Of lumpens, Museveni’s senior officials and the king’s men

I am not as learned as our judges. So, forgive me if I sometimes get confused by this difficult country.
First of all, from 1885 to 2022, there is a fairly even split between the humiliation of British rule and the affliction of African rule.

Seventy-five years of British governors, and 60 years of Ugandan presidents. Seventy-five years of British-led justice, and 60 years of African-driven justice.

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We had 75 years when British governors exiled troublesome native kings and jailed independence activists; and we have 60 years when African presidents can silence kings and kill or maim Opposition activists.

What about manners? Were the British dictating the codes of good manners, followed by 60 years of African presidents determining what is proper and what is not?

This is a tricky one. And the fallout from the Seattle demonstrations has left me more confused.

A clarification: Although related, manners are distinct from morals. Morals are more about the ‘principle’ of right and wrong. Manners are more about the ‘style’ of presenting oneself (or a social group) when relating with other social groups.

In the Seattle case, complex issues of both morality and manners come up. 

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Whether the State carries on as it does today, or invests adequate resources in its health care system and reduces the money it lavishes on its SUGOs (Senior Uganda Government Officials) seeking treatment abroad, is an issue of public (or government) morality.

Whether it is proper for ordinary Ugandans to protest an event like the late Jacob Oulanyah’s appearance at an American hospital, is an issue of individual and general morality.  How such a protest is expressed so that the rulers take note is a question of good or bad manners.

Chief Justice Owiny-Dollo, like many others of Oulanyah’s kinsfolk, think that the Seattle protest was both immoral (because it seemed cruel) and a show of bad manners (because it was vulgar, or loud and ugly).

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Furthermore, rightly or wrongly assumed to be predominantly Baganda, the Seattle demonstrators were assumed to be cruel because they were assumed to be historically hostile to Oulanyah’s Acholi group; not because Oulanyah was an over-privileged SUGO.

However, they were bad-mannered because they were not groomed like the Baganda of way back, the type Owiny-Dollo went to school with. He called the demonstrators ‘lumpens’. Adding to Dollo’s concern, the Buganda establishment (at Mengo and in the broader society) did not publicly condemn the Seattle lumpens.

Now, Owiny-Dollo’s problem is a time warp. The ‘lumpens’ in Seattle were angry youngish people who cannot find meaningful employment in misgoverned independent Uganda. They do not belong to the 75 years of colonial rule or the early post-independence period, when British and Ganda manners often dominated the socio-behavioural constructs in many Ugandan contexts. 

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Ganda cultural influence is in decline, which I thought was a matter for celebration. Sixty years of Milton Obote, Idi Amin, Obote again and Museveni’s rule have produced a different Uganda. Of the 60 years, Museveni/NRM has 36. 

Those ‘lumpens’ are likely to have been most influenced by the communication styles in Museveni’s times. 

The mentors of this period are people like Gen Kahinda Otafiire, Ofwono Opondo, Tamale Mirundi and Gen Museveni himself. Bluntness is their forte.

I have heard very senior people at Mengo, not just criticised, but crudely insulted, and they consistently remain regally silent. How did such a highly educated and analytical SUGO like the Chief Justice expect the king’s men to abandon their own style and confront the lumpens nurtured by the NRM era? 

Mr Tacca is a novelist, socio-political commentator.
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