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 

Dinner With Mwavuwalaba and Nabukeera

Greetings. Last Valentine's day I shared stories; non-economic (Kiwanuka's journey courting Zalwango) and economic (the borrowing patterns of rural women). To continue with the custom I intend to share an excerpt from Peregrine Kibuuka's novel, Habakkuk the Catechist. 

The novel is a coming of age story of Timothy Mwavuwalaba, son of the titular Habakkuk, beginning with his childhood in Loko village. Dr. Kibuuka started his schooling at Namilyango Junior Boys' School. Like the protagonist of his novel, he continued on to Nyenga and Gaba Seminaries. Both Kibuuka and Mwavuwalaba abandoned their priestly vocation, with Kibuuka proceeding to Namilyango College whereas Mwavuwalaba continued his further studies at St. Pius Secondary Schools (whose head, Fr. Ben, is no less inspired by Kibuuka's former head teacher Fr. Bernard Kuipers). Upon completing their university education both men pursued teaching careers at their respective former schools.

The excerpt I have elected to share covers a honest conversation about domestic finances and work ethic between Mwavuwalaba and his wife, Goretti Nabukeera.

I was in no mood to listen to preaching when I had no money in my pocket. I did not think buying a fashionable constituted any obligation in the midst of a financial squeeze. So I remained mum. We ate our lunch in silence. And now she has called me for supper. Because of the retreat, she simply declares to the whole house: "Dinner!"

I uncover the supper. Angels above! Clean white pieces of cassava neatly laid out on the plate. I ask why the cassava. Nabukeera says the matooke got finished.

"Why did you not tell me?" I shoot back.

"I forgot."

"You seem to be forgetting everything. You better jot down your name. It looks like I must employ a quarter-master general in this house."

"Go ahead and employ one, provided you pay. But I suspect that he might need more than the cost of the shoe I am asking you to buy." Then Nabukeera breaks into a loud, dry sarcastic laugh.

"If I had a car, I would walk on you, Nabukeera. You are perfect nuisance," I declare.

"I may be a perfect nuisance, but pray, why do you indulge in wishful thinking? At this rate, do you ever hope to steer a car in you life. You are going to end up as an elegant pedestrian, a John Walker! Walking the streets with your oversized hand bag full of useless files and marking schemes! Only a miracle can save you. But miracles do not happen so often nowadays. Mwavuwalaba, it is high time you pursued wealth while you are still young. I do not like to spend my energetic life poor and only get rich in my older years when I am too old to enjoy it."

"What do you expect me to do, steal?" I ask. 

"Do something to improve your lot. Your teacher's salary will never take you anywhere. You are so dull. You lack initiative. I must accuse Dr. Fr. Gawanye of telling lies about you right on the altar. He described you in such glowing terms and tried to convince the congregation that I was walking down with some sort of stormy petrel, with a romantic touch and perfection. You do not know how to organise yourself. I could run this home for you with your money." I give Nabukeera the look that reminds her who wears the trousers in the home. 

"Women have never managed to run anything in their lives," I shoot back.

"Do not be so chauvinistic, Timothy. Have you ever delivered a baby?" Nabukeera asks challengingly, looking me straight in the eyes.

"The ladies are recognising you cannot run your affairs, that is why they must dismantle your systems, if need be through a war."

"Do you realise any common denominator in your heroines?" I ask.

"No."

I must get Nabukeera off my back, so I hit below the belt.

"Either they cannot stay with their husbands or they cannot keep them alive. I have pictures of Mrs. Golda Meir. I still have to see Mr. Meir. She fought two wars in less than ten years which are responsible for the world inflation we are in. You see the Arabs were not amused and clamped an oil embargo. Look at Indira Gandhi; she dismembered Pakistan. Maria Peron, a widow, excelled herself in mismanaging Argentina."

"Why did you marry me if you are such a cynical misogynist?"

"I am not a misogynist, but a simple observer of threats. I am amazed that you think you can run a home better than a man. Report me to the women's court the next time male chauvinism gives you another Women's year. By that time I will be just history and of course gone to heaven, rubbing shoulders with St. Peter."

"It seems the Landlord in heaven can accommodate all sorts of impossible characters there. I shall not debate your ability to go to heaven on your steam. But that is what you are, talking and talking and doing nothing to improve your lot here on earth. Why do you discuss heaven you know nothing about, when you cannot plan anything on the earth you know? Mwavuwalaba, you are no longer in the seminary to discuss heavenly things. You chose the world. Discuss how to successfully live in this world; when you do that, God may think of taking you to heaven after death. But as of now, better do something. Get a side business to supplement your income."

