* Of course the independence elections were stolen by the British for UPC and Kabaka Yekka. We started on a fraud from the word go !! The local running dogs in UPC and in Mengo sold us to the slave master !!*
OPINIONS & COMMENTARIES *INSIDE SOURCE:* | Bernard Tabaire ... After 47 years of rotten bananas, we may be in for a few more of cabbage Once upon a time, a certain African country we shall simply call Country, became independent, somewhat, of its colonial master. On D-Day, very serious inhabitants of Country talked big. “Time has come, compatriots, for us to take our destiny in our own hands,” the leader thundered, his fist thumping the air above and in front of him. “Never again shall we be subjugated in our own land, the land of our ancestors by racist and rapacious outsiders. Tonight is the night, midnight is the long-awaited hour. Long Live Country! Long Live Africa! Long Live the Black Race! For God and My Country!” Long Live ... Long Live ... The assembled throngs roared back in ecstatic approval. Euphoria was in the air, in the water, everywhere in the land. Country was all charming with its mountains whose snow peaks kissed the moon, several fresh water lakes heaving with delicious fish, elegant rivers giving forth life, sizeable tropical forests that took care of the equatorial sun, an ecosystem in some parts unique enough to harbour equally unique great apes. Country’s ethnic and cultural diversity held real promise and all hoped that this was a heritage that would be cultivated to forge a glorious future. Indeed, Country was said to have very good prospects, in fact better than most of its peers, to do well in the decades ahead. In an act of “wilful suspension of disbelief”, however, everyone ignored troubling red lights in the distance. The election leading up to uhuru had been stolen, exactly the sort of act that makes bananas of countries. Nobody cared. Then came 1980 and 2001 and 2006. The year 2011 will come as well. Never mind 1967 when the first election after independence was not held simply because the senior-most leader disliked the inconveniencing idea. There were other more menacing signs, the type that would wrench Country’s gut. The much vaunted ethnic diversity would prove an enduring challenge with different groups pulling in different directions. It did not help that the various leaders of Country would come up short and prove themselves midgets when faced with migraine-inducing problems. Instead of talking things over, haggling, and eventually cutting deals in open national fora, they decided that the backdoor was the better course because it produced quicker results. When those results proved fleeting as they were bound to, Country’s top leaders resorted to guns, jails, and exile to get their way. >From 1964 to the present, gunfire has played a significant and dangerous part in Country’s politics. Some think that is not a bad thing, after all when different types of guns – AK 47s, rocket propelled grenades, sub-machine guns, Uzis, bazookas – are fired simultaneously all over the place they make for reasonably good music. And if a few wananchi die and some property is destroyed in the process, that is a small price to pay to create a proper banana republic. All the while, the powerful line their pockets. They steal and they brag about it – the rest of you can go jump off the highest cliff as and when you please. It is wild out there. If you do not eat, you get eaten whole – or at least your liver gets chewed up. True, banana republics can be cannibalistic at the same time. But the people of Country – after a long, long time submitting to the will of double-faced and double-tongued leaders – are beginning to refuse to be eaten. They want jungle life ended. The way they are going about it, however, is wanting. Instead of fighting back and eating one or two livers of national leaders, they are retreating into familiar and seemingly comfortable zones – just like the psychologists said. The enemy appears insurmountable. The ancient tribe, therefore, becomes a safer place to be complete with virulent assertions of ethnic this and that. They thus play into the hands of national megalomaniacs who are believers in the old strategy of divide and rule. They also forget that ethnically-based governments may throw up their own deadly kleptomaniacs. Or maybe not. Things could turn out great and a true independence would begin. In the meantime, though, the people of Country are living the disorienting reality of Orwell’s animals. They are looking here and there, from pig to man and from man to pig and back again. From racist and rapacious outsiders to tribalistic and rapacious insiders intent on going one further by turning the banana republic into a cabbage republic. The people cannot tell the difference anymore. They may well have lived a lie these past 47 years. Long Live Country! Long Live Africa! Long Live the Black Race! For God and My, eh, My, eh, Ever Expanding Wallet! Happy 47th, compatriots. ben...@hotmail.com
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