Prime
Spain isn't Uganda, but here is why Pérez must look to us
ROBERT MADOI
What you need to know:
This is why Pérez should not expect us to throw any toys out of the pram if Omedi pulls up short in his bid to win the Fifa Puskás Award 2024.
Back in 2012, when Uganda was still the mishmash of renovation and demolition that it currently is, the hashtag “Uganda is Not Spain” went viral. Mariano Rajoy, then Spain's Prime Minister, was accused of lacking the putative maturity of an elder.
While he would later have his way insofar as the pursuit of a bailout from the Eurozone was concerned, one statement he made left a bitter taste in the mouths of many a Ugandan.
Rajoy had, in an almost militantly unglamorous fashion, told his Finance minister thus: “We’re the number four power in Europe. Spain is not Uganda.”
If Rajoy thought the statement would see him emerge—at least in the court of public opinion—with a galvanising idea, he soon found out how mistaken he was when pushback came from Uganda's keyboard warriors.
While the blowback did not jeopardise Spain's pursuit of a $125 billion new debt from the Eurozone, the moral error of Rajoy’s ways was pretty much illuminated by a deftly executed viral campaign.
A few days ago, lightning struck twice. Another senior adult male from Spain cast an Oriental gaze (as Edward Said would call it) at Uganda. Florentino Pérez spoke about Uganda in such an unsavoury way as the fallout from Vinicius Junior's Ballon d'Or travails continued.
My colleague, Allan Darren Kyeyune, threw his weight behind Rodri during the voting process. And rightly so.
Pérez, who it must be said possesses an unfailing sense of entitlement, thought Kyeyune should not have been allowed to vote in the first place.
The Oriental gaze moved Pérez to question whether a Ugandan is equipped with the right tools to cast the dice. Because Kyeyune supposedly does not have his finger on the pulse of European club football, his judgment of the merits of Rodri's football season was anything but astute.
The lens through which the likes of Rajoy and Pérez continue to consider the experience of the global south is unfortunate. We should not tire of speaking out forcefully against its injustices.
There’s something unavoidably racist about such readings that the post-truth world has now moved to normalise. How else would you explain the palpable absence of pushback after Pérez said what he said. More than Spain being cut out of a different bolt of cloth when juxtaposed with Uganda, 2024 is not 2012.
It's all a little ridiculous in a way that could be fun, to be honest. Yet, as mentioned before, we should do all within our power to ensure that such surface-level readings and renderings do not go unquestioned.
Which is why Denis Omedi's nomination for the Fifa Puskás Award 2024 takes on such added resonance. The nomination, your columnist desperately hopes, projects Uganda in such a way that will help peel away layers of ignorance about the country.
It might not occur to the likes of Pérez, but Ugandans love the beautiful game. Deeply. And they have done so for as long as one can remember. We are also decent at kicking the ball as Omedi's goal evidently shows. All of this means that we cannot countenance being dismissive of our interest in all things football.
In fact, we are mindful of the fact that football and its attendant offshoots such as the Ballon d'Or have a binary outcome—win some, lose some.
This is why Pérez should not expect us to throw any toys out of the pram if Omedi pulls up short in his bid to win the Fifa Puskás Award 2024.
If the shock and shame of the defeat is too overwhelming for Madridstas, the cool of Ugandans is no less apparent in defeat. Maybe Pérez and company can learn a thing or two from us. Never mind the undisputed fact that our country remains a mishmash of renovation and demolition.
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