Frankly, the scenes at Kasubi make me apprehensive.
All my instincts say the Kabaka, the King is a mortal human being. But, the fervour of his subjects denies me that conclusion. It is a little bit frightening.
The crowd was mammoth on Friday. The security forces from the central government were not in attendance. I think the fact that the President had been abused, in public and the anti-government fervour was very much in evidence convinced the government to draw back and let the Kingdom loyalists have their day.
And, they did.
The consequences were not pretty.
Crowd control was not one of the things that the Kingdom could do, or planned to do. 2 dead, and many injured. In a stampede to see the Kabaka, a king who in the crowds estimate is as powerful as any medieval potent e.
Here is another pictorial. All from the Monitor website.
Waiting crowd. In truth, mammoth. And, was it just 'thousands'?
Kabaka's convoy mobbed.
Paying homage. Religious Leaders
Beginning of the stampede. Crowd breaks down the barriers.
A day for the opposition. Otunnu was stoned on Wednesday. But, Friday, he was a darling.
The King, and the Queen.
Homage, in another way.
Adulation. On their knees. Hands up, reaching out.
Like in Biblical times, some in the trees.
The Kabaka doesnt speak much. Not traditionaly. But this time there was another constraint. The crowd was surging to see him. Crowd control was non existent. Thank the gods there was no police, because what happened with the President, shooting into the crowd, that would have happened again, I have no doubt.
But, it happened. Stampede. And, at least 2 died.
I dont trust what the New Vision reports. Disinformation in many cases. But, I do think the Daily Monitor is objective. Here is the story.
Sometimes we think we are clever enough not to do such a thing, yes?
No.
Think of this. In the middle of the country is the Buganda kingdom. Proud, arrogant, with a long history. And, always fighting whatever the central government is.
Once the kingdom was banished. And all the others of course. But, that was not to be.
Sometimes culture is something you don’t fight with the strong arm of repression.
Kingdoms came back in the Museveni era. Because they just couldn’t be stopped, from my point of view, though Museveni is ‘credited’ with bringing them back.
Soon, he found himself at logger heads with the kingdom of Buganda. Again.
There is some [ahem] rubbish written in the constitution about the cultural leaders having no political power.
They don’t. On constitutional paper. In actual fact, Museveni has zealously courted the leader of Bunyoro, another powerful kingdom (incidentally, to counterbalance his troubles with the Kingdom of Buganda). And, the long standing wrangling of the central government with the Buganda kingdom has been one of the most prominent outstanding events of the last few years. The Buganda riots. The closure of Buganda Kingdoms Radio Buganda, which is still lingering. And on and on. The list is endless.
Yesternight, the Masiiro, (my apologies, Baganda, if I am getting that wrong!), the Kasubi Royal Tombs caught fire. New Vision puts the age of those revered grass thatched houses as close to 140 years. And, far as I could see, this is a part which had staid frozen in time.
Apparently, it is more than a tourist attraction.
It was, or is a shrine. And, from what I hear, some of the important cultural things were saved. And, that that was one of the reasons why the fire trucks were kept away.
Arson is suspected. Of course. Personally, I don’t think the venerable huts could have passed any fire inspection- BUT, what am I to offer such sacrilegious observations??? After all, they have survived 138 Years.
The government is suspected.
Early morning, into the palace grounds flow Baganda youths. All crying, something priceless has been lost.
Soldiers, and more soldiers too.
Did I mention that the days greetings was ‘Nga kitalo!’ Traditionally, it is for a death in the family, on the village. But, who says what. A week of mourning has been declared by the Katikiro, the Kingdom’s premier. To them, to the Baganda, it was that serious.
Now, here comes the President.
From a different tribal group. In conflict with the Baganda over various issues, a long running chronic ulcer that is seeping his support.
Someone advised him to visit the Kasubi Royal Tombs.
What?!
Or, maybe the Emperor decided to see the limits of his powers.
Crowds of Buganda youths on the way. Denying him entrance. Negotiations. And, he is allowed in. Up to an extent anyway.
There was a place where he was stopped, and shown, from afar, where the damage was. And, the Emperor was told to take himself off.
Crowds waiting outside. They block him. Yes, they did, singing the Buganda Anthem, a rallying call, an opposition rallying call.
Apparently, the Presidential Guards Brigade fired in the air to clear the way. And, some reports of injuries.
Funny thing is, there are so many soldiers on the ground it is like the whole place is under siege. If the President was coming to see loyal subjects….!
But, I am told that the King, the Kabaka may visit. Now, that public adulation is the kind one wants to watch, to understand this attachment to all things cultural. Why, people reverently lie down on the ground and beat their breasts to welcome him.
