This section is meant to share the views of our talented writers. We are featuring Kenneth Mwesigwa who works with the Hope Education Network in uganda. He can be reached by email at noregrets@counsellor.com
47 Years of Uganda's Independence By Kenneth Mwesigwa
People commemorate birthday anniversaries, marriage anniversaries, work anniversaries, business anniversaries, school anniversaries and even death anniversaries. Commemoration is often dominated by celebration of good moments and mourning of bad moments. It is very rare for people to deeply reflect on what has transpired through the times in order to take lessons for the future.
Celebration is often characterised by feasting all sorts of drinks, varied types of foods and merry-making. Speeches at such moments seem to be an interruption to many people. Mourning is not always attractive to many of us and we often attend mourning anniversaries with a public relations motive Ôof what will people sayÕ other than genuine concern.There is an impending anniversary to commemorate and am pondering whether I should celebrate, mourn, or do both. In case you have forgotten, about 30 days have past since (9th and 10th September) bloody riots in which approximately 28 people were pronounced dead, many injured, hundreds jailed, a police station and properties destroyed.
Remember also that the situation calmed down as quickly as it came and we are back to business as usual. A volatile mixture of suddenly bad and suddenly good makes me feel that I should neither celebrate nor mourn during this impending anniversary but do something distinct.
Feel with me if you can. Am talking about 9th October which is UgandaÕs independence anniversary coming a few days ahead. It is one of those anniversaries when lowly and highly placed people in Uganda ridicule each other, highlight the mistakes of opponents, cover up their own mistakes, down-play the achievements of their opposers and hype their own achievements. When all has been said, we swindle a coin or two, we turn to feasts, we turn to fulfilling unholy appointments and we batter our spouses for not being good enough in one aspect or another.
We then forget about it all and go along with routine activity- business as usual. We could choose to be distinct this year round. Consider the result if every Ugandan decides to take a moment of deep reflection on the journey Uganda has taken over the last 47 years in order to undertake meaningful evaluation of our nation and obtain insights into what the future should be. If we ignore this and choose to be passive or indifferent, three generations are running at a very great risk- the adults, the youth and the children not the elders of course.
I desire to leave some questions for you to deeply reflect upon. What was Uganda looking to 47 years ago? Where is Uganda going? Where should Uganda be going? Every Ugandan and others who truly (and honestly) seek the wellbeing of Uganda need to meditate on those simple and straightforward questions.