I wish I could repair my late father’s radio, the only real wealth inherited from him
Dear Buregyeya: When I was young, about six or seven years, I realised that despite the humble condition that my family was in, we were so privileged that we were among the very few who owned a radio in the entire Kigarama village.
The memories of this big. short and medium wave “National” radio sitting on one of the windows of our living house every evening whenever news time clocked are still vivid in my mind. We would position the radio in a place where people across and in the neighbourhood could access the contents of what was being broadcast. One of the famous news anchors Rhoda Kiconco had such a beautiful voice that sounded like it was for a big person and always kept me wondering how such a big person was able to enter our radio (never mind whatever theory I had concerning how people entered our national radio).
When both our parents left to be with the Lord, and I had already changed location to boarding school, I one time carried this radio with me to St Joseph’s Vocational School Mbarara (Jovoc). It was not the best radio around that time because there were now FM radios and the likes of Capital FM and Simba FM had come in. But as a first born of my late parents, I so much loved this radio very much because it was virtually the only thing I valued at that time from my late father. I would tune to strange radio talk shows from countries like Rwanda, Zimbabwe and, of course, the famous BBC (I could not understand the content, but I had grown up to appreciate that whoever listened and later owned a radio, was a serious person). And the last I remember is that my fellow school boys at JOVOC would laugh at me with my big radio, but to me, it meant a bright future, it meant wealth, it meant my serious ties with my late father, and it always brought the dreams from my father alive. The story of this radio ended at JOVOC and the rest is as past as I can narrate them now.
I would not have remembered this radio if I had not met one of our heroes, the best Runyankore Rukiga news anchor of the time at the then Radio Uganda, Rhoda Kiconco, at one of the events at Hotel Africana recently. As a child then, one of my wishes was to see these people that used to speak from inside the radio (my conviction then) and discover how exactly they enter almost all radios that there were in the community (never mind the transmission and broadcasting science involved). And here I was, living my dream, after seeing this lady after affirming that she was still working with the now Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC). I was overjoyed and like fate always has it, I was destined to be hosted on one of the talk shows at the UBC on the October 21. There are very many children in Kigarama who listened to me and started imagining one time seeing how people in these radios (still naïve of the transmission and broadcasting science involved). Here I was, making a big discovery of my life. Part of my non-profit work is to create opportunities for more young people from places like Kigarama to make such discoveries and I don’t mind the next guy to go to the moon coming from Kigarama.
So, my experience at the UBC opened my eyes and humbled me at the same time.
When I entered, I immediately drew my mind to the fact that this is the mighty national broadcaster on which former presidents announced their takeover of governments and that was it. It was more than just a national broadcaster, but also a symbol of national sovereignty. A symbol that does not only excite every Ugandan, but also is meant to reach every corner of the country. What happened to all these accolades? Did we eat the money meant to develop the installation in question?
I was drawn to the deep reality that many Ugandans out there are lacking information and opportunities.
I imagined that many Ugandans would actually love to know about a lot of things, including what is happening in other parts of the country and create a sort of national platform for a unified voice. I could ably appreciate the great physical resource that there is at the national broadcaster.
I started wondering why majority of Ugandans actually prefer to attend to the BBC and other foreign media channels than UBC.
Later, a friend on Facebook would tell me that I was going to the wrong media house. Do we still care about our national sovereignty? Amidst all these realities, I still felt great because I had lived one of my dreams from my father. I had met one of my long time local heroes (Rhoda Kiconco).
Therefore, the powers that be should look into empowering UBC to retain its past glory.
Parliament should look into the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation Act, 2005 and advocate its enforcement. Ugandans should rejuvenate their love for the national broadcaster as we strive to protect our national sovereignty. Greetings from Kigarama.
Mr Kyokwijuka is the executive director at Youth Aid Africa.
