Division Of Labour At The Olympics

"Kenyans win every race. Did you ever see a marathon? A Kenyan wins every time. If you got on a plane for Vegas right now, and I got on a Kenyan, I'd beat you."

- Chris Rock, October 2008

Greetings. As the games of the thirty-second Olympiad begin this weekend in Tokyo, Japan, the pandemic and its after-effects have overshadowed the event. Uganda, fielding a team for the 16th time (the most of any East African nation), has been thrust in the limelight due to the disappearance of weightlifter Julius Sekitoleko. It's easy for one to sympathise with the young lad's plight; he's from a poor background with the financial burden of his family weighing on his shoulders. He took the free transportation the government accorded him to the second largest economy in the world and 'sought greener pastures' whilst there. 

The Olympics has on occasion served as a connotation for income disparities; there's a correlation between the largest economies by GDP and the all-time Olympic medal overhaul. At the 2016 edition, 8 of the top 10 countries also boasted of the highest GDP. The United States has led the medals table at seventeen of the twenty-eight Olympic Games' editions held. Large economic resources do guarantee a bigger sports budget and with that comes better facilitation and superior facilities for athletes. With that correlation in mind, is it possible to attain success with less economic resources and can we predict which African country could collect the most medals at the Tokyo Olympics?

Len Taunyane and Jan Mashiani at the 1904 Olympics

The modern Olympics date back to 1896, and at the third edition eight years later South Africa fielded a team of eight athletes. Two Setswana – Len Taunyane and Jan Mashiani – were part of this team. On 30th August 1904, the duo became the first black Africans to compete at the Olympics, finishing 9th and 12th respectively; Taunyane could have finished higher had he not been veered off course by a dog that pursued him midway the race. 

More than a century after Taunyane and Mashiani's milestone, each African nation has sent representatives to the Olympics, with varying success. 27 of the 54 African countries are yet to win a medal at the quadrennial showpiece. As with the overall table of Olympic medals, the African countries with the highest medal tally fall in the ten richest economies on the continent. Kenya has secured 103 medals (including 31 gold medals) from the 14 Olympics editions in which they have fielded athletes, making them the most successful African country at the games. The rest of the top 10 includes South Africa, Ethiopia, Egypt, Nigeria, Algeria, Tunisia, Zimbabwe, Uganda and Cameroon; of which only Zimbabwe ranks outside the fifteen largest economies on the continent.

Meagre resources in any competition call for strategy. The easiest course of action is specialisation; focusing one's resources on a singular activity and subsequently attaining superior technique at said activity. Kenya, despite being wealthy on its home continent, is surpassed on the global stage when it comes to economic wealth. Austria, with a population of less than 9 million, dwarfs the Kenyan economy; on income per capita Kenya is 21 times smaller! The East Africans have more medals despite participating in 13 fewer editions than the Austrians. Kenyan medals however have come from only two categories (Athletics and Boxing), whereas the Austrians have taken medals from 16 different categories. 

Country	2016 Medals	All Time Medals	All Time Editions	Medal/Edition
Nigeria	1	25	16	1.5625
Egypt	3	32	22	1.454545
South Africa	10	86	19	4.526316
Algeria	2	17	13	1.307692
Morocco	1	23	14	1.642857
Ethiopia	8	54	13	4.153846
Kenya	13	103	14	7.357143
Ghana	0	4	14	0.285714
Tanzania	0	2	13	0.153846
Angola	0	0	9	0
Uganda	0	7	15	0.466667

The rational economic man instinct comes into play here; resources should be focused on the activities that bring in the most medals. Kenya has only managed medals in Athletics dating back to 1992; their last boxing medal came in 1988. It is only fair that investment in sports concentrates on athletics. 

Talent and differences in natural landscape (altitude factor) notwithstanding, economic resources have a role to play in sporting achievement. Nevertheless, the less endowed nations can choose to focus on specific sporting disciplines. Kenya no doubt will lead the African medal haul; they've been averaging seven medals per Olympic edition. If a one Cheptegei secures double gold in Tokyo, Uganda with two golds could finish ahead of some better endowed European nations. The lack of sports specialisation and funding in Uganda however will be a subject for another day.

Ceteris. Paribus.

References

Kasujja, A, (19th July, 2021) Will Africa triumph at the Tokyo Olympics? [BBC Africa Daily Podcast]. 19th July 2021.

Kigongo, I.D., (01st February, 2021). "Sports needs a lot from its legislators". The Daily Monitor.