"Nabukeera, you seem to have bright ideas tonight. What do you, for example, suggest I do?" I ask pensively.

"You see, now, everybody is swindling neighbour by the thousands. Buy something, hoard it and sell it at black-market prices," Nabukeera advises.

"Nabukeera are you suggesting that I become a magendo agent? Remember I am a son of a catechist, and I come from a good Christian family," I warn her.

"If your morals are still carved in stone, you will die a pauper. If you are a man of great scruples and high principles, you will not be able to do anything without feeling that you have offended a principle, a code of ethics, a gentlemans code and what have you. What you need, Mwavuwalaba, is to be broadminded. I am not prepared to be a pauper's wife."

"Nabukeera, are you threatening? Remember you marriage vows: 'Rich or poor, till death do us part'," I remind her.

"I do not remember promising to stay with a man with no initiative. Mwavuwalaba, did I promise that?" she adds rhetorically.

"Nabukeera," I warn her again, "there are remarks which one never forgets or forgives; watch your tongue!"

"Stop verbal threats and try out something. Try soap. Hoard it. It sells like hot cakes. Get a carton and see," Nabukeera advises.

"That needs capital and patience both of which we do not have. You have to buy and hoard. You wait until people are badly off then you produce the commodity. We are already in the category of the badly off, Nabukeera."

"Then let us try something that does not need hoarding but sells like hot cakes. Something that does not need much capital."

We have declared a unilateral war on poverty in the home. I have to beat the inflation by declaring an economic war on it. 

Ceteris. Paribus.

Source

Kibuuka, P. (2010) Habakkuk the Catechist. Marianum Publishing Company Limited, Kampala. Chapter 15: Side Business

The Great Books Program of Africa

Greetings. In recognition of Black History month, I'll put forward a program of intellectual study based solely on African texts. 

Harvard Universal Classics originally known as Dr. Eliot's Five Foot Shelf, is a 51-volume anthology of classic works from world literature compiled and edited by former Harvard University President Charles W. Eliot and first published in 1909. Eliot proposed that 15-minutes a day spent reading part of the texts in his five-foot shelf would enable one gain a liberal education.

A well known rival is the Great Books program proposed by Adler J. Motimer.

Could we create a great books program that is centred on African learning and renaissance?

This idea has plagued my mind since the wave of revisiting the global culture vis a vis education in the wake of black lives matter. Certain schools in the western world have been pushed to revise their curriculum and adopt a more diverse range of topics and reading material. My thoughts immediately jumped to the Harvard Classics as a basis. The 51 volumes include texts from Homer, Darwin, Adam Smith, Benjamin Franklin. Coincidentally there's no writing from Africa.

What volumes should be constituted? 

As the first volume is solely dedicated to Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography, I thought of no less a character than Nelson Mandela. Where Franklin proved himself industrious as an innovator, politician and orator, Mandela is the father of the peaceful demonstration in Africa; and a skilled orator as well. The first Volume is dedicated solely to him.

Volume II should cover the ancient texts from Egypt (Ptah Hotep, Kagmeni) what is commonly known as the Wisdom texts. The Epic of Sundiata would also fall in this category, along with Book II of Herodotus' Histories, which covers ancient Egypt.

Volume III-V and VII will mainly entertain fictional literature in the shapes of poetry, plays, and novels - both classics and modern. In here one should be well versed with the works of wa Thiong'o, Achebe, Soyinka, Rotimi, Ruganda, and Abrahams. There are works from female writers including Adichie, Ogot, Nansubuga Makumbi and Mengiste.

Volume VI covers the epic poems of Okot p'Bitek, Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol. In homeric style, he compares the cultures of Africa and Europe, advocating for Africans not to abandon the ways of their forebearers.

Volumes VIII-X will cover famous biographies, speeches and essays. There's a mix of the revolutionary fervour of Cabral, Soyinka, the left-wing rhetoric of Lumumba and the thoughts of the aristocrat Selassie. Biographies include the lives of Kenyatta, Nkrumah and Lumumba.

Volume XI is dedicated to selected lectures made by some famous African intellectuals. The Reith Lectures of Mazrui and Soyinka are instant classics available on the BBC website. All Nobel Prize speeches by African laureates are included in this collection.

It wouldn't be a text on African thought without a section dedicated to anti-colonial thought. Volume XII is dedicated to that purpose, incorporating the works of wa Thiong'o, Nkrumah and p'Bitek.

Volume XIII is dedicated to history. The texts chosen are those of Mazrui, Ogot, Kiwanuka and Karugire. Kaggwa's Empisa chronicles the customs of the Baganda from the earliest times. Studies of ancient Ethiopia and the Kingdom of Asante are also included here.

