Archbishop Luwum was straight stick for our crooked times
Olivia Nalubwama
In 2015, the NRM government designated February 16 as a national holiday in commemoration of Archbishop Janani Luwum, whose outspokenness against the excesses of the Idi Amin regime, cost him his life. Today, Luwum is recognised as martyr in the Anglican Church and one of the greats in the modern African church. Luwum’s legacy stands tall in Uganda, a guiding light for our time.
Olara Otunnu writes in his book, Archbishop Janani Luwum- the Life and Witness of a 20th Century Martyr, that Luwum relentlessly called out Amin, decrying the killings and disappearances of Ugandans at the hands of Amin’s security machinery.
Otunnu notes that many desperate families seeking news of their missing loved ones would approach the archbishop begging him to intervene on their behalf.
“The Archbishop would personally telephone president Amin, seeking information on ‘disappeared’ persons or the release of detainees. His persistent raising of these concerns was upsetting Amin, who was alarmed by the Archbishop’s clear, consistent message coming from the pulpit.”
On February 5, 1977, State security stormed the archbishop’s residence purportedly looking for guns, accusing the archbishop of being involved in subversive efforts to overthrow Amin. Amin’s threat to Luwum became more menacing after the raid on the archbishop’s residence. Otunnu reports that many urged Luwum to flee the country, ready to help him. Instead, Luwum, resolute, responded, “If, I, the shepherd, flee, what will happen to the sheep?”
A few days later, on February 16, Luwum was murdered. The archbishop’s death marked a turning point for Amin’s regime. Amin sought to silence Luwum, but ironically, killing instead galvanised the anti-Amin efforts outside and inside Uganda. Amin is speaking to us from his grave - annoying as critics are, do not kill them, you risk hastening your unceremonious removal. An insecure regime will become the biggest threat to its own citizens, eating them like samosas.
On February 3, Pastor Robert Kayanja led a delegation of a section of evangelical pastors to State House Entebbe, to congratulate Mr Museveni on winning the January 14 election.
The pastors commended Museveni for his wonderful leadership and emphasised their longstanding relationship with the Musevenis/NRM. Surprisingly, the pastors made no mention of the acts of the infamous ‘drones’ and the wailing they leave in their aftermath.
Now, with us, Christians, everyone else is up for our judgment apart from the men and women of the cloth. These, we fear to criticise. We can gossip about them, but please, no criticism, we are Christians. We leave issues of pastors to pastors. Mbu, those ones are for God himself.
Yet Archbishop Luwum reminds us that the truth has no favourites or untouchables. If Ugandans are being disappeared or killed because they dared to support anyone else other than President Museveni, and our pastors are in agreement with the President who declared the January 14 elections the best since 1962, are they in the ‘New Uganda’ already?
Are their sheep untouched by the acrimony and violence of the election period? Even FDC’s Kizza Besigye, the longsuffering Opposition doyen, commended this election for being far more violent than the ones he previously engaged in. Dear Electoral Commission, that is no compliment.
Pastors’ victory parade to State House attracted public derision. I was reminded of President Museveni in 2011, who, while on a State visit to Rwanda, whined to his super-efficient hosts that his Uganda was full of thieves. The rest of us, wretched Ugandans, startled by Museveni’s revelation, wondered ‘who grew’ the thieves in Museveni’s Uganda.
Otunnu tells us that Luwum liked to say: “The best way to show that a stick is crooked is not to argue about it or spend time denouncing it, but to lay a straight stick alongside it.”
Happy Janani Luwum Day.
Ms Olivia Nalubwama is a social commentator.
