At what point does the fighting stop so that the enjoyments can start

It is December, the month of the legendary Philly Bongole Lutaaya – if you are Ugandan. First, because his composition, “Alive and Frightened” is the Anti-Aids crusaders rallying cry – and will be played in every corner in the first week; but also, because his Christmas music will play till January brokenness hits home.

Only those old enough to have paid attention to the man’s last couple of years truly appreciate him for the icon that he was. It wasn’t until I watched his movie, in 2019, at the African Movie Night  hosted at the National Theatre, that his spirit and selflessness really sank in. He was a colossus. 

Forget his public declaration – the first by a public figure – that he was living with HIV. It is what he did thereafter, in the next couple of months as he raced against time, that tells you about the man.

Against the advice of his doctors, the derision and skepticism of friends and foes, in paying no heed to his weaking body, and even against a government that wasn’t too forthcoming as a partner in the fight, threw the kitchen sink. From villages to churches to schools to concerts to anything between that – it is hard to quantify his work. Watching that movie gets you wondering whether perhaps, as an activist, the man was a lot more iconic than he was a musician.

Lutaaya’s movie is definitely one that every Ugandan needs to watch, to see how far we have all come. But it is not just him. Another incredible documentary to watch is called Fire in the Blood. This can be found on YouTube, and makes for great watching, mostly because it highlights the running theme about the ethical and equity fight between the global North and South. The sorts of things we see up to this day.

When the Aids scourge had just hit the world, Anti-Retroviral (ARVs) drugs weren’t accessible ,especially to Africa – because of patents. The thousands who died probably shouldn’t have, if the world had acted with a lot more empathy and equity. But that’s not how things work. It took the resolute efforts of Prof  Peter Mugyenyi to reverse that.

Like Lutaaya, Prof Mugyenyi, the co-founder of the Joint Clinical Research Centre, and world-acclaimed researcher, needed to swim against the tide to get ARVs here – to the people who needed them. 

It wasn’t that there were no drugs for those who required them, it was that the low-cost generic drugs produced in India, were barred from being sold to Africa – which meant that the continent couldn’t get its patients onto the treatment regime early enough.

It is said that Prof Mugyenyi, in defiance of his government, ordered for a shipment of low-cost ARVs from India, and camped at the Entebbe International Airport to oversee their arrival – daring government and the big pharma to come and get him. Turns out, that single action inspired similar efforts across the continent, leading to a spike in the supply of generic Aids drugs in Africa.

As with every fight of this nature, it is often those with some level of prominence who often get recognised. No doubt, there were lesser names, men and women, who did their bit to row the boat and get us to where we are today. We have them to thank, for without their sacrifice, nobody knows how things would have turned out – or maybe we can suppose from looking at some countries where the fight is still raging like it just began.

But an even more important lesson to be gleaned is how, over 30 years later, we are still engaged in fights around the same issues. The Covid-19 vaccine apartheid and this week’s discovery of the Omicron variant, and the West’s reaction to countries in Southern Africa shows you how the more things have changed, the more they have remained the same. They probably will, if Africa doesn’t build its internal capacity to innovate and create, while also resisting.

The challenge for us is whether those in power today have the ability and gonads to answer this call. 
By most indicators, many have been found wanting and it is likely that the responsibility will be passed on to those who come after. I hope that when you look around, you are inspired by those who are next in line – I can’t say that I am. So, we life to fight another day.

Mr Rukwengye is the founder, Boundless Minds. @Rukwengye