Introduction
When decades, back Professor John S. Mbiti wrote in his famous book “African Religions and Philosophy” about the ‘Living-Dead’, he was referring to deceased ancestors, who in the African thought and belief, are not dead, but have crossed the bridge through death to another life, after earthly life.
In this article, however, I would like to tread a delicate ground of reversing what Mbiti meant by asking the question: Is Uganda a society of the “living dying?” Is Uganda undergoing its “Dark Ages” as a society?
I want that social and cultural anthropologists/analysts to closely look at the following symptoms that I may call “a tip of an anthill” hiding what the ants are doing in the heart of the anthill down below; the African society may not be familiar with the expression “tip of an iceberg!”
1- Social Outlook on Suffering and Death.
What are the symptoms? The first major symptom is insensitivity and indifference to suffering and death. In the short span I have lived on planet earth, I have observed a transition from the traditional life that used to respect life, to the modern and contemporary (so-called lifestyle) that tends to be negligent and wreck-less when it comes to protecting human life, something absurd and unfortunate! Have we, Ugandans, gotten so accustomed and immune to death, because it is within, and around us, on a daily basis? As Shakespeare wrote, “Death comes for us all, even for kings!” Eventually all of us must die, at some stage. But why give death a hand to quicken or precipitate our demise?
We all know that years back, we were invaded by the scourge of HIV/Aids. At first this became a major concern, because it claimed a lot of lives under degrading and debilitating situations. Many of the victims of this sickness were rejected and abandoned to die in isolation, including heroes Musicians like the Late Bongoley Lutaaya. But soon after there came the introduction of ARVs, which revolutionized the treatment of the AIDs sickness. Once the victims of the sickness were assured that the meds can keep them alive longer, some of them went on rampage marrying and involvement in promiscuous behaviors, even with minors - because they know that they are innocent and not yet infested with the virus. It is a silently known fact, that the wealthy guys entice young girls with money: irresistible and attractive donations, to sleep with them, so grave and abhorrent practices! Parents and mentors must persuasively advise the young ones to have a keen eye to suspicious advances and say a strong NO to them or run for their lives’ sake!
Recently media reports mention that HIV/Aids is on an increase, at least by 7% among married couples. The question is: if one is assured of 100% ready “goods” at any time, why crave for an extra 20%? Some woman told me, “All women are all the same, in other words!” Men and women in all categories, let us have the required discipline to keep all of us alive.
In another article which I intend to publish in the Runyanko-kiga (or call it Runyakitara), I posit that a new kind of lunatism has invaded the Ugandan society, otherwise why are people doing things that used to be considered as strange, and why are so many things that one might consider bizarre taking place around us?
2- Addiction to Media: a killer of social interaction.
It is no longer news that one who has witnessed what is currently taking place in our contemporary society, when by chance travels by either public or private means, or has sat in a restaurant, office waiting for an an appointment, or waiting for Church/Mosque service to begin, must have observed that a big part of those present are on the phone - either calling, or checking messages on email or Whatup!
People seem to be preoccupied with what’s written in the media and taken up by the seemingly exciting postings there. Even when one attempts conversation with someone, s/he is given half ear! While visiting, some families switch on the TV, and each one keeps eyes gazing on it, and can only listen half-heatedly! Some people have their meals served, and they hurriedly gulp their food with eyes fixed on the screen. One is willing to abandon his/her meal to attend to an endearing phone call that lasts an hour! Strangely enough Episcopal, Clerical and Religious circles are not exceptions to this new development either! It is unfortunate that the once valuable oral social interaction is coming to a senile phase!
3- The Hazards in the Institutions and Means of Transport
o Some Institutions and means of transportation are increasingly becoming death traps! In recent times, even as I write some evil-hearted individuals connived, bought fuel, sprayed it, and closed under double lock the dormitory full of innocent students in their unsuspecting quiet sleep, and burnt them up alive - apparently on trivial grounds!
o In addition, the country has not recovered from the tragedy of the people who perished in the boat accident on Lake Victoria: most of these were celebrities, business men and women of high caliber, that supposedly meant well to go on a pleasure trip and enjoy life. Unfortunately it is alleged that they did not take formal advice from safety guard officials (including caution from the police), and those who are familiar with the hazards of ferry riding. And now the whole nation is in mourning, because of losing honorable and resourceful people. What a pity! Does this emphasize the point of the “living-dying” community?