Afrocentrism forms the basis of Volume XIV. These texts include the writings of Molefi K Asante, Ivan Van Sertima, Cheik Anta Diop, and the one of the few Caucasian authors in these volumes, Martin Bernal. Given the controversy surrounding Afrocentrism, I've seen it fit to include two texts provide a counterargument; the books are by Berlinablau and Mary Lefkowitz.

In the modern world Africans have spread across several continents. On the American continent Africans have been inhabitants, and mostly treated as second class citizens, for the better part of four centuries. Therefore, Volume XV is dedicated to works of some African Americans of note. The texts here are from Frederick Douglass, WEB Du Bois, Booker T Washington, Thurgood Marshall, Barack & Michelle Obama, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.

The final Volume is purely in recognition of this blog's origins in the realm of Economics. As such Volume XVI covers some texts of Black Economists, including William A Lewis (the only black recipient of a Nobel Prize in Economics), Thomas Sowell, Loury, Harris and Wallace.

Below I propose Isabirye's 16-volumes of the Great Books of Africa, and in Eliot's tradition I believe spending 15 minutes a day immersed in one of these texts can drive one towards an Afrocentric awakening.

Volume I - Nelson Mandela; Long Walk to Freedom, 1993 Nobel Prize Lecture, Prison Letters, Ten Years of Democracy (2004 Steve Biko Memorial Lecture)

Volume II - Ancient Texts: The Instructions of Ptah Hotep, The Instructions of Kagemni, The Instruction of Amenemope, The Book of Coming Forth By Day, Kebra Nagast, Fetha Nagast, The Epic of Sundiata, Herodotus Histories Book II: Egypt  

Volume III - Poetry: Kunene's Emperor Shaka the Great, Senghor's Ethiopiques, Okigbo's Labyrinths, Bakare Gbadamosi. Yoruba Poetry, Romanus N. Egudu's Igbo Traditional Verse, Mazisi Kunene's Zulu Poems

Volume IV - Plays: Soyinka's Trials of Brother Jero, The Lion and the Jewel, Kongi's Harvest; Ruganda's The Burdens, Austin Bukenya's The Bride, Rotimi's The Gods Are Not To Blame

Volume V -  Novels: Achebe's Things Fall Apart, Arrow of God; wa Thiongo's Weep Not Child; Abraham's Mine Boy, Emecheta's Bride Price; Grace Ogot's The Other Woman, Land Without Thunder, Amadi's The Concubine, Kwei Armah's The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born, Tamia Moore's Murder in the Cassava Patch, RRR Dhlomo's An African Tragedy: A Novel in English by a Zulu Writer, Thomas Mofolo's Chaka: An Historical Romance.

Volume VI - Okot p'Bitek's epic poetry: Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol

Volume VII - Modern Novels: Adichie's Purple Hibiscus, Obioma's An Orchestra of Minorities, Dangarembga's This Mournable Body, Mengiste's The Shadow King, Nansubuga Makumbi's Kintu

Volume VIII -  Biographies: Nkrumah's The Autobiography, Luthuli's Let My People Go, Maathai's Unbowed, Soyinka's Ake, Oginga Odinga's Not Yet Uhuru: The Autobiography of Oginga Odinga, Tom Mboya's Freedom and After

Volume IX - Speeches: Thomas Sankara Speaks, Lumumba's May Our People Triumph, Oliver Tambo Speaks, Selassie's Selected Speeches, Cabral's Unity and Struggle, Tutu's Hope and Suffering

Volume X - Essays and Letters: Nyerere's Ujaama, Biko's I Write What I Like, p'Bitek's Artist the Ruler, Archbishop Kiwanuka's Pastoral Letter (November 1961)

Volume XI - Lectures: Luthuli's Africa and Freedom (1960 Nobel Prize Lecture), Mazrui's The African Condition (1979 Reith Lectures), Tutu's 1984 Nobel Prize Lecture, Soyinka's This Past Must Address its Present (1986 Nobel Lecture), Semakula Kiwanuka's Central Banking in Africa and the Challenge of Development (1992 JM Mubiru Memorial Lecture), Annan's 2001 Nobel Prize Lecture, wa Thiongo's Consciousness and African Renaissance (2003 Steve Biko Memorial Lecture), Soyinka's Climate of Fear (2004 Reith Lectures), Maathai's 2004 Nobel Prize Lecture, Kaberuka's The African Economy: 50 Years After Independence (2007 JM Mubiru Memorial Lecture), Gbowee's 2011 Nobel Prize Lecture, Johnson Sirleaf's A Voice for Freedom (2011 Nobel Prize Lecture), Mukwege's 2018 Nobel Prize Lecture, Abiy Ahmed's Forging a Durable Peace in the Horn of Africa (2019 Nobel Prize Lecture)

