The Buganda Question in 2021, Besigye and poet Anena’s star
I have never met Harriet Anena physically. But as the Bakonzo say, ‘the name of a good man always precedes him’.
So, I can safely say I have met Harriet Anena; like I met John Nagenda in the early 1980s in a collection of poems put together by David Coock and David Rubadiri.
For the latest arrivals from Planet Mars, Harriet Anena’s A Nation in Labour won the Wole Soyinka African Literature Prize 2018.
Sometimes I also masquerade as a writer and claim to have written some poems. I wrote a poem titled Refractive Reflections and sent it to Anena to read ko just (and critique). She advised me to use simple Lungereza. Lol.
And by the way, Ms Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, another Ugandan (resident in UK’s Manchester) also won about $165,000 (about Shs606m) prize money for her book titled: Kintu. These two prizes won by Ugandans should draw more attention to the promotion of the ‘use of letters’ (writing) and words (speech).
Which brings us to the now controversial national issue of the idiom ‘twebereremu’; ‘Bona Bebaamu’, ‘Naffe Tufune Owaffe’. But we can discuss ‘twebereremu’ later; let us first discuss the Buganda Question in the 2021 politics.
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Dr Kizza Besigye is quoted as saying common parlance words (slogans?) like ‘twebereremu’, ‘bona bebamu’, ‘naffe tufune owaffe’ carried tribal undertones. He protested: Mwe baani?
I ask myself: Didn’t Dr Besigye really know that the payload of those words were directed at him as an individual? And that his protest would be (wrongly or rightly) contextualised as a challenge thrown to Baganda as a community? And that the people whose seemingly vertical interests were delivered in those idioms would hide behind the façade of Buganda nationalism to take him on?
The idea behind ‘twebereremu’ is made clearer when one adds ‘bona bebamu’. But you ask yourself, why couldn’t Dr Besigye know that ‘twebereremu’ and ‘bona bebamu’ is about him as an individual?
But I would like to invite readers to read these messages beyond Dr Besigye being the target.
The questions to ask now are: Is this the beginning of a resurgent Buganda on the path of reclaiming its deserving position in national politics? How will the Buganda Question impact on 2021?
We have detected an overly vertical self-consciousness in expressing political group anger. I hear the Bakonzo are courting secessionist tendencies. The Baganda political elite seem to be excited about the verve MP Robert Kyagulanyi has brought to national politics.
Some are even seeing this verve as the birth or path leading to Muganda president. And some see Besigye’s ‘assumed’ larger-than-life image as a hindrance to the fruition of the idea of a Muganda president.
We are not opposed to group (be they civil, civic or community, tribal or even individual) interests. But those interests must feed into the aggregated national interests (by linking them to the interests of other Ugandans in other parts of the country).
The community or opinion leader carries the burden of linking local needs, opportunities and challenges to the national call. On this national call note, we in Kiburara, wish all Ugandans a Merry Christmas and Happy 2019.
Federalism feed into the national aggregate of interests than just demanding a Muganda Head of State or Head of Government.
The Baganda political elite of 1960s understood this even better than us. With Buganda identity (complete with their unique interests), they were clever enough to place those unique interests in the rather national political vehicle called federalism.
Mr Bisiika is the executive editor of East African Flagpost.
