Writer: Asuman Bisiika. PHOTO/FILE
I have written about Mr Museveni’s attempt to mainstream rural economy into the cash (national) economy. I have critiqued PDM, and I have learnt that my arguments were the subject of discussions in the Ministry of Local Government. I am naturally more inclined to the village (even with my over 30 years off the village grid). But I am now relearning stuff I knew from childhood.
There is no consistent labour for the push for agriculture in the rural economy. Most of the youth (the people as a source of labour) are heading to urban centres with the great attractor being Buganda and Kampala.
Another observation is that one can tell a field cultivated by a female farmhand from that cultivated by a male farmhand. A female farmhand will not uproot a dodo plant (amaranth) wherever it is.
A few weeks after a male farmhand has cultivated a field, cannabis sativa (enjagga) plants will start sprouting. Dodo plants are supposed to be communal.
I have been struggling to stop neighbours from picking dodo from my field. And then my sister told me I was acting stupid to fight for dodo. I gave up.
I am still interested in Museveni’s SHI (Sustainable Household Incomes). We differ on how to go over it. I prefer to organise homesteads with a minimum of one hectare as the centre of rural economy.
The neighbour’s chicken is free to raid your chicken feed (some kind of supplement for your dozen free-range poultry).
In Kiburara, our secondary school students pay fees in kind. We pay maize and beans. And guys, this novel fees currency has led to the increase of student numbers in schools.
In the village, one needs to reduce the budget for onions, tomatoes, and other vegetables to 20 percent. One needs to cultivate one’s staple food; which is maize, cassava, and beans for us Kiburaranians.
The two (maize and beans) are after all food and convertible currency for school fees.
Last week, two important events happened.
Mr Herman “Da Man” Asuman, the old man’s first male grandson from a male issue, married Aishat (his long-time girlfriend). Guy made the Asuman family proud. In a very clever way, we have acquired a new family member.
The other event is that I met someone who called me Cecil (an old nickname I picked up in 1980). The year 1980 was the year of Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe and Rhodesia.
We had trainee teachers who had kasigiri (enthusiasm). Mr James Mbayahi was one of them. He turned our debating format upside down and framed it on parliament’s plenary session. He introduced the idea of a motion mover, the opposition (not opposers), and proponents (not proposers).
He was heavy on civics or public affairs. So, one afternoon he came to class and asked: “What is the name of the man Rhodesia is named after?”
The class went quiet; a deafening quietude. After repeating the question a third time, I shot my hand up. I answered: "Sisili Rodiz".
"Clap for him", Mr James Mbayahi said. He wrote the answer on the blackboard: Cecil Rhodes. Mr Cecil Rhodes founded Rhodesia.
The class started calling me Sisili. Mr Sisili.
What the class (and Mr Mbayahi) didn’t know was that I was feeding from the hands of my brother Adam Asuman (who, according to me, knew everything). He had told me about Sisili Rodizi (Cecil Rhodes) and Ayani Simisi (Ian Smith).
This Sisili story is known to Mr Patrick Muhindo of Ministry Energy and William Walina of the Audit Department of Kasese District Local Government.
I like the village. It’s easy to be a village hero than an urban legend.
The writer, Asuman Bisiika, is the former executive editor of the East African Flagpost.