Well, his forefathers (apparently four of them are buried at these Royal Tombs) enjoyed a demi-god like status.
I cant seem to escape them. Seems as if my country is going down a road that we have been before. One of death and despair and destruction. Yet just a few years ago we seemed to be full of hope.
First, the International Criminal Court wants to indite Omar Bashir, President of Sudan. It has come as a surprise to Africa, and to the Arab world.
Yet, with Darfur an ugly sore, hemorrhaging onto the world’s conscious, what surprise is it? How long, and how far will the world go to chase this down is doubtful. Because it seems as if Africa, official Africa is reacting with outrage.
We are hearing the old, disqualified arguments. In self interest, our leaders are reacting as if it is a sore affront to the dignity of Africa. Imperialism! Colonialism! They are crying. And poor people, our people are reacting as if this is what it is.
Yet I am thinking of 2 million people displaced. 200,000 killed. And still Darfur is a sore. A purulent, ugly sore on the conscious of the world. And we in Africa are not even conscious of it?
Black Africa. The self interest of the leaders. One would expect Negro Africa to stand up and erupt in violence. After all, it is negroes who are experiencing this genocide. But, official Africa is out, protecting Bashir, from ‘colonial imperialism of the west.’
Bullshit.
And my Arab brothers. They are also reacting with injured dignity. Horror of horrors. One of their own has been indited, accused of genocide.
Shame brothers. You are as guilty as he is. Bashir. And you do no help following the path of our traitorous leaders. For indeed they are betraying Africa. They are betraying Africans, in the interest of their stomachs, and gain, and power.
Just like Zimbabwe. Nothing was as shameful as Mugabe being accepted by the leaders of Africa. That stain on our conscious is going to be long in removing. The hypocrisy of it all. They cannot do wrong, because they are the leaders.
Sad. Sad indeed.
In Uganda, a curious thing is occurring.
The president wanted a life presidency. Apparently, he got it. Well, let us say the population voted for him to do that. We are children indeed. So little knowledge, and those who have more of it, so ready to deliberately lead us down the path of death and despair.
But, he seems to have been incensed by their being opposition, any opposition, to him.
So, opposition leaders are arrested. Well, it happens all over Africa. And we shrug it off. Right now, to be an opposition leader in Uganda is almost treason. And the courts which protect them are also ‘treasonous’. The will of the president seems to be paramount. Indeed this article may be treasonous! Ha, how the first 26 Comrades are corrupted. 27th Comrade, isn’t the First comrade turning in his grave? Or was he just a figure head? (By the way, I miss your crazy arguments. Very suprising!)
It would have gone on like that, indefinitely. But now something else started happening.
In Uganda, in the central is the Baganda tribe. Supposedly the largest in the country. And with a reputation of being (I know I am stepping on some political incorrectness), a reputation of being proud, self serving, thinking of themselves above the other tribes.
Historical problems there. Something which we do not talk about. Again, like sex. We are very, very good at burying our collective head in the sand of time. We as in Ugandans.
Now, at first it was the Kabaka, king of Buganda against the President. Seemed like a clash of egos. The Baganda are very ‘land’ minded. Land to them is wealth. And the President, rightly or wrongly, thinks that one of the biggest drawback to economic development is land ownership. So, the president wants to make it easier to buy and sell land. At least that is what I think he thinks. But the Baganda don’t want it. And, the Kabaka, the ‘Sabataka’ or owner of all land in Buganda, has broken with the government.
It is a clash of egos. A tragedy of un-understanding.
The president is from a cattle keeping ethnic group. To them cattle is wealth. Land is land, you use it to roam the cattle on. Cattle is the wealth that means everything. I think that he personally has no understanding at how important the land is to the pesky Baganda. And, he does not want to see their point of view. He is incensed at the ‘opposition’ from the Baganda. They has been a cold war between the Central government and Buganda government for some years now. No talking. No dialogue, and everything getting more heated and more heated. Suddenly, it is all out in the open now.
Two days ago, two ministers in the government of Buganda were arrested. The charges include ‘terrorism’ of all things. See here, and here.
Storm in a teacup?
Not realy. All of a sudden, people are talking about ‘Buganda Nationalism’. The scepter of our differences is being pulled to the fore, slowly, inexorably. The president seems to want to play it as the Baganda against the rest of Ugandans. But, he is tearing apart my crazy, ethnic mad nation. Nothing, absolutely nothing makes us as crazy as our ethnic identities. Before it was a north south divide. It has not been closed in his 26 years or so of presidency. But I am truly worried about what the current problems mean. Because, logical thought is thrust aside when the issues of our ethnic differences are used as the basis of thought.
