Let Otafiire demolish the Uganda Museum

If Maj Gen Kahinda Otafiire is reading this, I would like to urge him to go ahead and okay the erection of the multi-billion storeyed building on the land that houses the Uganda Museum. And while you are at it, is it possible to jail all those that questioned your wisdom?

Why all this hullabaloo about the museum being demolished? Who said the museum is going to be destroyed? I thought it’s the building that’s to be destroyed making away for a mega shopping mall and whatever artifacts the museum holds will be stored somewhere for 30 years till the new museum is opened.That includes the private parts of Kibuka Omumbale, the 19th century Buganda warrior who, according to legend (during the wars between the Buganda and Bunyoro Kingdom), would get possessed by the spirits through his genitals and would suddenly find himself in the clouds were he would rain down arrows on the Bunyoro warriors to devastating effect. All that will be intact. So, why all the fuss?
Is it because the new museum will take 30 years to be built? Could it be the danger of transferring the precious cargo from its old home to the new? Or perhaps it’s simply the fear of the new? Now if that’s the aggro that’s having everyone in a twist, then that’s understandable bearing in mind that such projects take decades to complete and involve lots of money. And then they normally end up both stagnant and in front of probe committees querying their collapse. Uganda and big projects is like oil and water. We are yet to graduate into that phrase of development, that “thinking grandeur” mood. If you doubt it, just take a quick look at the graveyard called “failed big projects.” Valley dams, Agoa, West Nile power project, the National ID project, the list is endless. So yes, 30 years for a new museum would raise suspicion and questions from many of us.

But looking at the opinion letters in the newspapers and listening to talk-shows on FM radio stations, it seems a good number of people are on a different wavelength. All of them are moaning of how destroying the museum is tantamount to a severe rape of our culture! One writer in The New Vision newspaper wrote how the museum was established “to conserve, promote and interpret Uganda’s cultural and natural heritage through research, collections, documentation and imparting knowledge for today and the future.”

Which museum are these people talking about? It can’t be the one near Kitante Primary School could it? The museum has been there since 1954, so can someone tell me the findings of the “interpretation” of our culture and heritage courtesy of the museum? What knowledge has the museum imparted on you reading this? Some have written how the museum is a “true reflection of Uganda’s multicultural past displaying the countries indigenous culture, archeology, history, science and natural history.”

Again I ask, what museum are these people on about? If you enter the current museum what exactly strikes you? Is it the “indigenous culture” or the sight of an old neglected building devoid of modernity, lacking in research and visitors and slowly losing its irrelevancy? Even the Queen and all the Chogm delegates in 2007, gave our glorious museum a miss. So much for importance!

Then there all these civil society organisations that have come out from the woods shouting like nursery children demanding a halt to the destruction. Who are these people? Does anyone know the Cross Cultural Foundation of Uganda? So where was this organisation when Chogm money meant for the museum was unaccounted for?

I visited the museum a few months ago and on average I was told, the number of visitors per day is about 10 people. Now this includes young school children who are taken probably because it is on the schedule of many primary schools. Now what can approximately five people a day bring in terms of revenue? In comparison, the National Museum of Kenya manages over 22 regional museums. Now how’s that for a national museum?

What also struck me was how ancient Uganda Museum looked. It comes across as a toned down version of a mausoleum. There’s a lack of vibrancy about the place. Coupled with that is the lack of innovation. Take the Kenyans for instance, since they have over 20 museums, the government through a grant process from the World Bank, is putting up an online museum which will have all their history and heritage captured in all forms, HD videos, audio, still photographs and texts. Now this is an example of a functioning museum unlike ours.

Here is the bitter pill. We Ugandans have no clue about preserving our culture. Look at the way our city, once a beautiful piece of art has turned out to be such a grotesque form! The flower beds that once lined the pavements house vagabonds who take “afternoon naps” on them.It’s not about preserving Omumbale’s private parts or Kabaka Mutesa’s clock, no. It’s about preserving our wetlands, our forests from destruction, the different burial grounds of our Kings, etc. Preservation is much more than the Uganda Museum. And our national heritage that these people have been harping on about doesn’t stop at the museum.

Let’s not be hypocritical in our passionate “love” for preserving the past. What we actually need to do is ask ourselves :What is our past? Is it attractively looked after? How comes there is no research about our past? No new ground-breaking discoveries? How much forex does our past bring for us? Looking at the state of the structures that house our past, where has the money gone?

If we don’t answer the above, then the likes of Otafiire will raid the National Theatre, and then hop on to the Golf Course all in the name of development. And I wouldn’t blame him, looking at the way we have handled it. Perhaps the demolition of the museum is the kick in the face that preservation and all its apologists needed to wake up to.

[email protected]