Author: Alan Tacca. PHOTO/FILE
When you think about it, the Pentecostals and the other Christians may be chasing different shadows when groping in the chamber of the gods. This crossed my mind on the day of the 12th Kabaka Birthday Run, which this year marked the Kabaka’s 70th birthday.
The annual event attracts huge interest, both at home and among Ugandans abroad. As long as they have roots in Buganda or seek a favourable relationship with the kingdom, politicians of every shade, big business enterprises, educational institutions and various public entities scramble to buy the year’s T-shirts and jostle for space in the road event.
With no political power in any direct constitutional sense, the Kabaka is one of Uganda’s many ‘cultural’ leaders. However, he commands a subtle presence that cannot be ignored and is greatly loved and respected by his Baganda people.
Not surprisingly, many influence peddlers want to be somehow associated with the Kabaka. A handshake or photo opportunity with the Kabaka can attract new clients.
Given the foregoing, and that all previous Kabakas had died relatively young, just imagine a situation where the Kabaka’s being alive (and in greatly improved health) at age 70 depended on one or two individuals.
Imagine the gratitude that millions of people would owe those individuals! Although Impact FM/Dream TV was persistently used by the late Tamale Mirundi to undermine the Kabaka and his officials, the proprietor, Pr Joseph Sserwadda, proudly reports that it was the same Kabaka who inaugurated his station.
And, not for the first time, the pastor reminded his audience last Sunday morning that he and another pastor had specially prayed for Ronald Mutebi to be the first Kabaka to reach 70. Sserwadda goes further to claim that the two pastors were the only people (emphasis, only people) who had prayed for this to happen.
Now, as God’s dog, I check regularly and can confirm that God is still in a state of rest. He is not attending to matters concerning any president, any king or any commoner at present. But people pray to him all the same, all the time.
A harmless habit. And I am absolutely sure that many people have prayed for the Kabaka, both before and after his coronation, especially when his health became an issue starting a few years back.
Humility and simple decency do not permit them to brag or even talk about it, but religious leaders have prayed for the Kabaka many times at church services and other public functions, let alone in private.
It is, therefore, an astonishing feat of one-upmanship for anyone to claim that they were the only ones praying for the Kabaka, implying that it was because of them that the Kabaka is still with us.
It would only be true if the claimant was praying to another god, a god different from the one other Christians and Muslims pray to. Of course, it would make no difference, whichever God. The game changer has not been the antics or rituals of pastors and witchdoctors.
It has been the intervention of science and modern medicine. Before microorganisms got scientifically linked to disease and biochemistry took centre-stage during the last 200 years, most people, including emperors, died before they were 55, no matter how hard they prayed. We must thank modern science for the Kabaka’s life. The Kabaka himself does.
That is why the themes of his annual birthday run have always been in the context of seeking good health through scientifically proven practices instead of witchdoctors and pastors’ miracles.
Mr Tacca is a novelist and
socio-political commentator.