For a long time, we the new generation did not think of ourselves as our ethnic groups. But now, it is occurring.
Again.
Same old, same old. Sad thoughts indeed.
Think of the 100 year wars in Europe. Or Asia as the Mongols swept through. A time of sadness and crazy madness. Indeed Africa, my beautiful Africa is crazy and mad. Home of political incorrectness.
And I bet Orombi’s summon will be about the evils of ‘homosexuality’! Ah.
That was my Sunday sermon. Sad, beautiful Africa. No wonder very few do see your strength and beauty. And the fact that there is nothing as beautiful as you.
Well, did I say you are home to me? And I do love your dirty undergarments. They stink to heaven, but they are you, aren’t they? Of course I am biased, arent I? But I would rather point out that they do stink, and are not perfume. Not ready to be another Romanesque!
A bright morning. The sun is in an almost cloudless sky. Deceptively so, there is a haze.
Coming from home, wanted to dodge the jams on the main roads into the city. Passed the road past Namirembe Cathedral. I did like what I saw.
The city, Kampala downtown, is in a hollow between hills. A huge hollow. Namirembe hill is one of the ‘edges’. And this morning, passing on that road, the view was beautiful. Sun clear to the east, a ball of light. In the hollow, a mist, a haze that covered all the details of the city, except for the taller buildings. Jutting out of the mist and haze like some strange futuristic city.
Don’t know why I hesitate to call it smog, but it may well be.
Nevertheless, it looked beautiful.
Now, the haze is still there. But the sun is out, a summer bright. Interesting when I hear on the fm radios that we are going to have lows of 20C and highs of 25. We have an equable weather pattern that we fail to notice. It is so, comfortable. Or ambient? This is the kind of weather which (ahem) needs no clothes. They are superfluous. And cover all the beautiful bits.
Yesterday, I was forced not to be on the net. Seems as if the addiction runs deep. I felt bored and in need of a fix.
Settled for a file that I had downloaded sometime ago. It is about African Homosexualities.
Bet you have had the stories that we are ‘noble savages’. Homosexuality was a disease that spread with the coming of the ‘colonialists’.
Bullshit.
It is very interesting how, in the interest of political correctness we are very willing to swallow barefaced lies uncritically. I must admit that I know very little about sexuality. But I know that it is pure idiocy to claim that a people did not have a particular kind of sexuality, that it was a perversion that came from another culture.
I know, Museveni fell in the trap, saying in 1999 that there were no homosexuals in Uganda. So did the President of Iran, very memorably in 2007.
Idiocy, in the name of political correctness.
Can you imagine Benedict XVI justifying the persecution of Galileo and the burning at the stake of Copernicus? Because they said that the earth moves around the sun, and not vice versa. Benedict is the current pope, by the way.
Anyway, so, there we were, noble savages, untainted by homosexuality, until the ‘colonialists’ stepped in.
Not so, says this paper, and it goes on to exhaustively compile evidence of the different African sexualities, as the anthropologists reported them. It is weird reading.
And refreshing.
There is something demeaning in being told that one is a pervert, and that one learnt this perversion from ‘foreigners’. I believed it, though I had not slept with any foreigner. I thought it is because I had read about it in ‘foreign’ novels! Sigh, I was once young and foolish.
My lover was luckier. He just thought that he was the only living man who was attracted to other men. Took him a long time, and visiting the city to realise, well, that there are others like him!
I will put a link to the paper here.
But there is another hilarious story, in Uganda. From one of our ‘elite’ schools. Sorry for those of you who attended King’s College, Buddo, but this Buddo Scandal was too hilarious for me to leave out of my blog.
Imagine, this scandal involves (of course) some foreigners, the Royal Family of Buganda (ahem), and other notables. Remember the Uganda Martyrs. Those who had refused the demigod Kabaka Mwanga access to their bodies, because they had become Christians. Delicious scandal! As to the authenticity, you be the judge.
If you can access the reference is here
Journal of African History, 47 (2006), pp. 93–113. f 2005 Cambridge University Press
‘SUBTERRANEAN EVIL’ AND ‘TUMULTUOUS RIOT’ IN BUGANDA: AUTHORITY AND ALIENATION AT KING’ S COLLEGE, BUDO, 1942 BY CAROL SUMMERS University of Richmond
If you cannot access it, why- just send me an email and I will be glad to share!
Good reading to you all, if you dare read those references. Please don’t tell Pastor Ssempa, he may sneak in here and read them!
No. I set the time to later. Dawn is not as early as it used to be. Six is when I want to be out of bed. Six thirty is when it is light enough to read.