O’Toole, S., (07th July, 2016). "Story of South Africa's first black Olympians keeps us guessing". Mail & Guardian Online

A Re-Education In Colonialism

Greetings. The European Football Championships came to an end on Sunday night, with Italy emerging victorious over the English team. I rooted for Italy not out of a sense of loyalty to them over the years. Schadenfreude has guided my choice of rooting for England's opposition; there's a certain pleasure I derive from the comments section of a BBC HYS (Have Your Say) whenever they are on the wrong end of a sports result. This carries on into rugby (I root against the All Blacks and Springboks) and cricket (England, again). In a way, I also admire the way they've utilised their infrastructure to build a dominant position, because I believe you can't learn from a weak opponent.

However, there were several reasons other corners were up in arms against the English: silencing them, the anti-Brexit brigade and the colonial past of the British empire. It is the latter that I shall address, as irony was raised to a whole new level with the celebration of the Italian team's victory as a "defeat of colonialism". 

"500 Years of European Colonialism", Source: Vox

England is a constituent nation in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The other constituents are Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Before expanding their empire beyond the seas, the first conquests were made within their own land mass. Between 1542 and 1801 the four nations were united by various means to form the United Kingdom. 

At its height, the British Empire covered a quarter of the World's land mass – with the modern state of Uganda engulfed in that area as a protectorate. The difference between a protectorate and a colony lies in the fact that there was less land grabbing in the former than in the later, but the humiliation of the pre-existing systems was a constant. 

The English provided the bulk of the manpower that governed the Empire. Of the twelve colonial Governors of Uganda, Sir Walter Coutts – a Scot – was the sole non-Englishman. It is for this reason that any negative memory from colonialism levelled at the British Empire is usually focused at the English more than their counterparts in the British Empire building exercise.

However, Britain wasn't without competition in this pursuit of imperialism. Over 20,000 African societies were reorganised into less than fifty states under the heel of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Belgium. The South American continent was under the domain of Spain and Portugal. The Dutch and the British even had some domains in the Caribbean and Asia. 

The colonialists' sins are well documented and have been the impetus behind recent drives to reform the education system, rename significant landmarks as well as compensation for past ills done to the African natives. In this matter the British, the Italians, the Germans, Portuguese, Spaniards, French, Dutch and Belgians alike are all guilty. The semi-final line up of Euro 2020 was a reading of past colonial powers. If you're thinking Denmark was innocent in all this you should read up on Erik Gobel's 2006 book, Danish Slave Trade and its Abolition. The Danes occupied present-day Accra in 1658, and only sold it to the British in 1850.

The wider world remembers Britain's participation in colonialism since they were the most successful nation at it. The 1997 handover of the island of Hong Kong to Chinese authorities marked the end of British colonial hegemony after 500 years. On the other hand, the role of Italy and Germany is forgotten owing to the two World Wars. At the beginning of the first World War Germany had four colonies in Africa as well as a series of islands in the Pacific. When the Germans were defeated in the War, their colonies were partitioned among the British and the French and with the passing of time, Tanganyika came to remember more the British occupation than the German occupation.

The German and Italian participation in World War II masked their colonial record further. For one the second world war was the deadliest in history, with the casualty count ranging between 50-80 million. Secondly, the Axis powers (Germany, Italy and Japan) were motivated by racial purification, seeking to eliminate other races they considered inferior to their own. Imperial backlash has been directed towards the British and French, while the Italians and Germans seem to have swapped their colonial sins for their holocaust sins. The Belgian sins in the Congo are even much more suppressed owing to their limited significance in international relations. Had they been playing the final, they could have drummed up more support from Uganda, yet occupants in the land to the West of Uganda's borders still bear scars of King Leopold's atrocities.

It's good we point out the ills of colonialism. However, we should be consistent in our denouncement. England was not the only culprit in this. Every winning nation of the preceding Euro and World Cup dating back to 2004 played a part in colonialism, both the benefits and the demerits that came with it. 

Ceteris. Paribus.

Further Reading

Fanon, F. (2008). Black Skin, White Masks. Grove Press.

Ferguson, N. (2012). Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World. Penguin UK.

Giordani, P (1916). The German Colonial Empire–Its Beginning and Ending, translated by Mrs. Gustavus W. Hamilton, G. Bell and Sons, London.

Gøbel, E. (2016). The Danish Slave Trade And Its Abolition. Brill.

Kohn, M., & Reddy, K. (2006). "Colonialism". In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Weisbord, R. G. (2003). The King, the Cardinal and the Pope: Leopold II's Genocide in the Congo and the Vatican. Journal of Genocide Research, 5(1), 35-45.

