Museveni, Bobi Wine and myth of Sisyphus
Here is the myth of Sisyphus: Sisyphus is condemned to ceaselessly push a big stone to the top of a rock. Each time he reaches the top, the stone tumbles down the rock. Sisyphus starts all over, again and again. The activity continues but there is no hope, meaning or purpose to it.
Albert Camus, a Frenchman who was born in Algeria in 1913 and died on January 4, 1960 aged 46, captured this scenario in a collection of essays published in 1942 under the title, Le Mythe de Sisyphe (The Myth of Sisyphus).
Camus was a deep thinker, a prolific author, and a political journalist. His notion of the absurd may help us enjoy this blockbuster political movie starring President Museveni and Robert Kyagulanyi, aka Bobi Wine.
Museveni says he got politically rejected in the central region of Uganda on January 14 because the people there voted overwhelmingly on sectarian basis. Many people followed suit with acerbic attacks on Buganda sectarianism/separatism/supremacy/arrogance, etc.
Peter Mulira, a Muganda, waded into the debate on the side of reason, sobriety and rationality. In his piece titled, ‘Respond to NUP wave in a sober manner’ in the Daily Monitor of February 3, he wrote: “Without tending to be sectarian, this writer feels that it is unfair to accuse Buganda of insisting on what is referred to as ‘special status.’ By this term, it is meant that Buganda wants to be a region while the rest prefer to remain at district level. We should debate this issue and resolve it amicably in a calm and rational way.”
Camus says Mulira is wasting time wanting to debate in a reasonable, calm, optimistic and rational manner about life.
In life, Camus argues, every one of us is in some “corner of absurdity.” So there’s no need to be reasonable because reason is not good at all if you want to comprehend the values, depth, mystery and meaning of life.
According to Camus, pessimism may be a good thing in the face of the meaningless of life. Camus gleaned his philosophical ideas from Greek mythology, and that might explain a little bit about the hopelessness of Sisyphus – the man offended the gods by stealing their secrets. That is probably why he got condemned to ceaselessly push up a stone that always rolls down.
Look at us Ugandans. Don’t you think we share more than a bit of fate with Sisyphus? We have longed and longed for a peaceful transfer of power from one president to the next, but zilch!
I was 12 when Idi Amin ousted Milton Obote in 1971. I was 21 when Amin was also ousted in 1979 and Prof Yusuf Lule became president.
In Lule’s Cabinet, if you didn’t have a PhD, you certainly looked like a misfit. But just 69 days later, it was all over for the good professor. His fellow Baganda spilled on to the streets with chants of “No Lule, no work.” Wapi!
In comes Godfrey Binaisa, another Muganda. A year or so later, he was chased away by the Military Commission, chaired by Paulo Muwanga, a Muganda, who was deputised by Museveni.
Obote regains power in 1980, only to be ousted again in 1985.
January 26, 1986, Museveni swears in and fills Ugandans’ heads with the nonsense of hope.
They believed him to the extent that in 1995, they put their collective hopes in a Constitution that, for once, would guarantee a peaceful transfer of power.
Indeed, Ugandans pushed the stone to the very top of the rock, only for NRM people to push it down by removing the two-term limit from the Constitution in 2005.
Still, there was hope. Ugandans again pushed the stone to the top of the rock. But on December 20, 2017, their hopes were rendered hopeless when, again, NRM people pushed down the stone by removing age limits from the Constitution.
We are now in the “theatre of the absurd” inspired by the thinking of Camus. Our situation is essentially absurd, devoid of meaning, purpose or hope.
So worrying about the tiff between Bobi and Museveni is a waste of time. Just sit back and enjoy the movie.
Museveni is life President. Dead men don’t hand over power. Voila, c’est le mythe de Sisyphe!
Dr Akwap is the deputy vice chancellor for academic affairs at Kumi University