Volume XII - Anti-colonial literature: wa Thiongo's Decolonising the Mind, Nkrumah's Neo-Colonialism, p'Bitek's African Religions in Western Scholarship

Volume XIII - History: Mazrui's The Africans, BA Ogot's History of the Southern Luo, Kenyatta's Facing Mount Kenya, Kiwanuka's A History of Buganda, Karugire's Political History of Uganda, Kaggwa's Empisa, Sergew Selassie's Ancient and Medieval Ethiopian History, John Kofi Fynn's Asante and Its Neighbours, 1700-1807

Volume XIV - Afrocentrism: Molefi Asante's Afrocentric Ideas, Anta Diop's The African Origin of Civilisation, Van Sertima's They Came Before Columbus, Van Sertima's Egypt Revisited, Bernal's Black Athena, Berlinablau's Heresy in the University, Lefkowitz' Black Athena Revisited, Not Out of Africa

Volume XV - African Americans: Frederick Douglass' The Narrative, Washington's Up From Slavery, Washington's Building Character, Du Bois' The Souls of Black Folk, Du Bois' The Negro, King's Strength To Love, King's Why We Can't Wait, Malcolm X' Autobiography, Obama's Dreams from My Father, Michelle Obama's Becoming, Toni Morrison Beloved, Condolezza Rice's A Memoir, Thurgood Marshall's Supreme Justice: Speeches and Writings, Gates Jr.'s The Signifying Monkey, Baldwin's Go Tell It On the Mountain

Volume XVI - Black Economists: WA Lewis' The Theory of Economic Growth, WA Lewis' Development Planning, Sowell's Basic Economics, Sowell's Race and Economics, Glenn Loury's The Anatomy of Racial Inequality, Lincoln Harris' The Negro as a Capitalist, Wallace's Black Women in the Labour Force.

Ceteris. Paribus.

Sources

Kirsch, A., (2001). "The 'Five-foot Shelf' Reconsidered," Harvard Magazine, Volume 103, No.2. Nov-Dec 2001.

Dr. Eliot, C.W. An Ongoing Review and Discussion of the Harvard Classics.

Adler, M. J. (Ed.). (1952). The Great Ideas: A Syntopicon of Great Books of the Western World (Vol. 2). Encyclopaedia Britannica.

The Market For "Demons"

"Experts depend on the fact that you don’t have the information they do. Or that you are so befuddled by the complexity of their operation that you wouldn’t know what to do with the information if you had it. Or that you are so in awe of their expertise that you wouldn’t dare challenge them."

- S Levitt & S Dubner, Freakonomics, 

Greetings. We have smoothly welcomed back the idea of going to our respective places of worship after a six month shutdown. Still, one ponders upon certain matters that pertain to the state of the churches. Long before the lockdown, there were always concerns about the direction certain leaders and their organisations were taking. Some leaders of faith were wont to gain publicity by deeds other than those considered exemplary; verbal abuse, financial fraud, exploitation, etc. Showmanship, whereas not a negative virtue, is however a key aspect of attracting a congregation. With this background, I draw parallels with the current trend of religious affairs and economic wisdom of Akerlof.

The Market for Lemons

George Akerlof's most seminal work, The Market for Lemons, examines how information asymmetry influences the quality of goods traded in a market. Akerlof studied the market for used cars in the US, and tried to explain why only bad cars ("lemons") are left on the market. The sellers know more about their cars than the buyers, given the price offering from buyers the sellers will only be willing to part with the lemons. Overtime, the buyers' willingness to purchase cars will decrease, leading to sellers of high quality cars to leave the market. The result is an end to the existence of markets all together as Akerlof summarises

"For it is quite possible to have the bad driving out the not-so-bad driving out the medium driving out the not-so-good driving out the good in such a sequence of events that no market exists at all."

The key tenet here is information, or lack of it. When applied to churches, the modern preacher can be categorised into two;  the traditional preacher who attends to his flock on Sunday and is free to delegate some aspects to lay leaders and will not promise to drive out demons or deliver a ticket to Dubai or a husband for that matter! The second category, call him the new school preacher, won't spare any promise; ticket to Dubai, a wife,/husband, a job, prophesies, casting out demons, etc. The new school preacher is well versed in marketing his services. For purposes of theological debate beyond my grasp, I shall eliminate healing from both categories.

