Kyagulanyi: Uganda’s Forrest Gump

Yoga Adhola

What you need to know:

The novelette was published in 1986 and turned into an exceedingly successful movie that was first screened in 1994.

  • In terms of money, it cost $55 million to produce and grossed more than $683 million the year it was first screened.

Forrest Gump is an American movie and literary character. He is the main character in the novel and movie by the title Forrest Gamp.

The novelette was published in 1986 and turned into an exceedingly successful movie that was first screened in 1994.
In terms of money, it cost $55 million to produce and grossed more than $683 million the year it was first screened.

Below is how a movie reviewer described Forrest Gump: “Forrest Gump has never been the brightest bulb in Greenbow, Alabama. Blessed with an IQ of 75, his eccentricities growing up stuck out even more than the leg braces he wore. His Mississippi mud-slow brain made him a big, almost defenceless, target.

Course, that current runs wide and deep and strong, too. His mamma always told him that you ‘have to do the best with what God gave you.’
And so Forrest did—using his strength and skill and guileless charm to ultimately influence history itself.

When Forrest was confronted with a phalanx of rock-throwing bullies, his best friend, Jenny, told him to run. And so Forrest did—out of his leg braces, into college and, eventually, across America itself.
Bubba Blue told Forrest that he should really go into the shrimping business. And so Forrest did—becoming a rich man in the process.

But it wasn’t all peas and carrots for the guy. He’s dealt with loss. He’s experienced disappointment.
No one—not even Forrest Gump—escapes pain in this life.
Forrest’s mamma always said that life is like a box of chocolates, but for Forrest, the unexpectedness of life is only half the story. For him, each bite is both sweet and bitter—a bit of heaven that can still burn your eyes.”

I do see a lot of similarities between Forrest Gump and National Unity Platform (NUP) presidential flag bearer Robert Kyagulanyi, aka Bobi Wine.
Both are not very bright. However, in spite of that, both rise to great heights in their respective societies.
Bobi Wine first came to prominence as a musician. From there he went on to become an MP.
He then gets popular as a musician-cum-MP and turns into a great celebrity.

With his celebrity status, he goes on to assist people from the Opposition win political positions.
All without serious knowledge of politics.
Bobi Wine’s experience here is very similar to that of Forrest Gump.
With minimal resources, Bobi Wine has climbed the political and social ladder to great heights.
Forrest Gump too succeeded with minimum resources. He went to college on a sports scholarship by default. While at the university, he failed exams in craft and gym.

Somehow he passes advanced physics, a course his coach had placed him in merely to satisfy requirements for sports scholarship.
The reader should note that Physics is considered a very difficult subjects in American universities.
His performance at college gets him to cut the figure of a man suffering from savant syndrome.
This savant syndrome is a rare condition in which someone with significant mental limitations demonstrates certain abilities far in excess of average.

This may include rapid calculation, artistic ability or musical ability. Usually one exceptional ability is present.
I do find a striking similarity between Bobi Wine and Forrest Gump.
It would be good to investigate these characteristics in Bobi Wine.

Yoga Adhola is a leading ideologue of UPC
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