Dying is an eventuality all of us must face, regardless of what view we hold on it. But truth be told, there is death and there is death. The agony of losing a loved one so suddenly and hopelessly, to a cause as evil and cruel as the July 11 bombings in Kampala is perhaps the latter kind of death. Our mourning as a country may be done, but for the families and friends of the deceased, I doubt that it will end soon.
Our nation is in theory, a Christian one. Yet in practice, our deeds seem very far from our lips. Child sacrifice, kidnapping, alcoholism, witchcraft, corruption…the list is endless. However, the July 11 tragedy brought to the forefront an uncommon phenomenon among Ugandans. And if we are to be any wiser, we will do well to learn the important and positive lessons that dark night taught us..
The first and perhaps most important lesson we could learn from the bombings, is that our perceived ethnic differences are only noted and respected by us. When Al-Shabab terrorists, and indeed the rest of the world think of Uganda, it is in the context of 32,369,558 people spread over an area of 91127 square miles. To them, we are Ugandans; period. And so when bombs or global fund resources are sent to us, they are targeting Baganda and Banyankole alike. When the bombs go off and the money is swindled, Bagisu, Acholi and Japadhola are affected in equal measure. Regardless of what we may want to believe about our cultures and origins, we can no longer afford to let our ethnicity come before our nationality. To paraphrase Peter Abraham’s Xuma; I am first a Ugandan, then a Muyankole.
But perhaps the most important lesson we could pick from last month’s tragedy is not a lesson at all; rather a realization that what we seem to be is not who we actually are. I have lived just over two score years in this world. Short as this may seem, I had never before seen Ugandans as united in affliction and resolve as on that dark July night. A friend’s Facebook status captured it best.
“Oh Uganda, may God uphold thee….” he wrote.
For a country with a past and future seem more unpredictable than Russian roulette, these words should come as an affirmation that if we look deep enough into our hearts, we’d be pleasantly surprised to find not only the ability to be a tolerant nation, but a patriotic one. Before us are two paths to trade as our post-bombings options.
The first is one we’ve trodden and know only too well; pessimism at our best and indifference the rest of the time. We Ugandans seem to have developed the curiously unnatural capacity to stare without blinking as our children are kidnapped and murdered, our heritage sites destroyed and our oil stolen. We seem to have become so used to corruption that among our intellectuals, the debate has shifted from whether what happens is actually corruption, or simply taking care of our families and relatives as culture demands!
The second path has been trodden by a mighty few of our brethren and more often than not, they’ve been either killed along the way or buried beyond memory. It is the path of patriotism. The aftermath of the July 11 bombings gave us a glimpse, however short, of the potential we have as a republic to rise above our differences for the common good of all. In them, we have the opportunity to renew the spirit of our nation. To recognize that our destiny is unalterably the same and that the stroke of history’s pen will judge us as a people; not based on our ethnicity, but on the content of this nation’s character. If we were able to rise in one accord against a foe so vile and distant as Al-Shabab, then surely we can find common ground as citizens of this hallowed nation. If we can raise enough faith in ourselves and each other, trust in our neighbors and goodwill amongst our leaders, then maybe we can make the blood of our fallen brethren count for something.
eeh really deep and true. It is sad to know that as these families morn, our country moves on to what they would consider the next agenda and this blood that was shade will soon be forgotten by the country but never by the families.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting that very few people (read leaders/politicians) have actually taken up this sad incident as an opportunity to build national cohesion. For his part, Museveni has promised to avenge the deaths!! What emptiness.
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