The traditional preacher, given he makes no promises (mostly because such preachers have a superior they answer to in the shape of bishop, mufti, and the like, i.e. think organised religion), the congregants are well informed about what they are getting from him. The gospel is preached on Sunday, children are baptised, couples are wed, etc. Basically he/she is "tending to the flock", as the Latin origin for the word pastor means shepherd.

The Market for Demons

On the other hand, the new school preacher knows quite a lot more about his "capabilities" than the congregants. One who pronounces oneself banisher of demons is the sole authority on ones capability, given there is no licensing board on said subject. The congregants are lured in with hopes of getting these promises and prophesies delivered, and in return they are willing to pay to have their hopes fulfilled.  

In the end, we find the congregation growing at the places of worship where miracles can be guaranteed compared to their counterparts that solely preach. It is a common phenomenon where people have resorted to only visiting the old school churches for wedding vows, while spending every waking hour at the new school places of worship. 

In terms of traffic and attendance figures, the new school preachers are driving out the old school preachers. And so in the market for demons, he who can guarantee immediate banishment stands a great chance of growing his/her congregations (and with that the collection basket is certain to grow). And as the Akerlof sequence of the bad driving out the good holds, if a religious market ceases to exist, this can only mean the triumph of atheism!

But are demons the preserve of urban centres? There's a disproportionate distribution of new school preachers in urban centres compared to rural centres. Streets in Kampala are littered with pastors proclaiming the second coming, there's all sorts of commercial advertising of pastors promising to deliver people from "ancestral bondage". In the rural areas, these new school churches and the commercial advertising of churches are almost absent. Even the witch doctors are not paying for commercial airtime to promote their abilities to banish demons. The answer could lie in the income distribution. 

The urban GDP per capita is considerably greater than that of rural areas. Case in point: at $3,250 per head, Wakiso (which is home to urban dwellings of Namugongo, Kira, Kireka, Najjera) has a higher GDP per capita than Kenya, the richest state in East Africa! The people in Wakiso will give more in offertory (not mentioning Thanksgiving, consultation fees with pastor, development contribution to the extension of the sitting area, etc) than their counterparts in Kabong (Kabong and the rest of Karamoja combined contribute less than 1% of GDP). The new school preacher will thrive more in the urban centres than he would if he ventured out in the rural areas.

The rural people get to keep their demons, for now! 

Ceteris. Paribus.

P.S.

Happy New Year. I hope this will be a fruitful year for us all.

Further Reading

Akerlof, G.A., (1970). "The Market for 'Lemons': Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism". Quarterly Journal of Economics. The MIT Press. 84 (3): 488–500

Cassidy, J., (2009). How Markets Fail: The Logic of Economic Calamities. New York: Farrar, Strauss & Giraux. Chapter 12: Hidden Information and the Market for Lemons, pp.151-165

Editor, (April 2020). "COVID-19 pandemic exposes church fraudsters- Pastor Male," The Independent. 

Levitt, S. D., & Dubner, S. J., (2005). Freakonomics. New York: William Morrow. Chapter 2: How Is the Ku Klux Klan Like a Group of Real-Estate Agents? pp.55-88

Rafa, M., Moyer, J. D., Wang, X., & Sutton, P. (2017). Estimating district GDP in Uganda.

Wang, X., Rafa, M., Moyer, J. D., Li, J., Scheer, J., & Sutton, P. (2019). Estimation and mapping of sub-national GDP in Uganda Using NPP-VIIRS imagery. Remote Sensing, 11(2), 163.

The Harvest Festival

Greetings. Believe it or not, there was life before Christmas. My post for today is not to take away anything from that holiday, nor to point out the African origins of Balthasar, one of the three wise men described in the 8th century by Saint Bede as being of "black complexion, with [a] heavy beard". However, Christmas is the story of hope, the arrival of a messiah and as the biggest Christian festival on the calendar it allows people to celebrate the best moments from the year and look forward to a new year. All these traits are evident in religions from all walks of life. 

Following the Afrocentric spirit of this blog I'll share some tenets of religious festivities from the Africa of old.

The New Moon 

Among the Basoga, the festival of the new moon was revered and people looked at it as an opportunity for fresh starts. 

The new moon was always hailed with delight and people  believed that it brought blessing. Mothers took their babies out and tried to make them look at the new moon, for that ensured health and rapid growth. 

The appearance of the new moon was a time of universal rejoicing, when people gathered together and dancing continued far into the night, with much beer-drinking. Men and women danced separately, the men on one side and the women on the other, and they danced either standing up or crouching as they preferred. 