The Triumph Of Europe

"Civilisations are complex things. For centuries they can flourish in a sweet spot of power and prosperity. But then, often quite suddenly, they can tip over the edge into chaos."

Niall Ferguson, 2012

Greetings. The dry (some of you call it summer) season of 2021 is set to serve up a platter of sports festivities. The postponed European Football Championships, the 2021 Copa America, the Tokyo Olympics, as well as the annual events from the tennis, golf, formula 1 and MotoGP calendars that occur during this period. 

UEFA's quadrennial showpiece has hogged the majority of the media attention. By contrast, little attention has been paid to the on-going Copa America, the holy grail of South American football taking place in Brazil. the final games for both events take place on Sunday, featuring nations that have won the World Cup a combined 12 times! Arguably one of the best football payers of all time will feature in the Copa America, but media attention will mainly focus on Wembley for the European showpiece. This follows the precedent set by European club football, which has dwarfed the club tournaments from other corners of the world. Does this period herald the triumph of European football over the rest (and in particular the South Americans)? And where does this leave Africa?

Early Years

Prior to 1930, the football competition at the Olympics was the sport's biggest prize. Despite the Europeans winning four of the first five tournaments, the South Americans dominated the last two events before the inaugural World Cup; with Uruguay winning back-to-back gold in 1924 and 1928, including an all-South American final in the latter.

In 1928, FIFA decided to host an international football tournament. Given that Europe was severely hit by the Great Depression, the organisation sought to host the tournament on another continent. Uruguay, which had won the Olympic gold in football twice and was planning to celebrate its independence centennial, was chosen as the maiden host. Travelling to Uruguay at the time was only possible by sea, and several European clubs were unwilling to release their players for the two-month sojourn. Only four European countries committed to partake in the tournament. In a repeat of the Olympic final from two years earlier, Uruguay triumphed over Argentina.

International travel again limited the participation of South American teams at the 1934 tournament, held in Italy. With the reigning champions boycotting the tournament, Argentina, Brazil and Egypt – Africa's first ever representative – were the only non-European participants in the 16-team event. Italy emerged victorious, and successfully defended their title four years later in France.

The political and economic turmoil caused by the second World War meant the tournament took a hiatus during the 1940s, only returning in 1950 hosted by Brazil and won by Uruguay, and four years later West Germany won their first title in Switzerland. At this point European teams had won 3 out of 3 tournaments held on European soil, and the Uruguayans had won both tournaments held on South American soil. At the 1958 showpiece hosted in Sweden, Brazil became the first non-European team to win the tournament on European soil, spurred on by a young Pele. In the four tournaments held between 1958 and 1970, Brazil won three across three different continents (Sweden '58, Chile '62 and Mexico '70), their sole blemish being the 1966 event won by the English on home soil. The South American nations had entrenched their brand of football as the finest in the World, even dominating their European counterparts in the annual Intercontinental Cup. The tournament played between the club football champions of Europe and South America saw the clubs from the latter win 6 of the first 10 editions.

At the 2002 World Cup, hosted in Japan and South Korea, Brazil emerged victorious on Asian soil, claiming their fifth tournament win and the fourth different continent on which they had won football's greatest showpiece. The tally of tournament victories stood at 9-8, advantage to the South American nations over their European rivals. Unbeknownst to the South Americans, this would be the last time a team from Europe would fail to lift the Jules Rimet trophy.

The Rise of Europe

Being on the backfoot is an all too familiar scenario for European cultures. Proponents of Afrocentrism and Oriental Philosophy always point out the superiority of their ancient cultures over the European systems. What we forget to explore is Europe's persistence in overcoming its disadvantageous position and surpassing its superior rivals. Fortunately, Niall Ferguson, the self-proclaimed "international man of history" chronicles the rise of Western Civilisation – with Europe at the centre – towards global dominance, in his 2006 book, Civilisation.

Ferguson does acknowledge that Europe 500 years ago was a "miserable backwater … plagued by bad sanitation and seemingly incessant war." By comparison, the Ottoman Empire and the Chinese kingdom were far better. He posits that Europe advanced on the back of six factors, key among these being competition. The European nation states were trapped in constant war with one another as well as internal civil strife. This perennial state of conflict provide benefits in the form of innovation in military technology, and the fact that rival states grew progressively better at raising revenue for their campaigns. 