To the above unfortunate events, which by the way, are not isolated, because several schools have had similar treacherous incidents, for one reason or another, we cannot but add the vicious cycle of domestic violence. Some men reach the extent of raping their legal wives, when they are not in the mood or indisposed for sexual intimacy; others beat them up in the bedrooms, including verbal abuse of all sorts. Yet, however prevalent in men’s circles, this is not a reserve to only men; some women are known to be participating in similar atrocities, including bewitching their husbands and burning them with acid.
4- Emerging Strange Phenomena
The strangest phenomenon the African society is experiencing in our time is parents having sex with their siblings: protégés and sometimes their own daughters (the use of house girls is usual and indisputable practice!) There used to be taboos that we’re used as a measure to prevent such rotten behavior, but taboos were trashed as archaic and outdated, and now we are reaping muddy consequences. What a society?!
5- Events in Open Society
Let us move to another domain in open society. We are grateful to the government for doing tremendous work regarding improving our road networks; most of our highways and main roads are paved with asphalt and tarmac! For sure improvement in infrastructure is a positive sign in our development as a country, for which we have to thank our political, civil leaders and powers that be. How we wish that more planning be put in having what I may call “stringent, even severe measures and regulations” to ensure harmonious driving and road safety. I wonder how it feels like for a driver or road user to be caught up in traffic in Kampala for three to four hours, or even more? Will there be a time when we get disgusted with traffic (taxis, bodabodas, etc) crisscrossing roads at high speed like agitated bees or red ants, putting pedestrians and passengers at risk? Every minute, hour, week, month, and year, traffic is increasing on our roads - and this is bound to go on for generations to come, whether we like it or not. Yet, such an increase in traffic seems to have taken planners by surprise, and may be they too, like many of us, are overwhelmed, as they look at this turn of events, cupping their chins mesmerized! But for goodness sake, how long can we afford or endure the situation of losing at least 8 bodaboda drivers and their passengers per week, without counting those casualties that are injured and will be maimed and incapacitated for life? Is this not a society of “the living dying?”
6- Eating and Drinking Habits: Some Concerns
When we move to the realm of food and drink (supposedly beverages for nourishment), we get even more scared about our lives. In the past our ancestors ate and drank to live. The surviving old generations have managed to live and die centurions plus. One of the major reasons for their survival and long life span is their healthy eating and drinking habits. In the past, most of our elders drunk alcohol at meals, and that’s it. But today alcohol has been made into a separate menu, that can be taken for pleasure and at leisure at any time of the day or night. The result is obvious: more Alcoholics and ailing men and women, some of whom society has, or is in the process of writing off, as unproductive and useless!
It seems to me also that “we are eating to die, not to live!” We eat meat that is laced with formalin (a drug that is meant to preserve corpses for longer); poultry products are also contaminated with chicken feed that is suspect: some of the poultry feeds are mixed with HIV/Aids drugs, which are allegedly meant to to fasten chicken growth and rapidly fatten them. Even layers food is no exception. Pigs feeds are no different. Of course it is no longer news that cattle are injected and sprayed with drugs, meant to do away with worms and ticks, but their aftermath ends up in human food supply. It is latent news that even fish, which people still trusted are now being fed on artificial feeds! The story touches plants that are grown using artificial fertilization... Can we now wonder why even children as young as five, to ladies, men, before forty years are contracting and dying off, because of cancer, which could be avoided, if we got proper advice from responsible dietitians and nutritionists, to warn the public to carefully safeguard their lives about the use of oils like ‘butto’ (which is widely used but is a silent killer)? One business lady intimated to me graphically: “We know that ‘butto etta!’ but it is the cheapest we can use, and reuse, to make potato chips and make a living!” Money before life!
7- Elements that Define Civilized Life
It is commonly said that four things define how civilized a country and its people are: sanitation on the cooking areas (kitchens), hygiene in the toilets and places of refuse; the way country folks treat the young and old people; the way they treat, bury their dead and take care of burial grounds. On the last point, it is for real that when a family sees that their member is ailing away, and has very little chance to live, he or she is carried to some wilderness and left there to die a ‘natural death’ or be devoured by wild animals.
