Uganda; A beautiful diverse identity

image from; https://www.prolinnova.net/uganda

I am a Luo young man born and raised among the Samia, educated in Busoga and Buganda now living in Buganda. I had the unique experience of having to grow up with access to mainly Kenyan media so if you ask me what my youthful collections of media entertainment are like, I’ll bring up Kenya aired cartoons and stories. 

I grew up speaking Swahili, Samia, Luo, Luganda, Lusoga and a couple of other local languages. I’m not sure which language I picked up first. It might be one of either English, Swahili or Luo.

My parents always encouraged the idea of having friends over. My first set of friends were Bagisu. 

When with them we used Swahili so I never learned their language. Funny thing is I learned Samia from Busoga and not home in Samia-Bugwe. Oh, Samia-Bugwe is Busia as the locals might refer to that area.

You may be wondering why I’m  engaging in so much self-revelation.

Read a little on and you’ll see why.

Last week a friend of mine came home and recounted how he’d experienced hate speech. He’s Samia and so a friend from my younger days. I laughed and told him that it was his own fault for being tiny and light skinned without a local Samia accent.

But it worried me what he told me. He apparently had been hated on by a boda boda man who called him ‘a munyarwanda!’

It hurt me because I have never heard this kind of hate speech going on. I mean I grew up in Busoga schools where we always said things like ‘abasoga mwadankana’ – which really is a light hearted jab at the Basoga. The thing is it was always light hearted. It was never or rarely hateful to say those words. In fact, I remember Basoga saying it too and then we’d laugh about it and go to eat together. This ‘munyrwanda thing shocked me.

Toward the end of the week, another friend posted on Facebook and said he’d been stopped by a stranger and told that she hated him and ‘his light skinned people.’ That in Uganda refers to the Banyankore-Bakiga and people of Western Uganda generally.

That drove me to realise something I had never noticed about Uganda. Uganda is a country where most of the time, you’ll live with and enjoy the company of people from a tribe whose homeland you have never been too. You’ll enjoy living with them totally and even learn their tongue if you’re interested. We are a hospitable and truly cosmopolitan country. We have many cultures and are happy to embrace them all.

If you disbelieve me, ask yourself why girls recently where mushanana to their introduction ceremonies regardless of cultural background. Of course before the Mushanana was the Gomesi which was largely adopted by Buganda and the rest of the country after. The Mushanana is from Western Uganda. When we where it it’s because we appreciate our Westerners.

Yeah, yeah I know what some of you are thinking. They have taken over all government offices and are nepotistic. But I’ll remind you that you might be falling to the bias of over generalization which is honestly made worse by the fact that  power has been in the same hands for an extended period. It doesn’t mean all of Western Uganda is guilty.

Image from; https://journeysbydesign.com/destinations/uganda/accommodation

As I reflected on the hate speech directed to my friends, I realized that there was an escalation creeping into the country because of a helpless fatigue. A despondence fell over Uganda this 2018 and our leaders have not done a very good job of managing it. With killings and carelessly callous political response that is dressed up in arrogance, we were left feeling lost. Being told that we basically shouldn’t ask the government for jobs as young people because we were immunized was very careless and double edged. That and making no effort to explain policies that directly affect our plight as youth made things a little worse because it angled to remove our little rays of hope. Youthful energy is nothing if it has no hope to spur it on.

Little things like a leadership can help us continue to be the country that embraces its diverse multi- cultural heritage.

I recently realized that I am not well described if I’m referred to as Luo. My true behavioral and belief set draws from all the cultural spaces I have lived in. I love American soul, and Afro-jazz, dislike kidandaali, feel enthused by Wee Naa (Acoli cultural music) and still consider Sarah Tamba to be one of the greatest Musicians of my time. She sings in Kinyakitara and I think Kinyarwanda and I don’t understand everything she says but I have grown up being comfortable appreciating the beauty in words and cultures I don’t fully comprehend so I won’t ever delete my Tamba collection of songs- Bless her Lord and grant her grace to write some more music.

One of the things that’s truly Ugandan is noticing that we are always around someone from a different culture and we can live fully and perfectly happy with them.

If you hear anyone out there mis-representing our collective cultural heritage as Uganda, please stop them and don’t allow them to destroy our loveliness.

For God and My country,

Happy 56^th Anniversary

(C) Ojara