To apply this to the state of national team football, there are ten countries in South America compared to over fifty in Europe. The Copa America is usually a 12-team tournament, meaning there is no need for a qualifying session as the confederation is always tasked with inviting two foreign teams to partake in the tournament. By comparison, the European competition in it's 60-year history, accepted only 8 teams in the finals tournament for 9 of the 16 editions it has been running for. The limited number of slots has fostered competition amongst the nations. The Europeans have had to be innovative in raising revenue for their football systems, investing in youth academies, revolutionising coaching and investing in stadium infrastructure. Absence of competition has stifled football innovation in South America, and the lack of revenue has meant their best players have had to ply their trade in Europe. 

In economic terms, four of the seven largest economies in the world (G7) are located in Europe, and three of these four have gone on to lift the World Cup on three of the last four tournaments. The four World Cups held after the 2002 showpiece have all been won by European countries, having been hosted in Europe on two occasions (2006 and 2018), South America (2014) and Africa (2010). This run has included a first-time winner (Spain in 2010), three all-European finals (2006, 2010 and 2018) and two occasions where all four semi-finalists were European sides (2006 and 2018). In the same period, the South Americans have only managed one runner's up spot (2014) and on two occasions the continent had no representative at the semi-final stage of the competition (2006 and 2018).

Whither Africa?

Of the 21 editions held for the World Cup, Africa has had at least a representative on 14 occasions, and for the 6 tournaments held from 1998 onwards the continent was guaranteed 5 qualifying spots (in 2010 South Africa took the sixth slot as hosts). The 5 slots available are competed for by the 53 countries. 

In contrast with the benefits of competition in Europe, the African nations have never progressed beyond the Quarterfinal stage. At every World Cup between 1986 and 2014, an African nation made the second round, with three of those occasions producing a quarterfinal representative. However, in 2018 there was no African nation in the knockout stage, despite fielding Senegal (quarterfinalists in 2002), Nigeria (who've made the knockouts on 3 previous occasions), Morocco (who made the knockouts in 1986), Tunisia and Egypt (seven-time winners of the African Cup).

In terms of resources and stadium infrastructure, Africa lags behind the European and South American counterparts. However, in terms of sports administration, the African and Latin American teams are in the same boat. In the political arena, the two continents have been marred by leaders who stay-in-power for long while overseeing patronage and corruption, and often power changes by military means if not dynastic succession. The football governing bodies on the two continents are not that different. Just last month the football governing body in Uganda okayed the incumbent president to contest for a third term in office, despite being involved in the 2014 World Cup ticket scandal. The 2015 FBI investigation snared 13 officials from South American football bodies, more than any other continent. Other scandals involving football administrators on both continents have involved sexual misconduct and player trafficking!

Football governors in the two continents are motivated by personal interests at the expense of the players' welfare. There is limited facilitation available to these players compared to their European counterparts, and the huge salaries and endorsement deals accrued playing in Europe raises the opportunity cost of opting for national duty.

Irrespective of how skilled the players are in Africa and South America, as long as their incomes are meagre and their sports governance lags behind, Europe will always emerge victorious. It seems the European football civilisation will not "tip over the edge into chaos", in contrast to Ferguson's opening quote. 

The Euro has proven to be a good indicator of which nation will win the next World Cup; the four most recent World Cup winners had made it to the semi-final stage of the most recent Euro. Perhaps England, with the sport's richest football league, richest national federation, and being part of the fourth largest economy in the world (UK), can continue dreaming after making this year's Euro final.

Ceteris. Paribus.

Further Reading

Federation of International Football Associations, 2010. "FIFA World Cup Origin", FIFA.

Ferguson, N. (2012). Civilization: The West and the Rest. Penguin. Chapter 1: Competition

Kigongo, I.D., (June 2021). "FUFA EC declares Magogo unopposed," The Daily Monitor.

McDougall, D., (January 2008). "The scandal of Africa's trafficked players," The Guardian.

Reuters, (June 2019). "FIFA to take over the running of African football," Reuters.

Sargeant, P., (June 2015). "Football corruption: Who bought the Copa America?" BBC.

Schmidt, S. (November 2017). "Former Argentine official throws himself under train hours after being accused in FIFA soccer scandal," The Washington Post.

Varcoe, Fred (19 May 2002). "Taming the 'bulldog'". The Japan Times Online.

Vickery, T. (2008). "European game puts South America in shade." BBC

Voice of America, (December 2015). "South America, a 'Breeding Ground' for Soccer Corruption?" VOA

The Giant Tido Tree

"The thing they don't tell you about fatherhood is that, for like an hour a day, you have to get onto the floor and pretend to be a horse."

