s Bastards
Deride House Boy Autocrats
House Niggers lording it
Over Brethren
Hawking Precious Inheritance
To Imperial Finance
For Pittance
Porous Afro-Asian Borders
Whiteness Seeps Through
Like Water through Parched Sand
Sneering at Africa’s permissive
Immigration Laws
Scorning Her Waitress State Agents
Valet Ministers, Concierge Presidents
Tripping Over Themselves
Making Gory Offerings
At thirsty Aryan Temples
Committing Crimes
Mass Sacrificing African Lives
Nursery- School- Children- Profs
Singing London’s Burning Rhymes
Unheeding African Need
Unseeing African Reality
Turning the motherland
Into franchise Continental Hotel
Open Twenty-Four-Seven
To Weary White Travellers
Catering to esoteric Whims
Of Investor Trophy hunters
State Houses and Lodges
Are Modern Imperial Outposts
Slave Markets and Forts
Imperial Britain’s Bastards
Asphyxiated by Great Britannia’s
Octopus Tentacles
Hapless Dolphins in Death Throes
Caught in A Killer Whale’s vice grip
Livelihoods sucked out
By Britannia’s Suction Lip
The Motherland’s Waitress Buffoons
Shamba Boys and House Niggers
At State Houses and Lodges
At Ports and Frontiers
At Embassies and Missions
Wait Imperial Tables
Like Domesticated Baboons
Rewarded with bananas
While in London and New York
African Mining Portfolios soar
Apace with tides of woes
Ravaging the Continent.
Okello Lucima
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