Where God boils his yam, is where the devil roasts his fish

President Yoweri Museveni kicked off quite a storm after he wrote a letter to Chief Justice Alfonse Owinyi-Dollo asking him to review what he suggested was an insane decision by the High Court and Court of Appeal, allowing the actioning of properties belonging to the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council to pay off a Sh19 billion debt it owed to businessman Justus Kyabahwa.

The properties include the Uganda National Mosque (aka Gaddafi Mosque), believed to be the largest mosque in East Africa.

“What sane person, let alone a Judge, can make such orders? How can a Mosque or Church be attached for debts carelessly entered into by officials of that faith?”, an irritated Museveni asked.

Many supported the President, saying religious assets like mosques (and churches) are sacred, and can’t be sold to recover earthly debts. As many blasted him for spitting on the independence of the Judiciary, and continuing to set a bad example that will only undermine the law of law. In between, were the most moderate souls, saying both of the above; that Museveni has done the noble thing, using the worst possible methods.

The Court of Appeal subsequently temporarily halted the sale of the UMSC properties.

Two issues that have not yet been canvassed in this kerfuffle interest me: What are the structural reasons that made it possible for a mosque to be up for grabs in a financial dispute? Secondly, and perhaps more important, what are mosques and churches?

Uganda is a capitalist economy (with a small “c”), and free market rules have been central policy for 35 years since the National Resistance Movement government opened up the economy in 1988.

The ruling against the UMSC, and the view of a mosque as commercial property that can be awarded to a creditor, is capitalist practice at the very sharp edge. Confronted by that, Museveni, the latter-day free market champion, blinked.  We didn’t know Justus Kyabahwa. Now he’s gone into the annals of our economic history as the man who took us to the school of capitalism.

Museveni’s outrage that a Mosque or Church can’t be attached for debts entered into by its officials is probably shared by the majority of Ugandans. Are they right?

In their pure form, Islam and Christianity, are not about mosques and churches. As Bruce R. Wardell writes in “A Short History of Church Building”, “To the early Christians the word “church” referred to the act of assembling rather than to the building itself. As long as Christianity was unrecognised by the Romans, Christians met where they could, mainly in their own homes. The character of these assemblies reflected the nature of their faith during that period, with an emphasis on introspection. The trappings of the material world were left behind; the real meaning of life was found in the spiritual dimension.”

Likewise, Islamic scholarship tells us that the first mosques may have been open spaces rather than buildings. The Prophet Muhammad’s first house in Medina (in present-day Saudi Arabia) is thought to be the first mosque.  It had on one side an enclosed rectangular courtyard where prayers were held. The word mosque evolved from the Arabic term masjid, which means “place of prostration.” To this day, some of the largest places of prostration for Muslims – and indeed Christians (think of Namugongo) – are outside, not inside, a building.

It matters to reflect on these things because it will help future generations deal better with the coming post-religion age, as in many parts of Western Europe – although Christianity in Africa will have to contend with it decades earlier than Islam.

There is a record number of empty churches in Europe, and now parts of America, where few people go to church or believe in the God in the Bible. Some of these churches have been converted into pubs, so where the bishop used to deliver the Sunday homily and give Holy Communion, is now a site of a bar serving drinks. Some have been turned into homes. Others have been converted into strip clubs, so the altar now has a skimpily dressed woman, if that, stripising up a dancing pole.

Those people will not all go to hell because of what they are doing in former churches.

We were reminded of what a mosque and church are during the Covid lockdowns when services migrated to Zoom, YouTube, and Facebook and you paid your tithe with mobile money.

The Muslims, in their varied persuasions, figured out this online preaching first. They are big.  For example, Yusuf al-Qaradawi an Egyptian Islamic scholar and preacher based in Doha, Qatar, has an online audience of 70 million worldwide.

A good African proverb says that “Where God boils his yam that is exactly where the devil roasts his fish”. Museveni tipped the scales for God, but the devil hasn’t lost either.

Mr Charles Onyango-Obbo is a journalist, writer, and curator of the “Wall of Great Africans”.

Twitter@cobbo3