Pity Uganda, a country where hope is dwindling daily. As daylight can be seen through every small hole, so too will little things illustrate Uganda’s current posture as a nation, sixty-one years after she gained her independence from British colonial rule.
Two seemingly little things that occurred in 2023 stand out: the first being the wildly successful Kampala pothole exhibition on social media, with the hashtag #KampalaPotholeExhibition, inspired by Dr. Jimmy Spire Ssentongo, which embarrassed authorities in Uganda; and secondly, the Iron Sheet scandal, a saga in which several government ministers were implicated for stealing from the poorest of the poor in the Ugandan sub-region of Karamoja.
Scanning the local digital media on the subject, it was the haunting eyes of victims and miscreants alike that caught my attention. So much for securing the future. This is significant because the ruling party made a great play of securing the future in the 2021 general elections. I have always considered the slogan securing the future as nothing more than a political marketing puff, and the above two instances vindicate me.
The eyes I saw in the digital media were talking eyes. They were full of anger and bore testimony to the growing wrath now gathering up in the country and in the souls of the ordinary people of Uganda, growing heavier with sadness with each passing day. The sadness I saw in those eyes was the ruefulness of broken hearts, of broken promises, of poverty, of no hope, of no livelihoods, of no rest, and of being desperately tired. The anxieties about modern life, the sense of pitilessness, and the entrenchment of cynicism have all become a day-to-day feature of Uganda’s political life.
As I studied those talking eyes in the pictures in the local digital media, I could not help but think of a poem, Pity the Nation. The poem is by Lawrence Ferlinghetti and was inspired by Khalil Gibran’s poem; they both share the same title. Khalil Gibran’s poem was first published in 1933. This poem speaks powerfully to Uganda’s present predicament, 61 years after independence. Here is Pity the Nation:
PITY THE NATION
By Lawrence Ferlinghetti, 2007
(After Khalil Gibran)
Pity the nation whose people are sheep
And whose shepherds mislead them
Pity the nation whose leaders are liars
Whose sages are silenced
And whose bigots haunt the airwaves
Pity the nation that raises not its voice
Except to praise conquerors
And acclaim the bully as hero
And aims to rule the world
By force and by torture
Pity the nation that knows
No other language but its own
And no other culture but its own
Pity the nation whose breath is money
And sleeps the sleep of the too well fed
Pity the nation oh pity the people
who allow their rights to erode
and their freedoms to be washed away
My country, tears of thee
Sweet land of liberty!
The Editor’s Note:
It’s a well-known fact that coming events cast long shadows before them. And since we’re on the subject of shadows, in 2021 I published a blog post titled “I see in Uganda an opportunity, not a lost cause.” The post’s hopeful message to Uganda and her people remains relevant even now.
To increase public knowledge of the current events in the Middle East and a potential disaster that may befall Uganda in the near future, The Kamugasa Challenge, in collaboration with Democracy in Africa, has decided to dedicate its full 2024 publishing schedule – six podcast episodes – to the study of genocide.
Democracy in Africa is a platform dedicated to building a bridge between academics, policymakers, practitioners, and citizens. It is hoped that “the website will encourage more people to study democracy in Africa and make it easier for those who are already working in and on the [African] continent to share ideas and information. We are positive about the prospects for democracy in Africa and believe that more time, resources, and energy should be put into understanding the complexities of politics at a local, national, regional, and global level. This website is a small but significant contribution to this end.”
The first episode in the series, “Genocide: Why It Is Important To Bear Witness,” features a discussion with the daughter of Holocaust survivors and University of Edinburgh honorary fellow, Dr. Maria Chamberlain. We will talk about Never Tell Anyone You’re Jewish, her stirring memoir, among other topics. The release date is set for February 12, 2024.
Editor’s Remark:
The copyright to the above poem belongs to Mr. Lawrence Ferlinghetti.