The UYD Political Academy

Change will come when an informal - just for purpose critical mass of individuals that belong to the various political parties, civil society organisations, cultural institutions, security agencies, academia, business, etc.. is formed

All earlier efforts of formalising inter party cooperation for the purpose of causing political change have failed, largely because there is no unity within the individual parties themselves. (Factions in UPC, DP, FDC, JEEMA etc). There are also factions in Kingdoms. Factions in Business Associations...

We must construct a non formal cross party, cross discipline, cross ideology, change infrastructure with one objective: to overthrow the current regime. Period.

When it is well organised, the parties and civil society and other sectors whether United or not will have to fall in line or perish( in relevance).

By Patricia Namyalo

Thank Mpigi

WHAT IS (IN) TRADITION? WHAT IS CULTURE?

(ENNONO HAS NO ENGLISH TRANSLATION)

I've spent over a decade studying Buganda's heritage and its genesis, not just through written text (there isn't much), but through direct contact with Elders, Spiritualists and the Abawonge (the dedicated ones).

As far as the human condition is concerned, our Ancestors left no stone unturned, literally. From the day you enter this world to the day you move onto the next, there is a ceremony, a ritual. Cultivation, husbandry, hunting, building, Spirituality, twins, right up to the system of governance at the top; there is 'ennono' for it.

The only ancient civilization in terms of sophistication and fairness in norms and traditions that I can equate Buganda and Bunyoro-Kitara with, is Kamit/Kemet/Ancient Egypt. It's no surprise then, that Pharoahs used to make pilgrimages to what they considered The Holy Land and Cradle of Creation, Nnalubaale.

Just like we've seen the chaos that comes from destroying the balance of nature and the environment, the disregarding of Ennono in favor of adopting empty, unbalanced cultures has led to the severe decline of our humanity.

While modernity sees the unbridled possession of wealth through greed, gluttony and outright theft as growth, our Ennono considers it witchcraft; buba bulogo okufiiriza abantu bonna n'ensi yo gwe ogaggawale nga ssekin'omu.

CLANS AND TOTEMS

Our Ancestors were not University graduates, but they were scientifically clued in enough to be graduates of life and nature's laws! The system of clans and totems for instance, helped to preserve the balance of nature and the environment around them. Just think, what if we were allowed to eat all the available plants, birds and animals? The clan and totems system ably took care of that.

Abaganda considered it taboo to grow any food (mu kisenyi) wetlands, nor was living there permitted. Forests, wetlands and hills were the preserve of benevolent Spirits (Emisambwa/Emisangwa) that were here first. That helped preserve the balance of nature and the environment.

INBREEDING is taboo in the Buganda clan system. You cannot marry your cousin, under ANY circumstance(s). Hasn't Genealogical science recently stated that inbreeding causes DNA chaos in both humans and animals? Well, the Ancestors foresaw this.

MODERNITY?

Yesterday, His Excellency the President talked about the need for Africa 'not to be held back by ancient traditions in order to progress'. My question is, who decides what should be kept and what should be left behind?

Paying taxes to the State, standing while the national anthem is being played/sang or getting a national ID for instance; those are modern traditions, unlike ours that are Millennia old. What if we decided that these don't work for us either, wouldn't the State throw us in prisons?

The nation of Buganda and Bunyoro-Kitara for instance, have never recovered from the downright foolishness of disregarding their Roots for the last one hundred and twenty years, in wholesale favor of foreign ones; hook, line and sinker. And in the doldrums we shall remain.

Cutting yourself off from your Ennono is akin to cutting off the amblical cord from a baby in the womb. It's cutting the very branch you're seated on!

I do not speak about the norms of any other nation from which I do not hail from, I'm only speaking about MY heritage.

Do not change norms and age old Ennono that you did not create nor formulate. Simply drop them entirely, create your own culture and declare oneself 'nation-less'.

Better still, create a new "modern" nation ("tribe") and dump the one of your Ancestors who put you here. Anti abaakuno temukoowa kwebuya Mizimu, musula muleruka.