I don’t want to read by the harsh electric lights. At dawn, they break the peace. An intrusion into the softness of everything. So I switch on no lights when I wake.
Today the alarm woke me.
And as I turned over, I remembered that he was supposed to wake at six too.
Woke him up. An early morning appointment, and he was soon out of the house.
I love this part of the day. Stood in the doorway. Read a poem as I gazed out. And wrote one. And another. And I liked them.
Switching on the computer is an intrusion. Welcome as my mind seeks the world to know. Again.
The Kabaka, king of Buganda, is also on the war path with the central government. One of the other things that I have not been blogging about. I have written posts about it, which I feared to post. The closet is not only for those who are gay. Freedom is clipped everywhere that it is. Yet, why should I be restricted? The world that I live in, it is the real world. A harsh reality that will not be softened by the beauty of my perception.
The Kabaka of Buganda has been on a cold war with the central government for a few years. The war is heating up. Gradually, but dangerously. Another, very tribal conflict is looming. Or already is.
Beautiful Uganda. You make me cry, you are so beautiful, and so intent on self injury!
Life is the most precious asset that we are handed at conception, delivered at birth. We value it, apparently very little. Yet we do not have spares to it. And there is little that we can do to repair it in Africa, in Uganda, when it is broken. Sad that we handle it so flimsily.
My lover was looking over my shoulder, and is scared that I am putting these things on the blog. Why? Because I am skirting the ‘permitted’ edge of my freedom to be, as known by others.
Yet, I jumped out of one closet, I have realised that I am in another one when I do not have the freedom to think.
Freedom. It is a wonderful concept, yet most of the time, we do not realise that we are behind bars. Even those of thought.
It is a lovely morning, out. I will hold him in my arms, and hope that the sun shines always. On my country, and on my city.
Well, even if it rains, I will still hold him close. I love him.
What is more beautiful than love in life? I know little else. I am content.
The simple answer is prejudice can blind. Prejudice can and will blind a person to thinking.
Take Dr Watson. A guy so brilliant that when much younger, he helped unravel the mysteries of DNA. Went ahead to win the Nobel Prize. A living legend in his own lifetime.
Yet a few weeks ago, this icon of human thought came out with his ideas on why Africa will err, never develop. Negroes are inferior; something which the politically correct fail to take into account. The world was horrified, and he lost most of his credibility because of it.
At the moment, racism is politically incorrect.
The same guy had once stated that, if a gay gene was found to be present, a mother would be right to screen her unborn child and abort the baby if it was going to be a homosexual.
What a statement. At the particular time that Dr Watson said this, it was not really politically correct form. He was derided, in some quarters. But it did not diminish his stature. Not like this time when he showed his touch of political incorrectness.
Prejudice has been a heavy shade to my thinking. Oh yes, I imbibed prejudice with my mother’s milk. So does everyone. The world we grow up in always has its own set of prejudices. And we do not escape them.
I did not. And though I think I have worked a lot of them out, I still harbour some glaring logs in my eyes.
What set me on this thought track was an opinion piece in the Monitor Newspaper today. The opinion is written by Owekitiibwa (Honourable) Joash Mayanja Nkangi.
He is a very well respected and elderly politician in Uganda. And he has been talking about homosexuality, and how bad it is.
Mayanja Nkanji. His pedigree is impressive. I think not too long ago, he was cited as one of the most brilliant Ugandans. I know that he was the Kabaka’s Katikiro (Prime Minister) during the 1966 crisis, when the Kabaka was deposed and exiled. He only handed over his instruments of office recently, when the Buganda kingdom was reinstated. After 1986, when the current president took over, he is one of the opposition politicians whose power base was co-opted, after he was ‘duped’ into working with his political opponents. He held various ministerial portfolios, including Minister of Justice and Constitutional affairs.
A grandfather, he still combs his full head of hair in a 1960s type hair style with a ‘road’ parting the grey on one side. That is what I remember most striking about him! Apart from his grandfatherly look, and reputation to brilliancy.
He believes that the Government should tighten the screws on gays and lesbians in the country. It should not dare loosen them.
I was reminded of myself. Here is a man who cannot get past some of his prejudices. And he uses the gifts he has to explain to the world why these prejudices are correct.
Gays and lesbians in Uganda are deeply stigmatised. They cannot talk in public. They cannot have an HIV prevention programme. They are punished for speaking out, other Ugandans believing that they shame them so much they should just hide their shameful beings out of sight, mind and thought. This is what is politically correct in Uganda at the moment, and an elder statesman has waded into the fight. There are Ugandans who deserve rights to be affirmed as human beings. That does not include homosexuals.