Jimmy Kimmel

Greetings. Father's day is upon us, and as is the culture of this blog, I'll provide a passage on fatherhood. In line with mother's day earlier this month, this one is from Okot p'Bitek's Song of Lawino. In the lamentations of Lawino, she cautions her husband Ocol to respect his parents, comparing the father to the giant tido tree.

J.R. Isabirye

The tree, Ekebergia capensis, known as "tido" in Luo, is common in Uganda, South Africa and Congo, and can grow up to 15 metres in height. It's wood can be used to make furniture. For medicinal purposes, the bark is used as an emetic and for the treatment of dysentry, the roots can be used to treat headaches, heartburn and coughs, whereas the leaves provide a remedy to intestinal worms. In the days of old, some parts of the tree were used to protect the ruling chief from witchcraft. In so many ways the tido is a metaphor befitting fatherhood.

No one wrestles with his father,

No one looks down 

On his mother,

And even if your father is totally

blind,

Even if his ears are dead,

Even if the world has boxed him,

Even if his legs are dry like

firewood,

If he is rude to you

You say, 'Thank You'

And never answer back

Because he stands before you

Like the giant tido tree

You are but a climber plant.

There is no medicine in the

hospital

For a mother's curse,

None for an uncle's curse!

And when your father's anger 

has boiled over

The white man's medicines 

Are irrelevant and useless

Like the freak rains

In the middle of the dry season.

Happy Father's Day!

Ceteris. Paribus.

Sources

p'Bitek, Okot, (1971). Song of Lawino. Nairobi: East African Educational Publishers. pp. 102-103.

Coates, K., (2002). Palgrave Trees of Southern Africa, edn 3. Cape Town: Struik.

van Wyk, B.E., van Oudtshoorn, B., Gericke, N., (1997). Medicinal Plants of South Africa. Pretoria: Briza Publications.

The Politics of Martyrdom

"When I die it will be the end of the kingdom of Buganda. Europeans will take over (eat) this country of mine."

Mwanga II, 1898, prior to joining forces with Kabalega II

[LONG POST ALERT]

Greetings. A Song of Ice and Fire provided a revival in interest in medieval history, as George R.R. Martin borrowed heavily from real life events in medieval Europe, particularly the War of the Roses. In the book series, readers eventually learn that Robert's Rebellion the fulcrum of the narration was "based on a lie". 

The same can be said about the period 1884-1899 in the history of Buganda. The history passed down in the canons from this period has been powered by propaganda, imperial interests and self-aggrandizement on ghe part of the collaborators and their colonial masters. Prof. Semakula Kiwanuka and Dr. Samwiri Lwanga Lunyiigo have made great strides in trying to address the factors that led to the civil wars at the end of the nineteenth century. I have shared an excerpt, abridged, from Lunyiigo's Mwanga II: Resistance to Imposition of British Colonial Rule in Buganda. He asserts the correlation between imperial ambitions of European countries and the martyrdom in Buganda.

Mwanga was suspicious of the intentions and activities of missionaries. First and foremost, Mwanga and the missionaries were competitors for the attention and service of the same people, the pages, who absented themselves from services at the Kabaka's palace to 'read' and serve at the Catholic mission at Lubaga and the Protestant mission at Nateete. Indeed Mwanga asked the few pages that were taking liberties to serve the missionaries and absent themselves from the palace:

"Who is your King or are the Europeans the masters of Buganda."

Secondly, the most trusted  and closest servants of  Mwanga were now acting  as stool pigeons for the missionaries including his own Chief of Intelligence, Joseph Mukasa Balikuddembe. State secrets were immediately passed over to the  missionaries.

Thirdly, Mwanga did not know exactly what the 'Readers' were being taught. Was it the usual alphabet and the gospels or was there more to this ‘reading’ than met the eye? It is possible that Mwanga had his own spies spying on the missionaries and relaying information to him. Missionaries had arms and ammunition. Was it not possible for them to train and arm the 'Readers' to forment trouble in the country and take it over? After all Mwanga was very well aware that Europeans were closing in on the country. The arabs faithfully informed him of what was happening outside Buganda. Therefore, at some point Mwanga had to throw down the gauntlet, those for him and the country on one side, and those for the Europeans on the other side.

Mukasa [Nsimbe], the Katikkiro, played a major role in the Readers' fate. All the missionaries were agreed that Mukasa hated them and he was a very powerful man in Buganda up to the end of 1888 when Kalema took power.