☥🔥☥

The struggle continues

The struggle continues

hip-hop

Valsero is a prominent hip-hop artist and political activist in Cameroon. He has always used his voice to stand up for human rights and speak truth to power! On 26th January, Valsero was arrested after he participated in a pro-democracy peaceful demonstration against the government of Cameroon. He was held incommunicado for several weeks and later presented to a military court. He was charged with 8 offences including rebellion, insurrectional movement and hostilities against the nation. Some of those charges carry the death penalty. He is being arbitrarily detained alongside more than 130 other people for participating in a peaceful protest which was violently repressed by the security forces.
Isn't the script too familiar?

Remember, Cameroon is ruled by Paul Biya an 86 year old autocrat who came to power in 1982.

We stand in solidarity with him and all the people of Cameroon in their quest for democratic government. My message to you, as it is to the people of Uganda, is that no matter how fearsome the forces of evil are, they never win in the end. Hang in there. We shall overcome.

The Academy

The Reunion is on tomorrow

BUSIA NOMINATIONS COMMENCE

The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig and from pig to man again, but already it was impossible to say which was which

The animals crowded round the van. "Good−bye, Boxer!" they chorused, "good−bye!"
"Fools! Fools!" shouted Benjamin, prancing round them and stamping the earth with his small hoofs. "Fools!
Do you not see what is written on the side of that van?"
That gave the animals pause, and there was a hush. Muriel began to spell out the words. But Benjamin
pushed her aside and in the midst of a deadly silence he read:
" 'Alfred Simmonds, Horse Slaughterer and Glue Boiler, Willingdon. Dealer in Hides and Bone−Meal.
Kennels Supplied.' Do you not understand what that means? They are taking Boxer to the knacker's! "
A cry of horror burst from all the animals. At this moment the man on the box whipped up his horses and the
van moved out of the yard at a smart trot. All the animals followed, crying out at the tops of their voices.
Clover forced her way to the front. The van began to gather speed. Clover tried to stir her stout limbs to a
gallop, and achieved a canter. "Boxer!" she cried. "Boxer! Boxer! Boxer!" And just at this moment, as though
he had heard the uproar outside, Boxer's face, with the white stripe down his nose, appeared at the small
window at the back of the van.
Animal Farm

Great piece

What a piece! .

Letter to Bobi Wine aka Kyagulanyi Ssenyamu

Letter to Kyagulanyi (Bobi Wine)

Dear Kyagulanyi,

A man in chains stands tall and strong, pushing a child up, towards the sky, as symbol of freedom. The man is a concrete monument that stands in the middle of Kampala city; it represents the freedom and independence of Uganda, from colonialism

No one knew, at that time (1962) what Uganda had in its belly. As it turned out, Uganda produced Obote, Amin and Museveni, to name a few who stood most at the helm of things. Between them, they managed to kill millions of Ugandans, buried in unmarked graves, their names forgotten. Misuse of the centralised form of power, as handed down by the colonialist, has been the bedrock of regimes in our new self-ruling republic

And yet before that, by 1908, Uganda had already captured the eyes and minds of visitors, anyone who came and saw it by then, described it as the pearl of Africa; indeed Ugandans maintain the title as the most welcoming and friendly people the world has ever seen.

A question begins to linger in the mind – if the people are the most welcoming and friendly, and the country is the jewel of Africa, why do millions of these welcoming, friendly people continue to fall on the sword of their supposed-to-be freedom, since 1962?

It is not easy to find words that reconcile the world which those people saw, and the world we actually live in.

The Banyankole have a saying – “Enda ezaara mwiru na muhima”, the Luganda equivalent is “Enda muwogo, y’azaala abalungi n’ababi”. In context, Uganda is like a stomach which produces the welcoming, friendly people the world knows, and the power-hungry despots who chain them.

It is against these thoughts that the fixture of our Independence monument kept lingering in my mind, until a message came through. That child being lifted, as a symbol of freedom, in the independence monument is beginning to look a lot like Kyagulanyi Robert Sentamu. The monument woman is carrying baby Wine!