It reminds me of a quip I saw about the People’s Space in the Commonwealth Head of Governments meeting recently held in Uganda. The people’s space was for all people to come out and talk about their grievances. All people.
Guess what? I should ask Mayanja Nkangi how deeply government should tighten screws on homosexuals in Uganda. Maybe an island in the lake will do for us gay Ugandans? Marooned till the day we die, then there will not be any gays in Uganda. Out of sight, sound, even thought.
Poor Uganda. Are the likes of Mayanja Nkangi, Nsaba Buturo, and Martin Ssempa able to follow the logic of their suggestions? At least the Mufti was very clear on what he thought the logical conclusion should be.
The birds’ morning orchestra, It’s an early morning thing, the world to wake from its daze to its senses, full wakefulness; and the bath of the day’s sunlight.
It seems as if I am also waking from my stupor. This Chogm thing, it has been at my mind’s periphery. Known, but barely noticed. Interesting things are happening. Is it true that the Iguru of Bunyoro, the Rukirabasaija of Toro, the Kyabazinga of Toro and the Kabaka of Buganda have been snubbed by the central government? It is a rumour that is making the rounds. The central government is jealousy of the clout of the traditional leaders. They have an un-exercised political power, which the central government is always wary of. Buganda has been restive over the last few days. Land issues. But this snub was a bit too much. Even I feel it, and the traditionalists are incensed. A ferment of discontent. A blow to pride is not quickly forgotten. Bad move. See below, and follow the link.
"The Kabaka himself met his Katikkiro (Prime Minister), Ambassador Emmanuel Ssendawula, over the matter and concurred with his cabinet that the invitation by Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Kutesa was indeed demeaning.
The invitation is for single entry, which means it doesn’t allow the Kabaka to be accompanied to the dinner by anybody - not even his wife, the (Queen) Nnabagereka Sylvia Nagginda Luswata, or his Katikkiro. “These people have no respect for Kabaka, they don’t respect his protocol,” protested a member of the royal family who preferred not to be identified."
I have just read the Red Pepper. The Red Chilli, as one joker called it. Of course I had to read it, but I had determined not to buy the paper. It is a joke. A bad joke, and the fact that I cannot seem to ignore its bad jokes is galling!
My lover saved me the struggle. He bought it, and left it still pinned in the living room. Eye catching headline, '20 Top City Lesbians Named and Shamed'. And inside, Part 3 of the Weird Sex InvestigationSeries’ Homo Terror!
I read it, and started laughing. It is so stupid that it is hilarious. This is a rug, not worth the paper it is written on. They seem to have checked out the ‘Gay Uganda’ website, for some information about Kabaka (King) Mwanga being gay. Curiously, this bombshell was actually dropped by Ssempa, when he wanted to prove that ‘state sponsored homosexuality’ was a bad thing. He stated that homosexuality was in Buganda, Uganda before the coming of Christianity. (New Vision, Martyrs day 03/06/2006). Talk about shooting one’s self in the mouth- Ssempa has this amazing capacity.
Imagine, hard as it may be to believe, Kabaka Mwanga was gay, and when the martyrs denied his advances, he killed them. As was his right as a demi-god!
Red rug presents this as new information.
And then goes on to say that we are sponsored by a world wide organisation called LGBT with headquarters in all continents. That is where I started laughing. The rest of the article is so much bull shit, that I could not imagine it was written. And people spend money on this shit? And they believe the Red Rug?
Apparently, LGBT is funding us. And they go ahead and list the monies we are supposed to have got. How lucky we are!
(To the un-inititiated, LGBT is what we call ourselves. Representing the diversity of human sexualities. Lesbian, gay, Bisexual, Trangender. They forgot one letter, I for Intersex.)
Some girls are named as gay. As are some more guys. Names, description, place of residence etc. And then they have the gal to say that the Red rug is helping the Tabliq anti-gay squad to find the homosexuals who they did not know.
Irresponsible journalism. Again they will move on, and we shall pay the consequences.
Kuchus are actually very angry. It is a measure of our helplessness that this rug has not been dragged to court as yet.
But we shall go on. We shall win, because we are on the side of truth. I have never been so sure of that. I do have a martyr’s complex. Not the Osama Bin Laden type. But I am so convinced of the rightness of my cause that the stupidity of things done in the name of ‘morality’ just makes me more determined. Nsaba Buturo and Ssempa will go ahead enlisting the likes of Red rug as allies in their fight against homosexuals. But we will win. Because we are human beings, and what we put across is the truth. And because we are betting with our lives. Our very lives, and nothing is more precious than that.