Kabaka Mwanga

 

Joseph Mukasa Balikuddembe, whom Katikkiro Mukasa regarded as Mwanga's favourite and a possible replacement for him as Katikkiro, was executed at Nakivubo on the 15th November 1885 at the behest of Katikkiro Mukasa and by the time Mwanga learnt of what the Katikkiro had done to his rising star, Joseph, the sentence had already been carried out.

Mwanga had had Nyonyintono castrated for absenteing himself from the palace and for not properly performing his duties; he had himself beaten up and stabbed Apollo Kaggwa for entrusting hisgun to an inexperienced gun bearer Ntanda who lost it in the water when they went hippo hunting in Lake Nalubale. If both Nyonyintono and Kaggwa had died, since they were 'Readers', they would have qualified for martyrdom!

When Mwanga on that fateful day at Munyonyo asked his people to form two lines, that of 'Readers' and others, thirty 'Readers' stepped forward. ... So before the 25th of May 1866, the red flag was up and anybody who cared to hide or run away had ample time in which to do it and many run or hid and survived.

Indeed there is biblical justification for this course of action. In Matthew 10:23 Jesus told his disciples:

"When they persecute you in this city flee to another ..."

Many who knew the scriptures hid or fled; they included Zakariya Kizito Kisingiri (who became a regent of Buganda during the minority of Kabaka Daudi Chwa), Paul Bakunga, Battulumayo Musoke Zimbe (later a priest), James Miti and Joseph Kaddu. All these became important chiefs and pillars of the Anglican church.

Inadvertently, the missionaries courted martyrdom for their charges. Rev. Ashe and Alexander Mackay wrote a letter to Christians in May1886 which encouraged them to become martyrs.

"Our beloved brethren do not deny our Lord Jesus and He will not deny you on that great day when He shall come with glory. Remember the words of our Saviour, how He told His disciples not to fear men who are only able to kill the body, but He bid them to fear God who is able to destroy the body together with the soul in the fire of Gehenna."

After the Namugongo inferno (3rd June 1886), the surviving converts asked their priests whether they should go into hiding or not but the priests did not answer. All these men of God knew the scriptures very well. Disciples of Jesus Christ denied him, the main example being Simon Peter ... Peter denied Jesus and was elevated to sainthood!

Between 25th May and 2nd June 1886 Namugongo execution centre was being prepared to receive the 'Readers', and it was a slow movement of the condemned from Munyonyo to Namugongo. There was, therefore, ample time for men with the Christian zeal of Lourdel and Mackay to join those they had taught to Namugongo and to the pyres. Why did these zealous missionaries not offer themselves for martyrdom along with the 'Readers' whom they urded to be steadfast? Why did they not make the ultimate sacrifice? First, they understood the teachings of Christ very well, but even more important, there was a definite link between the martyrdom of the 'Readers' and imperialism.

One way to establish a sphere of influence was to have one's nationals, missionaries, traders, etc., in an area and by dint of the presence of missionaries, Buganda was clearly a sphere of British influence. France to which the WHite Fathers belonged was never a major player in the region. So if the missionaries could show that their converts were in danger of persecution and annihilation then in the goodness of time the government where the missionaries came from would rush in and establish control and end the 'persecution' or annihilation. The White Fathers whose country, France, did not have a great stake in East Africa should have saved their followers from the Namugongo inferno.

On the depth of the faith of the 'Readers' Mackay makes an interesting comment:

"Reading a book is by no means adopting the religion of the book. Everyone who reads the New Testament is not necessarily a Christian nor is everyone who reads the Koran a Mohammedan.  Many a life has been lost in this country [Buganda]for learning no more than the alphabet."

We are also told that many of the best converts lay hidden and were not caught, like Dutta, Sembera and others. Why? Because they understood the gospel better than those who gave themselves up. And there were those who were consumed by the fires of Namugongo who were caught in the dragnet including non Christians.

One hundred and thirty one years (at the time of writing this book) after the introduction of Christianity in Buganda there are many Christians with one leg in Christianity and the other in Traditional Religion.How much did Christians understand Christianity in Buganda only seven and nine years after it was introduced? Martyrdom at Namugongo thus represented the lowest point in Christian leadership of the time. The Christian leaders should have prevented the glorious thirty from forming that tragic line at Munyonyo.

If Mwanga persecuted Christians per se it is difficult to explain why Christians became pillars of his administration after the Namugongo inferno. Mwanga had the capacity to kill and disperse all of them; why did he not? He was either naive or too trusting. He could not believe that these Abaana of whatever faith they were (whom he had granted freedom of religion) could betray him and give the country to Europeans. He was to pay heavily for this trust.