Unlike the first liberations, the act of taking political power by mere words, had never happened in this republic. It has always been – power belongs to the bloodiest. Unscrupulous people making designs on the welcoming, friendly people, usurping their power, never engaging in their real problems, and turning against them

So you stand out for taking political power by use of mere words. The reason you’re wrestling with military and ex-military men on the chessboard of political power, is that; you have an edge over them, a type of power the people naturally prefer; the oppressors don’t have that, therefore they must put you in military chains, so that you can look like you’re tanned with the same brush as them in politics! They must make you look like a military man, a criminal, a usurper, someone who want to take power by force – every crime they have committed, they’ll try to exonerate themselves from by making the right one look like he did it. And yet, you stood on the podium and told people the truth – and they believed, in Kyadondo, in Buikwe, in Arua

You cracked the pot, Bobby! Neither Obote nor Amin nor Museveni took to power riding on the love of the people. So they must make you like one of them, rather than yourself – a fair brained young man with nothing more than a genuine understanding of the problems the people face.

Right now the whole world has its eyes out, looking for you; they know that you’re hammering at a principle which the criminal leaders of Africa hate the most, “power to the people”, which only the greats like Mandela embodied.

It is not easy to understand by the educated, who are really coward fixers within the strongman problem.

But those who have real feelers for democracy in Africa know exactly what you have done; making the case of power to the people vs. power to despots, seem like a simple task.

In many ways, this upgrades political intellectualism in our land, from mere commentary on the status quo, to changing the status quo.

Your detractors are keeping the flip-flops in the media running. They’re saying it’s wrong to compare you to “our leaders”, that you’re from the ghetto and Ghetto President!

They don’t know that they’re in the ghetto also, the difference being that they don’t know the name of their Ghetto, while for you you know that you’re from the Ghetto of Kamwokya.

Ghetto is not a place, it’s a concept. If you live hand-to-mouth, with no guarantee of financial or social security for yourself or your children, are you not in Ghetto? If you live in a country where the hospitals have no medicine, are you not in a Ghetto? Where only 20% of people in the country can access electricity, are you not in a Ghetto?

It’s a pretty accurate description of the majority of Ugandans that word Ghetto. We’re in 93,065 square miles of Ghetto, called Uganda! People are just not aware or they don’t want to face the situation squarely.

Back to the point – without military backing, taking political power with just talking radically changes the character of the country. People who were by now used to AK47s being ever present in politics, and thought this is okay, will now know this not how democracy works. The folks holding you only know military politics, and therefore do not bother with achieving “people power” efficiency because they know that “power comes of out the barrel of a gun”

You’re pitching a new political chessboard, and they’re not ready. Already they’re holding current political power like a thief holds his loot. It is guilt playing on their conscious, to make you look like you’re the one who grabbed power. Winning the population with mere words, living up-to the expectations of that Independence monument, breaking away the chains, winning without shedding blood, this is against the political canvas they have laid. They must put a gun charge, they must put a treason charge, anything to make the use of excessive force seem like it was a justifiable cause before the world, or whoever cares to listen to them. Many have been accused of the same.

For a long time, the regime had deployed their ideology. For you to unpack the contents of the regime’s long held ideology; of fake democracy, fake promises, fake services, you unleashed the young population on them. For the days you have been in prison, I have seen the young generation maturing fast in politics. They were not interested or participating in politics, and were often talked down to as the young and confused, as the so called leaders of tomorrow – but these names have changed in the last few days. Now we’re hearing terrorists, bazzukulu, etc; a funny mixture of flattery and threats, designed to make the movement of young people interested in “power to the people”, forget what they must do.

Thank you for not being just another Kampala MP, who, like Kato Lubwama quips, are there to “Okulya Obulamu”,

You have a higher calling, beyond Kyadondo. The Message of power belongs to the people has been heard in other parts of Uganda. It is particularly good at sending NRM candidates to the trashcans.

As to the cases brought against you and all the others, and the thousands of others the state ever brought them against before you, at least the people know better and they have resoundingly pronounced themselves on the matter. They have said “Free Bobi Wine”, “Free the 33” political prisoners. It only remains to see how the regime fixers will wiggle out of the case, which they have brought against people who have just beat it hands down in an election, without proving the idiocy of the whole thing.

Those who commit injustice bear the greatest burden.

Hosea Ballou

I remain yours in struggle

Frank Birondwa

Pan African !

WE SHALL OVERCOME

We thank you Kawuma for the struggle, we shall overcome