In societies which do not have tribal or clan burial grounds, tombs are left to catch bush, and sometimes left to disappear with time. It can also happen that the family sells the property off, and they immigrate elsewhere, leaving their beloved dead to excavation by some caterpillar of an investor who buys the property to develop the land! We commend the efforts of missionaries, and local clergy, who too after them, for initiating the efforts of creating cemeteries and burial grounds that are kept clean, in honor of the deceased country men and women- even though we have not yet attained the standards observable in Euro-American societies. If we ca not take care of our deceased (the living-dead) we are likely not to fully respect the candidates to the after life.
Interestingly enough, in some African cultures, you can hardly find a “kasilusilu” (children that have....condition), maimed, or old people that are an inconvenience to day to day living or movements. Why? Once a baby is born and is observed to be abnormal is quietly and summarily suffocated! As a result you can find people that are one-eyed or with a broken tooth, he/she could be deaf - defects that can be tolerated. Such actions towards those whom nature has not favored are treated so to save social image. This sounds like the attempt to create a perfect society on planet earth - an elusive venture…!
I have no doubts that whomever came up with the idea of establishing Babies Homes, and Aged People’s Homes, maybe borrowing a leaf from Western countries, was good-willed and meant well. But in the African context such an idea is I’ll-placed, and keeps on aborting, to put it crudely! Children, however much they may be well looked after, when they are herded like calves (young cows), they lack the much needed childhood love, they fail to develop heathy individual personality and normal personal behavior, etc. Children in families need parental love, so that they learn from a person as their role model. But in the Babies Home, they are being looked after by several workers, some of whom are even abusive and not nice, unfortunately. For our information, Babies Homes in Western countries are outdated: children without parents are allocated to foster homes, where adopting parents are willing to take good care of them. If that can take place in those countries, why can’t we do the same, we who pride ourselves as “social oriented?”
How about our beloved elderly folks, what’s their fate when their progeny gets educated, acquire jobs that oblige them to move to cities or places far away from the villages where their aged or aging parents live? I hope we shall not be quick to be tempted to resort to the “give-away” solution of creating the so-called “old citizens/ nursing homes”, where grand parents or even younger, find themselves enclosed between four walls, being fed and cared for by care staff; with scanty visits from family members. The only thing they are waiting for is a decent death! Such elders are lonely and scared. What happened to the good African practice of having one of the sons building in the village, and making sure that the wife or daughter stay nearby and take care of the elderly parents. Taking them to the city or places of work, where the old dad or mom stays at home gazing at TV programs that sometimes do not make sense to them, has proved to be futile too. Let us be realistic, “You can take a person from his or her village, but you cannot take the village out of them!” In short, we cannot afford to neglect the needs of our babies growing up, not those of the old folks that are heading to eternity.
8- Further Concerns that Touch Ugandans and Africans in General
Let us now turn to considerations that also touch safeguarding life. We all know that the sanitary conditions in most rural kitchens, and those in toilet facilities, if any leave a lot to be desired. Even in urban areas, where public toilets are provided for, and are supposedly regularly cleaned by paid personnel are not yet to the standard. It is also speculated that in some of the city slums, dwellers use ‘buveera’ (plastic bags) to ease themselves and they throw the contents next day on garbage heaps, or in other sewers. Yet, the kitchen and toilets are places that can easily transmit contamination and sickness. The question is, do users of the latter place wash their hands each time they use those facilities? Do they shake hands thereafter?
9- Conclusion
As I conclude this article, like the Biblical John the Baptist, I feel like a lonely voice crying in the wilderness of lukewarmness and silence. The God of the Old Testament used to speak to Israelites in thunder and fire; and even the Commandments He gave through Moses, were delivered high on Mount Sinai. Perhaps after further reflection, God realized that such methodology was not salvific for sinful humanity. That’s how He considered plan be, which eventually worked: to send His only Son, who took on flesh and blood, live among humans, experience all that we go through, including suffering and death (and rise from the dead, an aspect that we too desire) at the end of this earthly life. So, if God was wise enough to come down, shouldn’t our educated class follow suit? Amidst the concerns that have been raised in this article, where is the voice of our social analysts, and cultural anthropologists? Are they closely looking at the concerns I have raised, and sensitized the masses about them? Are they willing to come down the mountain of their comfort zones (seats of parliament and high ranking positions) reach out to the people and address concrete and critical needs? Caution: there is tendency in Uganda to politicize all that is heard, said and read, one wonders why? Let my writings not be interpreted as political in nature, even when they may sometimes touch politics. My aim is to speak out and promote good citizenry, as simple as that!
Fr. Bonaventure Turyomumazima
Nyamitanga - Mbarara
1 December 2018