When a baby was about a month old, the mother took it out when the new moon appeared and tried to induce it to look up at the new moon, for she believed that this would bring it blessing and ensure satisfactory growth. 

The Annual Festival

The Baganda of old days observed several religious festivals, but the principle one was held once a year. Leading up to the festival people observed celibacy, refrained from alcohol and made offerings to bless their labours of the coming year.

The god Mukasa held the highest rank among the gods of Buganda.  Mukasa was a benign god; he never asked for the life of any human being, but animals were sacrificed to him at the yearly festivals, and also at other times when the King, or a leading chief, wished to consult him. He had nothing to do with war, but sought to heal the bodies and minds of men. He was the god of plenty; he gave the people an increase of food, cattle, and children. From the legends still current it seems to be almost certain that he was a human being who, because of his benevolence, came to be regarded as a god. 

The drum (Betobanga) was beaten for the annual festival, on which  occasion the rhythm had to be kept up at intervals by day and by night until the end of the festival ; the drum also announced the appearance of the new moon, warned the people of the monthly cessation from work, and made known when any special festival was to be held, as for instance, when the King sent to consult the god. 

The principal ceremony was the annual festival, when the Kabaka sent his presents to the god, to secure a blessing on the crops and on the people for the year. The offering consisted of nine white cows, nine white goats, nine white fowls, nine loads of bark cloths, and nine loads of cowry-shells. The King's representative had to go to Gabunga, the chief of the canoes, who accompanied him to the island. ... The festival lasted at least twenty days, during which time the men had to observe the rule of chastity and to live apart from the women. When the festival was at an end, the priest sent the Kabaka a message from the god, and gave his representative a present of a cow. The present was sent through Gugii to the chief Gabunga, who handed it to the representative. At this festival crowds of people gathered together, because, when the ceremonies ended, the priest gave the blessing to them, their wives, children, cattle, and crops. It was from Mukasa that the great blessing of twins came; he was said to show his esteem for certain women in this manner.

The Calabash Festival

In the U.S., African Americans began commemorating Kwanzaa in the 1960s, observing the seven principles of African Heritage; unity, self-determination, collective work, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith. 

Kwanzaa largely borrowed from the Zulu festival Umkhosi Wokweshwama (Calabash Festival). When Shaka reigned as king, he expanded the importance of the festival giving it a greater military significance. A bull is sacrificed and the king crashes a calabash as a symbol to the people to start enjoying the fruits of the harvest.

Everywhere there were words praising the rule of Shaka.

His brothers began to distrust their own close friends.

At this very time Shaka sent a word

Ordering a great festival to be held throughout Zululand.

Each family and clan was to make a sacrifice to its Ancestors.

Young men and women had to stage their own gala dance.

Everywhere new songs and new poems were composed.

Shaka himself led the regiments to the mountain;

Here, it was said, King Jama used to gaze at the horizon.

The great concourse of regiments raised their voices and sang

They circled the mountain, imitating the giant river-snake.

Crowds followed the king to the flat top of the mountain

There to witness the games of strength initiated by Shaka.

People were adorned in their elegant finery,

Walking proudly, like girafes following the path of the forest.

When all the crowds had assembled,

A black bull was let loose into the arena

And ten young men were to kill it with bare hands.

The great mountains echoed with voices of praise.

After this event huge fires were lit to roast meat.

A season of plenty and fun dominated throughout Zululand.

In many regions large fires could be seen

Attesting to the feasting of this festival.

From afar could be heard the raised voices singing in the night.

By their songs they invited others,

Until the whole nation seemed absorbed in song

 

Happy Holidays!

Ceteris. Paribus.

References

Kaggwa, A. (1934). The Customs of the Baganda (E. Kalibbala, trans.).

Karenga (Maulana.). (1998). Kwanzaa: A celebration of family, community, and culture. University of Sankore Press.

Kunene, M. (1979). Emperor Shaka the great: A Zulu epic (Vol. 211). East African Publishers. pp. 319-321.

Lubogo, Y. K. (1960). History of Busoga. EALB.

Roscoe, J. (1911). The Baganda: An account of their native customs and beliefs. Macmillan. pp. 290, 297-299.

Roscoe, J. (1924). The Bagisu and other tribes of the Uganda protectorate: The third part of the report of the Mackie ethnological expedition to Central Africa (Vol. 3). The University Press. pp. 108, 116, 124.

