By Stephen Kasozi Muwambi
Country Uganda on Saturday October 9, 2021, celebrated once again the ritual of independence. Oddly, the day passed without euphoria to speak of, save for the leaders who dressed up in suits and neck ties, underwear and what have you.
They were all dressed outfits made in the Western capitals and spoke the language of the much-hated Mzungu colonizer, to sycophantically address fellow citizenry on the alleged milestones attained by the African continent following the chasing away of the overbearing Mzungu.
As our leaders literally spoke the language of the Mzungu to themselves and their cheerleaders at the so-called independence celebrations jokily churning out milestone after milestone, that the African continent has debatably gained since the Britons and the like exited, elsewhere, majority of Ugandans were in muddy roadside excuses of markets, in gardens and betting houses, gambling to make a living, if any, more than half a century after we purportedly hit Canaan.
As our leaders were jumping into Hollywood-like oil-guzzling monster vehicles to go and celebrate independence complete with miles of escort vehicles and fancy driven toilets with their mistresses dressed in designer outfits made in the land of the Mzungu, as if in utter contempt of the so-called Buy Uganda Build Uganda policy, our poor mothers were in banana plantations embarrassingly pushing babies whose future is as grim as hell.
Elsewhere, hundreds of our mothers were being carried on improvised ambulances in form of wheelbarrows and ‘’butandaalo’ as well as rickety boats over tens of miles, making to health centers lacking essentials to give birth to children whose pretexts of dads are too broke to render them any meaningful future.
Yet more of our poor mothers were slowly but surely dying in excuses of health facilities and at places of the so-called traditional birth attendants whose only claim to expertise are bogus concoctions which they apply on their clients. After dying as surely as day follows night, these poor women then join their counterparts numbering more than 500 who lose own lives every year while miserably giving birth to another life.
In contrast to the above, tens of mistresses, First daughters as well as First granddaughters of our nationalistic leaders, on the other hand, were flying first class in expensive jets, going to the Mzungu upscale health facilities in the Western capitals to securely give birth to future leaders.
Honestly, and with all due respect, Africa cannot be said to be liberated at a time when our leaders are frequenting Western capitals to seek medication while leaving behind their own people to die in hospitals without essentials and where medics aren’t paid lunch allowances.
Its siasa kabisa, pun very much intended, for anyone to submit Africa is liberated at a time our leaders keep showing up in the Western capitals with begging bowls, shamelessly asking for alms half a century after we purportedly gained independence.
It’s nonsensical for us to celebrate independence, save for our leaders who are visibly liberated, not to mention selfish, at a time our children are walking miles barefooted and hungry in the name of seeking knowledge imparted by equally hungry but also angry teachers, giving lessons under trees, exposing both learner and instructor to the harsh vagaries of nature.
It’s hypocrisy of the highest end for our leaders to say we are liberated at a time they are busy inhibiting us from enjoying our freedoms such as the right to bail. It’s imprudent honestly for anyone to claim Africans are liberated at a time their brethren holding power aren’t allowing them to partake of power.
It’s improper, for lack of a better word for anyone to assert we are liberated at a time our fellow African leaders are busy shooting us dead just because we have said enough is enough and expressed displeasure about what is not going well in society.
I pretty much feel it’s not good manners to assert Africa is liberated remembering that our fellow Africans have since joined the Mzungu to loot Africa blind and now that they are stacking their wealth in the Western capitals.
It would be absurd to hear anyone proclaiming Africa is liberated at a time our leaders are not courteous enough to leave power peacefully. I submit it is not biblical for anyone to be heard alleging we are liberated at a time our leaders are busy desecrating our national Constitutions on the way to disgracefully convert African states into monarchies.
How can Africa be said to be independent at a time our leaders are busy handing everything to the Mzungu to use as he pleases and take all profits back home leaving us with crumbs to partake of our wealth?
How can Africa be labelled independent at a time our leaders are busy forfeiting our continent to the Mzungu in the name of securing loans, a big percentage of which end up looted by a cabal in governments? Isn’t it right to say the Mzungu is going to return one day and grab our continent long after the people who took the loans and used the funds as they pleased have long gone?
It’s really contemptuous for someone to tell us at one fora that we are liberated and then goes away and pick loans without consulting us and which loans would be paid by our grandchildren long after the people who borrowed them and ourselves have long gone the way of all the flesh.
Someone tells us during independence celebrations how we are fully in charge of our economy after getting rid of the Mzungu. And then the same person before what he or she stated has fully sunk in, jumps on the next flight of a luxurious Gulf Stream made in the Western capitals, moreover, and the next you see and hear, is them begging the Mzungu to come and fix the same economy they asserted just days back, we are fully in charge of! If that’s not kandolindoli, honestly, help clarify what it is?
Stop mocking Uganda mbu yasajjakula (self-reliant) merely because a Mzungu got tired of physically ruling her and then handed the national flag to one guy hoisted it at Kololo. Truth be told, Uganda tenasajjakula, going by the fact that it can’t make something as simplistic as a safety pin fifty years later on.
I say, at the pain of being labeled unpatriotic and westernized, it’s scandalous for someone to be heard submitting Uganda yasajjakula at a time the jolly learned guys at Kiira Motors are simply picking bus parts from across the boarders before putting them back together and then our guys at the National Planning Authority go on to proclaim how we are firmly on the road to the first world.
Fair people, you don’t become the manufacturer of a vehicle just because you undid it in the first place and then put it back together. I maintain you don’t deserve accolade, even when you go ahead and cleverly put marks on the bus to indicate you manufactured it!
Some people after proudly proclaiming they are presiding over states which are independent, then you witness and hear them expressing joy because there are part of an association of former colonies whose leader, by the way, is the former oppressor-in-chief, if not still is.
They don’t stop at that, they even pay pilgrimage now and then to go and pay homage to the former, if not current, oppressor-in-chief. People of good wisdom don’t engage in such mockery. This is why you have never seen nor heard America partaking of such theatre much as it was a former colony of Great Britain. Yours truly thinks if a man is still being cared for by his parents, he cannot claim to be independent of the same, even if he happens to be half a century old.
Little wonder many Ugandans no longer join their leaders to celebrate independence. They have learned with time to mind their businesses in order to obtain financial independence on the way to becoming fully independent, other than mocking themselves celebrating liberation which is academic or simply put, in name. Can the debate start?
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