If Mwenda wants to live, he'd rather paint rulers as animals Charles Onyango-Obbo (Ear To The Ground) Ah, Andrew Mwenda seemed to have stepped into it with his article, Why Museveni Is Becoming Intolerant (Sunday Monitor, Nov. 24). The Big Man's handlers have thrown everything, including the kitchen sink, at Mwenda. Perhaps not the whole world (to use a hyperbole) would have noticed the article if so many people had not jumped onto Mwenda's back. It turns out that the most annoying part was Mwenda's comparison of Museveni to former dictator Field Marshal Idi Amin. He even called Idi Museveni's "idol". Imagine! One of Mwenda's attackers rubbished him as a little boy who was in nappies when Amin terrorised this fair land, and therefore he doesn't know what he is talking about. I too think Mwenda doesn't know a few things. However, if there is one thing he knows, actually it is Uganda's history - including the Amin era. What the young man doesn't know enough of is the history of praise singing for rulers, and presidential imagery. I suspect that this, really, is the heart of the problem. First, it's unusual to compare present leaders with past ones in this country. Usually leaders compare themselves to a beast or insect, and they describe their rivals as animals. To be fair, it is not just a Ugandan thing. It is African. Thus the demised thieving Congolese (Zairean) strongman Mobutu was "Sese Seko". Loosely translated it means the "tireless cock that moves from roost to roost leaving all hens in its trail exhausted". There was another tormentor in Malawi, Dr. Kamuzu Banda, the Ngwanzi. Ngwazi means the Mighty Lion. In Uganda, Dr. Milton Obote was serenaded by UPC praise singers as "Nyamurunga", a beautiful lovable bird common in western Uganda. Museveni at one time was known as "Nyarwino"; the ant that will not let go once it sinks its "teeth" into you. At first he called himself Nyarwino, saying he would sink his teeth into the corrupt like the insect, and they would see hell. We didn't know that the Nyarwino is a champion procrastinator, because it has not bitten yet. But that is really neither here nor there. Sometimes the comparison moves away from beasts, to objects. Thus Museveni once said he was firmly established in power like the cotter pin in a bicycle, and cannot be defeated in an election by pretenders to the throne. When now exiled Col. Dr. Kizza Besigye mounted that tension-packed challenge against Museveni in the presidential elections last year, his cheerleaders portrayed him as the hammer that would knock the cotter pin out. So he was called Ssenyondo (the king hammer). The tradition of insult also draws a lot from the animal kingdom. In fact, sometimes, from animal droppings. We all remember when the present minister of State for Regional Co-operation Col. Kahinda Otafiire referred to a politician accusing him of stealing copper rivets as "mavi ya kuku" (chicken droppings). Then Museveni referred to Dr. Paul K. Ssemogerere, JEEMA man Muhammad Kibirige Mayanja, and their political brigades as "frogs" who used to play on top of the roof (power) because the owners of the house (Museveni & Co.) were away. In the running quarrel between Museveni and Obote, Museveni has called Obote a "ghost". Obote returned the compliment, and said Museveni was a "hyena". The one that kept people talking for years was Museveni's reference to former Ugandan leaders as "swine". To this day this stroke leaves on, as pork is referred to as "past leaders". Perhaps that explains why the animal symbols are so strong. In a peasant society, where most people see a frog daily or have chicken or pigs in their yard, they understand the comparisons. If you start comparing leaders with other leaders here and abroad, you introduce complex abstractions that confuse the people. Take Amin. He led a murderous regime, and wrecked the economy. But he supported African liberation movements and the Palestinian cause. And there are many Ugandans who still swear he was a "nationalist" because he stole Asian businesses and handed it to them. So which Amin are we talking about, the dictator or the "economic nationalist"? By contrast, on the other hand, nearly all of us have the same opinion about chicken droppings. For this reason, we compare ourselves or our rulers with other people mostly when we know there will be no confusion. For example Museveni once compared himself to the American nation builder George Washington. That was perfectly in order because it would be obvious to everyone who knows anything about American history that Museveni was no George Washington. Mwenda's problem then is that he is reading too much history. He should be concentrating on studying animal husbandry if he wants to write about Ugandan politics and not get in trouble. December 04, 2002 00:08:30 ____________________________________________________________________________ __ Finger wund tippen beim SMS Schreiben? Schluss damit! Web.de FreeMail - http://freemail.web.de/features/?mc=021148
