The (Much Maligned) ‘Americans’

 

Ask someone on the streets of Kampala about the premier foreign supporters of homosexuality and the most probable answer will be ‘the Americans’.

Who are these dastardly ‘Americans’?
That answer has lots of nuances which a poor Ugandan will most likely not even understand. They just know that the name of ‘the enemy’ is ‘the Americans’; -that was no slip of the tongue from the doctor.
And, it is not only in Uganda. In Tanzania, Zambia, Ghana, Zimbabwe, it is ‘the Americans’ who are reportedly eager to press the poor African to embrace homosexuality.
It bothers me, a lot. . We are invisible! We kuchus, we the African LGBTQ+ individuals,  are not even counted as ‘promoting homosexuality’, except as agents of ‘The Americans’.  We are just the proximal cancer, the ‘cancer’ that is already here and has to be removed…, tut tut tut!

The question is also nuanced, because it is Americans who have come to Africa and told us that ‘the Americans’ are pushing a ‘homosexual agenda’.
Oh yes, the American Far Right is also American! (Check out the reporting on one such conference in Uganda)

For some reason, maybe because they come in with Bibles and talk about ‘African Sovereignty’ and talk about ‘the Americans’, we simply don’t equate those Americans with ‘the Americans’. Quite confusing…

The dastardly, bad and evil ‘Americans’ supposedly control the world, the UN system, and promote homosexuality. They are apparently characterised by President Biden and Vice-President Kamara Harris. The current administration of course.
So, who are the others, the ‘good Americans’, intent on telling us poor, ignorant Africans about the dangers from the ‘bad Americans?’

Trying to figure out the ins and outs of America’s Cultural Wars as exported to Africa…,
I am really laughing and crying and kind of feeling deeply ashamed. We are literally pawns in a forever war. We are a battle on the side, our leaders colluding in something they don’t understand at all, but are passionate and very, very willing front line warriors.

No, I am not, and I will not be apologising to my people.

I am one individual, a very poor person. I don’t have the facilities of the State. I just have an internet connection, and I read what is publicly available on the internet.
Why shouldn’t the President of the Republic of Uganda have good intelligence of what is happening in his backyard? Why doesn’t he know of what is happening with his allies the US government? Why should President Museveni be a pawn in a game that he should be very, very aware that it has been ongoing for years?

The Presidency, the State of Uganda is not one person. It is a pool of the intelligence of the nation, of all those working there.
And then of course there is the Parliament of Uganda. The MPs; Asumani Basalirwa and the others, the Speaker of the Parliament of Uganda are all willing dupes and pawns, frontline soldiers in this war. The American Cultural Wars.

It is quite disturbing to realise that even if the State in Uganda is apparently clueless, the Church of Uganda, Anglican and its Archbishop (Stephen Kaziimba), is actually quite clued in. Archbishop Kaziimba is playing on the world stage, and he knows it. So are the very, very silent Catholic Bishops. They know, and have picked a side. How can the State of Uganda claim and act ignorance?

Why does the State and other public actors like Parliament in Uganda seem to be personally unaware of the body politic of the whole wide world?
Why are they playing into the stereotype of the poor, ‘put-upon-on’, ignorant African? This is not ‘rocket science’. This is knowledge of the world.
Asuumani Basalirwa claimed to the BBC that he didn’t know because he was a Moslem, and the missionaries are Christians. Lies, on top of the bullshit. He should be even more ashamed because he is playing pawn for ‘Christian Fundamentalists’, from his point of view.

Truly, truly, Uganda is a Village.
It doesn’t help that Ghana is also acting clueless, Ugandan style. And of course so are the other nations of Africa. Believing that ‘some Americans’ come to Africa to teach us about our own ‘Sovereignty’ to fight their own government, simply for the good of old Africa.

 

gug