Where Men Lag Behind

Greetings. The month of November is dedicated towards raising awareness about the state of men's health, culminating in the International Men's Day on the 18th. In these modern times a key focus is placed on the awareness of prostate cancer, testicular cancer, mental health and suicide prevention. By contrast, the women's month of March is dedicated towards focusing on celebrating the achievements of women and the strides still to be made to uplift women in all spheres of women. There are several statistics brought to light where women are still behind their male counterparts; income, education attainment, career advancement, participation in government, etc. However, there is one statistic that stands out where men lag behind the fairer sex; life expectancy.

Life expectancy is an estimation of the average number of years a person is expected to live. Increases in life expectancy have been found to yield significant increments in population as well as a "small positive effect on GDP." 

The most recent figures from World Bank place the life expectancy for Uganda at  62.973 years for 2018. Over the course of 58 years (1960-2018), the life expectancy in Uganda rose by 28 years; an average increase of 4 extra months on individual life expectancy per annum. In that period, the statistic has been on an upward trend except for the period between 1981 and 1995, where it declined steadily, hitting an all-time low of 43.824 years. Some factors that could be attributed to this include the war between the NRA rebels and the government of 1980-1985, the emergence of the AIDS scourge in the late 1980s and the early 1990s. The data seems to suggest AIDS affected the life expectancy more than Idi Amin's reign of terror!

Source: World Bank

When comparing the  life expectancy between the genders over the course of 58 years, the average male life expectancy in Uganda is below that of females by 4.15 years. This is not unique to Uganda. Across her regional neighbours, the average life expectancy is higher in females than in males, with differences ranging from 2.70 (Rwanda) to 4.19 (Kenya). The global gap is between six to eight years.

Country	2018 Life Expectancy	Average Male Life Expectancy (1960-2018)	Average Female Life Expectancy (1960-2018)	Gap
Uganda	62.973	48.04	52.19	4.15
Kenya	66.342	53.77	57.96	4.19
Tanzania	65.015	49.90	53.06	3.16
Rwanda	68.70	47.09	49.99	2.90
South Sudan	57.604	42.79	45.49	2.70
Burundi	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Sub-Saharan Africa	61.257	48.38	51.48	3.1

In his 2016 article, Shmerling listed some factors that explain the reason men die earlier than their female counterparts. Primarily men take bigger risks, what he attributed to "biological destiny" i.e. the frontal lobe - in charge of judgement and consideration of consequences - in males develops much slower than in females, and as a result men partake in detrimental lifestyles at a higher risk than women.

Secondly, men die of heart disease more often and at a younger age than women i.e. lower oestrogen levels in males may contribute to this as well as unfavourable cholesterol and high blood pressure. Further more, men being on average bigger than women works against the former; larger animals tend to die younger than smller ones.

Perhaps the most striking reasons were men committing more suicides than women, men being less socially connected than women, and men avoiding doctors/ skipping routine health screens at a higher rate than women. The former two reasons point towards the mental health in men; people with less social connections are more susceptible to depression and that same category is more likely to commit suicide. 

On the issue of men skipping routine health checks, a 2013 study, led by Makerere's Dr. Haawa Nakandi, on the incidence of prostate cancer in Uganda can shade more light on this. Despite 65% of men being susceptible to prostate cancer, only 22.9% considered getting a test to confirm. The number that actually got a test was even lower, at only 3.5%. The attitude towards the illness also doesn't help, as indicated in the excerpt below,

When one of the participants was asked if he had ever considered going for prostate cancer screening, he tensely asked, “For what?” and another young man in his twenties replied “But that cancer is for old men and we are still young, so why should we waste time and money going for checkups?”

The hard guy mentality still reigns supreme!

What can be done?

Shmerling asserts that these factors are mainly behavioural and can be modified. All men should make an effort to go for routine health checks, exercise regularly and keep in touch with their friends.

A key downside to getting tested for prostate cancer revolved around availability of information. Dr. Nakandi and her team did recommend a rollout of community based health education programs. Given the ethnic diversity in this country, these programs can be in a wide range of the native languages. This will help scale back the misconceptions and lack of knowledge about men's health issues.

As for the issue regarding the growth of the frontal lobe in the brain, I think Mukama Nayamba could have an ingredient that can boost it. We could be sitting on a gold mine there.

As you prepare to let go of your Mo, be a good lad and watch your health.

Ceteris. Paribus.

P.S.

MILESTONE: This is the 25th blogpost on Stupid Economics. It took two years to get to the quarter century mark; that's an average of 1 article per month. And I've not yet delivered the article on why the price of rolex/kikomando never goes up, as promised in the inaugural post! Clearly gakyali mabaga![1]

---

[1] Translates into “So little done, so much more to do” or “Be determined, the battle rages on.”

References

Acemoglu, D., & Johnson, S. (2007). Disease and development: the effect of life expectancy on economic growth. Journal of Political Economy, 115(6), 925-985.

