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Caption for the landscape image:

Of New Year's Day and the eternity of time

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Writer: Asuman Bisiika. PHOTO/FILE

For the first time in more than 24 years, I spent Christmas in Kiburara. The novelty and a manifestly weak Christmas was such a revelation.

There wasn't the kind of excitement that we used to witness during our time: the 1970s and 1980s.As a bad omen for our first Christmas in Kiburara, it rained: two times; the second one, a downpour. And then, as is commonplace with electric power in Uganda, electricity went off; from 6pm on December 25, to 10am the next day.

Electricity has a way of being addictive. Electric power is a new thing in Kiburara. We enjoyed our life without electricity until 2012 or thereabouts. From that time, we are now beholden to electricity. Now most Kiburaranians say life without electricity is very challenging. Stuff like that.

Electricity (and piped water) is now the only thing that gives Kiburara residents the characterisation of an urban life. Without electricity, we had the worst Christmas in a very long time. It was the worst Christmas since that of 1980 when our old man was being hunted for being an activist of the Democratic Party. But as they say, regardless, we move on…I am writing this on Tuesday, December 31, 2024, and looking forward to midnight and welcoming the year 2025. I expect to spend New Year's Day in Kiburara (as I have done for more than 25 years).In the last 25 years, the challenge has always been to negotiate being in Kampala on December 25 and in Kiburara on December 31. For a man of limited means like me, it has always been tough on my wallet (and physically). But then regardless, we move on.

Today, Tuesday, December 31 2024, I woke at 11am. Before 2012 or thereabouts, the only place with electricity was Farmland Safari Resort; one kilometre away from my shrine, I cannot count the many times I ambled into the lobby of Farmland Safari Resort not to give myself a treat but to just sit somewhere and write. Now, I can write this from the shrine (we have electricity, you know). The owner of Farmland Safari Resort is Mr Milton Kibaba.

The land on which the resort sits used to belong to our family. My father sold it in about 2001. In fact, the main building sits in the exact place where I had my first cotton garden. But then regardless, we move one. The village (or actually Kiburara) is a good place. At least I always have the opportunity to meet real people and listen to stories in their raw form. New Year's Day (any January 1) is a call for reflection on humanity's failure to recognise time as the original constant. We may measure time in years, decades, centenaries, millennia, etc. But all that is merely an attempt to quantify the unquantifiable. When Seventh-Day Adventists and Muslims challenge the veracity of December 25 as the birthday of Jesus, just leave them. As for me, I just look on sheepishly.

The calendar is a human creation and the weeks and years in it are just that, creations. We could as well turn December 25 into January 1 and that won't change the human pursuit of spirituality in Jesus or Buddha or Mohammad's teachings, etc. Time is the original constant.

As the year begins, there are those with heavy burdens on their shoulders. Then there are those who enjoyed last year and are looking forward to a new one. There too are those with power to (and whose actions can) change the lives of many. I wish all of you a happy 2025.

Mr Bisiika is the former executive
editor of the East African Flagpost.
[email protected]