Writing over sixty years after these events, Mwanga's grandson, Mutesa II, commented;

"Mwanga fought to free himself and his country of the intruders for all his reign. He did not like or want them; he was impressed by their power, but not interested in their ideas. He could not recover the old way of life nor adapt himself to the new, and in his perplexed and unhappy groping in the gap between he seems to me to deserve some sympathy."

Perhaps we should rename it Mwanga II Day!

Ceteris. Paribus.

Further Reading

Cardinal Nsubuga, Obulamu bwa Mapera Omutume wa Uganda, 1853-1890

Gray, J. M. (1950). "The Year of the Three Kings of Buganda". Uganda Journal, 14, 15-52. 

Joire. (1952). Abajulizi Abakatoliki Abe Buganda.

Katende, J.L. (2004). Bakabaka Ba Buganda Okuva Ku Kyabaggu Okutuka Ku Mutesa II. Kampala

Lwanga-Lunyiigo, S. (2011). Mwanga II: Resistance to Imposition of British Colonial Rule in Buganda, 1884-1899. Kampala: Wavah Books. Chapter 2: Mwanga - Prelude to Betrayal, p.54 

Mackay, A. M. (1890). Pioneer Missionary of the Church Missionary Society to Uganda. By his Sister.

Mutesa II. (1967). Desecration of my Kingdom. Constable.

Kiwanuka, M. S. (1969). Background to the Martyrs: A Reprint of Kabaka Mwanga and His Political Parties. Uganda Society. 

Thoonen, J. P. (1941). Black Martyrs. Sheed & Ward. 

Waliggo, J. M. (1976). The Catholic Church in the Buddu Province of Uganda 1879-1925, unpublished Ph. D (Doctoral dissertation, thesis, Cambridge).

Zimbe, B. M. (1939). Buganda ne Kabaka. Typescript translation, Buganda and the King.

The Woman Who Hewed You Out Of The Rock

Greetings. Mother's Day is upon us and to me it is an opportunity to indulge my writer's block. There's a plethora of quotations available on how amazing mothers can be. As is tradition I will share an African excerpt with several quotable nuggets.

"Mama Michael"

Okot p'Bitek is perhaps the greatest poet this country has ever produced (and the greatest Luo writer before Obama). Born in Gulu in 1939, he had his education at Gulu High School and King's College Budo, before proceeding to the universities of Bristol, Wales and Oxford. In the epic Song of Lawino, an African woman expresses her displeasure at her husband, Ocol's rejection of his culture in favour of western mores. Lawino defends the traditions of her forbearers, often making comparisons between Acholi and Western cultures. 

The excerpt is from Chapter 10, where Lawino mentions Ocol's intolerance towards both their relatives, denying them entry into his house as they might muddy it. Lawino rebuts, forewarning Ocol not to forget the role of one's parents.

No one wrestles with his father,

No one looks down

On his mother,

You cannot abuse your mother!

Because it was that woman

Who hewed you out of the rock

And moulded your head and

body.

Think of the excreta and piss

The vomit and mucus

With which you wetted your

mother!

Think of the fire

That burnt her finger many times, 

When she cooked for you.

Think of the jealousies of 

others,

The sorcerers and shadow

trappers, 

Poisoners and the Evil Eyes,

Think of the fights

They put up for you!

You sucked those wrinkled 

breasts,

And that's what made you

The big man you are!

A mother's anger is bitter,

It is fierce like lightning

And boils like thunder.

If you make her angry

She will strike below her belly

button,

If you annoy the girl

She will strike the ash

Then you will get 

Exactly what you ask for!

There is no medicine in the 

hospital

For a mother's curse,

Happy Mother's Day!

Ceteris. Paribus.

Source

p'Bitek, Okot, (1972). Song of Lawino. Nairobi: East African Education Publishers. pp. 102-103

The Opposition in Africa Is A Lonely Place

Greetings. In the two months since the last post on this blog, a foreign entertainer promised to launch a city on this land of Kintu, just a week before the foremost descendant of Kintu was sighted in public with an illness that got the other descendants of Kintu worried for his health. However, other matters affecting the descendants of Kintu will take precedent today.

Ugandans once again rued their chances as God “answered their prayers in another country.” The president of Chad, Idris Deby, passed away this week, and coincidentally the ensuing struggle mirrors a situation Ugandans have so desperately prayed against. Deby’s son, Mahamat Deby Itno was immediately sworn in and the young Major General spent his first days trying to consolidate power. 

