THE GOOD, BAD, UGLY AND SHAMEFULY SIDE OF 2012, A YEAR TO REMEMBER IN THE HISTORY OF UGANDA (Part 1)

Jean-Paul Bartre asserts that “Everything has been figured out, except how to live”. True to this philosophy that I fully buy in to, I must admit that whereas everything has been figured out, not everyone has been able to figure out what needs to be figured out. That’s an illusion yet philosophically translated in to the unexplained mystery of life.

My nation Uganda, tells us of a nation where everything seemed figured out; yet in many ways disfigured in an oblivious state for many. Such is an understatement that many would view as being unappreciative or rather unpatriotic if a better word should be used. Uganda is nevertheless that nation that time after time, season to season has countless scandals, empty undignified talk and mostly an endless tale of melodramatic occurrences.

At the tail end of 2011, everyone or least to say most of us had anticipated a less dramatic but prosperous 2012 given that this year from the spiritual, to the mathematical, the political and economic point of view the year had a number of significantly awaited testimonies – Uganda at 50, the Jubilee year. Spiritually the bible speaks of the year of Jubilee, which is 49 hence prophetic manifestations had to take place in 2011 to set a ground for divine blessings, divine protection, divine favour, justice, equity, setting captives free, writing off debts, and many others for the 50^th year (Leviticus 25:8-End & 27:16-End); infact the so many prophesies that had been spoken of at the End of year prayer alters and celebrations had defined 2012 as the year of total change to receive divine intervention from God. On the other hand mathematically, Uganda was turning 50 years, an age factor that is usually attached to wisdom, maturity, success, financial and social stability as well as respect.

Politically, it was our year of ‘Uhuru Fete’, 50 years of independence. To say the least, after 5 decades of self-governance, it was a time to showcase why Africans may be in this case Ugandans had to fight to get back what belonged to them. Economically we had to openly speak to the whites that having gotten back our resources, we have been able to sustainably manage and distribute them given these developmental patterns for the last 50 years.

Therefore 2012 factually had its good, bad, ugly and shameful sides. Thoughtfully to recall, the year ended with more curses than blessings leaving many Ugandans nursing wounds that will take time to heal. The year 2012 was therein greeted with the highest inflation rate (a double figure that went up to 28%) and bank loan rates tripling up to 50% from the normal 18%, never to have been faced in this economy and was concluded with the highest number yet biggest (in terms of cash & profiles involved) corruption scandals the country has ever had and summarized by the passing of a young politician, arrests & collection of signatures to recall of MPs to parliament a month prior to parliamentary opening causing a relentless unrest both for the executives and the legislatures.

Reading Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s “Weep Not, Child”, Boro, son to Mr. Ngotho who in many ways is considered courageous and tough has a hard task; to redeem the stolen land back to his people. Ngotho a renown shamba man is bitterly reminded by his son Boro that though he was considered and loved by his master Mr. Howlands as the most trusted and honest black shamba man, the land for which he earned his bread from a foreigner actually belonged to him before the big war.  The same fertile land God (Murungu) through Adam (Gikuyu) and Mumbi (Eve) had handled over to the blacks.

At home he is a defeated father, whose sons considered not only poorer than a church mouse but also a coward of the country. His sons are troubled at how he betrayed the clan by not only working for the white man but also allowing the white man to use them to fight a 'white man's war' only to come back home when the same white men had grabbed their land as a reward for fighting; another bitter reward was one of his sons dying in that war. A traitor in the names of Mr. Jacobo who is detested by the villagers enters into this white-black confusion to become the biggest traitor in the land for which Njoroge asks and laments; I quote “why is it that black men never stick together? For a white man is a white man but a black man who pretends to be a white man is more dangerous”.

The urgency to have the black Moses finally redeem the land has been in waiting for years as did the 40years of waiting and languishing in the desert by the Israelites. One of the preachers to quote the author’s own words, he spoke of “the calamity that had befallen the Gikuyu people, a tribe that long ago walked with God, a tribe that had been chosen by God himself who had given them a beautiful land”; for which Njoroge often wondered whether God had wrecked his own plan.

What calamity is this that has befallen Uganda as a nation and Ugandans as a people worried everyone in 2012? Has God indeed wrecked his own plan for Uganda today? Or have her own people betrayed their own land as did Mr. Jacobo?. Did 2012 elude us of the divine opportunities as had been prophetically told in the holy word in the year of Jubilee simply because of our uncontrollable sins? How much more could we have reaped had we only been faithful towards doing well, acting in and with love and practicing justice?

As I complete this 1^st series of this long Ugandan 2012 tale, there is belief, in fact from the friends I have talked to, that 2012 was the year when we “totally got divorced by what we seemed to have valued” as a nation. The value that we once had of equity, love, forgiveness, faithfulness, joy and self-control for which we could denote as the fruits of the holy spirit.