Feenstra, R. C., Inklaar, R., & Timmer, M. P. (2015). The next generation of the Penn World Table. American Economic Review, 105(10), 3150-82

Nakandi, H., Kirabo, M., Semugabo, C., Kittengo, A., Kitayimbwa, P., Kalungi, S., & Maena, J. (2013). Knowledge, attitudes and practices of Ugandan men regarding prostate cancer. African Journal of Urology, 19(4), 165-170.

Shmerling, R. (2016). Why men often die earlier than women. Boston: Harvard Health. Retrieved from https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/why-men-often-die-earlier-than-women-201602199137  

White, A., & Holmes, M.(2006). Patterns of mortality across, 44, 15-44.

What GDP Per Capita Says About Your MP

Greetings. The recent primary elections of the ruling National Resistance Movement have shed some light on the status of our democracy. The age old demons of voter intimidation, bribery and violence were cast in a new light. For years, we've known the political campaigning system is a quid pro quo arrangement between the politicians and the electorate; in such a system one does not need a strong manifesto to contest. 

Political experts have voiced their concerns about the salaries paid to the Members of Parliament being the chief impetus behind the current state of our electoral process. However, are we really paying our legislators exorbitantly?

A Ugandan Member of Parliament takes home UGX 25 million per month, not including allowances. So for the calendar year, the legislator takes home UGX 300 million (US$ 80,475). In principle, these are just numbers, without significance. However, one has to set a benchmark upon which to view these figures. 

How do MPs salaries compare with the standard of living?

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) measures the total income of everyone in the economy. This single measure captures all economic production by individuals, companies and the government. The proportion of this measure to the total population, GDP per capita, gives an idea about the standard of living, i.e. the average income per person in the economy. According to the World Bank, Uganda's GDP per capita stood at US$ 642.78 a year. The annual salary of MPs is 118 times greater than that amount! For each shilling the voter earns, his/her elected representative is taking home 118 shillings, and as noted earlier this doesn't include allowances and other add-ons. 

Voters earning at the level of GDP per capita would have to work for 118 years in order to earn what the MP earns in 1 year! This is appalling for a country whose average life expectancy is 62.52 years, i.e. you're likely to die two years into your retirement! If the average person works between the ages of 25 and 60 (35 years of working), this means three-generations of voters of the same family would have to put in productive work to earn the same amount the legislator makes in one year!

How do other countries compare?

The first point of comparison would be our neighbours. Across the border in Kenya, the legislative arm of government is a bi-cameral house. Senators take home US$200,000 a year whereas the MPs in the lower house earn $58,744 per annum. Kenya has the highest GDP in East Africa, at US$1,710.51 per person each year. The Senators and MPs respectively earn 116 times and 34 times the per capita figure. In comparison with Uganda, this is a modest range from the national average.

One could call the United States the progenitors of the modern democracy - their dubious suffrage history notwithstanding. Their legislative arm is also bicameral, however members of the House of Representatives and the Senate earn the same annual salary of US$174,000 per year, absent of allowances. With a GDP per capita of US$ 63,051, a Congressman/woman earns just under three times that much.

The United Kingdom presents a more self-effacing scenario. Members of the House of Lords, do not earn a salary but can opt to receive £305 (US$ 396) in attendance allowance per day, as well as travel expenses and access to subsidised restaurants. In the House of Commons, an MP earns £81,932 (about US$106,986) per year. This figure is just more than double the UK's per capita GDP (US$ 46,827).

Country	GDP per capita (in US$)	Legislator Salary: GDP per capita
Uganda	956.00	117.8363
Tanzania	1,050.00	18.7550
Kenya	1,710.51	75.6336
United Kingdom	46,827.00	2.2847
United States	63,051.00	2.7597

Studies of GDP find that countries with a higher GDP per capita have better childhood nutrition, healthcare, education etc., than their less-endowed counterparts. A caveat should be added that countries with lower GDPs tend to spend a huge portion of that on their legislators.

Ceteris. Paribus.

References

Awich, L., (May 2019). "New house allowance puts MPs' salary way above world super powers," in The Star.

Dickinson, E., (January 2011). "GDP: A Brief History," in Foreign Policy Magazine.

Editor, (August 2019). "Analysis: MPs Salaries," in The Observer.

UK Parliament (October 2020). Pay and expenses for MPs. UK Parliament, https://www.parliament.uk/about/mps-and-lords/members/pay-mps/ 

US Senate (October 2020). Senate Salaries since 1789. US Senate, https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/briefing/senate_salaries.htm