During power transitions in Africa, the opposition is usually ignored with calls of unity behind a solitary leader to “unite” the country. The Mahamt Deby government dissolved parliament and replaced the constitution with a charter. This abandonment of multiparty democracy is detrimental to the principle of checks and balances. Writing thirty-six years ago, Prof. Samwiri Lwanga-Lunyigo’s examination of The History of the Democratic Party provides insights into the actions of one-party movements in the likes of Chad and Uganda, as well as an understanding as to why Akon would make an insipid comment along the lines of “Africa not needing democracy.”

A multiparty system can be kept alive if all the parties are agreed that it is the best system, and most important, if the party in power for the time being allows the other parties to operate freely. For a vigorous plural political system there must be elections at reasonable intervals to enable the governments to find out whether or not they have the mandates to continue in power and to keep the populace involved and politically alert. And in a nascent democracy, such as Uganda was in 1962, it is important that there is tolerance on the part of the party or parties in government for their counterparts in the opposition. The opposition, it must be appreciated, just like the government is capable of making mistakes. There must be a set of rules that all the parties must agree and stick to or the plural system cannot work.

Our leaders at independence had had very little parliamentary experience and with the exception of some DP MPs most of this experience had been in the opposition. And where the colonial regime was being opposed no quarter was given and none expected. The stakes were very high – no less than self-determination. So our leaders who were in opposition in the colonial Legislative Council considered themselves subversive. After all, how could they have qualified as liberators and freedom fighters if they had not been subversive and brought down the colonial regime? Very few of our leaders at independence had had the experience of democratic executive authority or of any other kind of authority for that matter. And most unfortunate for democracy, many of our political leaders wanted security of tenure in their political positions and the opposition was a threat to permanence of tenure. How could we operate a Westminster model while ensuring permanent tenure of political office? This was not possible.

From 1964, hardly two years after independence the UPC began preparing the public for the one-party system using the usual arguments of the advocates of the one-party system. They explained that the multiparty system was a luxury our young poor nation could not afford; it was subversive, divisive and against African traditional political practice. The opposition was alright against the colonial government but what was there to oppose after independence? Unity, through the one-party system, was the only course available. All this sounds fine, but in many one-party states, the leader becomes the party and the father of the nation.

When this happens the citizens of the nation become children and obviously children are in no position to participate in important matters such as the choice of their leaders. The father makes such decisions.

The one-party system, or the movement, has got the advantage of making the top men permanent in power which suggests continuity and stability, but the problem with permanent political leaders is that there is so much preoccupation with preservation of their positions that considerable resources are diverted towards the achievement of permanence. Another problem is the mental fossilization of the leadership. They formulate policies and these must work at any cost; they become dogma and sacred for all time. When those policies cause economic, social and political ruin, it is not the ideas or policies that are wrong, it is the implementation that is wrong and those in charge of implementation are accused of sabotage and treachery and purges follow. And so it goes on and on. It becomes a vicious cycle and many an African nation wallow in them.

In the zero-sum, winner-take-all game of African politics the opposition is a very lonely place. The winners control patronage and dispense it both in the private and public sectors and members of the opposing party or parties are deliberately left out in the cold, however qualified they may be for certain positions. Now men attracted to politics during the colonial period were in the main not men of substance. They hoped to gain substance through politics and the winners succeeded in attaining substance. After all power and property cannot be separated for very long. Many of them were teachers who saw politics as an escape hatch from the poorly remunerated profession. They were also somehow privileged because they were the only highly educated people allowed by the colonial government to pursue politics while remaining in their pay. The highly educated Africans in the Civil Service had to resign their jobs in order to participate actively in politics and many could not afford this. These were the men of substance during the colonial period and if they had actively joined politics, maybe the structuring of our political institutions after independence would have taken a very different turn. So the atrophy of the opposition during the independence era can be explained in terms of the hostile attitude of the winner towards it and the winner’s ability to withhold and starve the opposition. In Uganda the opposition was physically assaulted as well. Opposition leaders were imprisoned indefinitely without trial and the clincher was the declaration of the one-party state in 1969, which legally stopped the opposition and the plural political system established at the inception of the independence era.

Ceteris. Paribus.

References

Lwanga-Lunyiigo, Samwiri, 1984. A History of the Democratic Party of Uganda. Kampala; Fountain Publishers. Chapter 4: Atrophy, 1962-1969; pp.83-85.

Kasujja, Allan (Host). (2021, 22nd April). What's next for Chad? [Audio podcast episode] In Africa Daily. BBC https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p09fcw5t