EPILOGUE
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| Museveni |
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| Idi Amin Dada |
During the dawning of the Idi Amin Dada dictatorship regime in 1979 after the imprudent invasion of neighboring state of Tanzania by then, led by the late Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, became the biggest turning point in the lives of many Ugandans and a future determining factor to the Nation of Uganda. many detestable things happened during the reign of Idi Amin which can't be listed all in the small pages of this article. however, this doesn't mean that those inhuman acts are being viewed or even weighed least or incompetent to be mentioned herein. this is a deliberate act by the author aimed at reflecting respect to those whose lives were ended in the tyrannical acts of the dictator Idi Amin, but mostly, to allow complete healing to all those souls still living with scars from the past.
This piece of literature is designed to used as a true witness to events and experiences that occurred in the times of the main character herein, as a avoidable voice of a teacher who lived thriough the motions of life portrait ed in this literature and a caution to the young generation and political leaders when making decisions.
Some characters in this material are deliberately left anonymous due to the sensitivity of matters involved in this article. Its not the author' intent to blame or finger point at the individuals who featured in the events herein, but to be used as an educative tool to humanity as a whole.
This article is therefore dedicated to all the souls who daily toil and suffer in the dungeons of deception, anger, hatred and pain.
THE JINX
Chapter One:
As in any totalitarian, the Uganda during the tyrannical rule of Idi Amin was more complex. He was seen as a violent monster brought up by the western powers as a killing war machine that was deployed on the front lines of the second world war to brutally conquer as the allies saw fit. Now, back to where he called home , his motherland was being brutally colonized by the same group of inconsiderate politicians in Europe and the the far west he had known as his bosses. He had faithfully served them to the extent of his willingness to even die in their wars. The person of Idi Amin acted as a magnet that collected unsolved political hatred that was deliberately planted by colonialists in the fragile history of Uganda. Whenever he was given or got an opportunity to address the public, he spoke with an authoritative tone and mostly, despised the white man with a much personal hate. All was to earn trust from majorities who felt the white man was responsible for their plight.He always used racial discriminative terms to describe those who failed to fit in his standards, terms like imperialists, Zionists among others.It was as if he had an unsettled personal issues with the white race inside his soul that always called for revenge; But this was Uganda!
He would make what people thought as funny jokes about him one day impregnating the queen of England, referring himself always as the conqueror of the British empire. He spent most of his presidency boosting and showing off the might of the army he had made to himself. It become more evident that Amin wasn't a leader when the army, his only valuable, broke into divisions due to biased promotions in its ranks.
Now, concerning civil matters, like corruption, incompetency at the work place e.t.c, these too were considered capital crimes which only deserved a firing squad.!!!...... Ugandans at that time had totally zero experience in the crooked tricky games of politics and then, Amin happened!!
His madness drew the whole situation berserk.When one day he had the fool' guts to tell the media of how he had dreamt god directing him to expel all foreigners from Uganda( the Asians mostly)!!A foolish dream that has up-todate costed dearest Uganda more. Later their shops and businesses were given to inexperienced Ugandans favored by Amin, and later on who just crushed the whole economy to zero.
The economy of Uganda suffered one of the biggest inflations ever to be recorded in Ugandan history. People had lots of paper money but with nothing to buy. Supply of goods into the country was very little as to Uganda being in bad books with its neighbors who controlled the trade routes at the ports of Mombasa and Dar els salaam. This shortage later introduced the initiative of smuggling goods into the country from Kenya, but this venture was most dangerous as it also qualified to treason and was only solved by a firing squad. Its believed that Uganda' wildlife or game increased most during Idi Amin' rule, the only fact being avoided here is of how they truly got to increase? especially Crocodiles, Hyenas, Leopards and Lions. They simply fed well, on dead bodies that were daily thrown in the Nile and other parts of the country' wild. But comes the crux, why the Nile in all places?! was it because the Nile flowed peaceful through his homeland region of west Nile?or maybe, he was making some kind of voodoo rituals of human sacrifice to the gods of his land?
Nobody has ever known what really drives brutal tyrants like Idi Amin and many others who have disturbed peace and tranquility in homeland Africa,but, humanity as whole is also a conscious, a being that most times feels the biggest pains. Humanity if searched thoroughly, sometimes draws explanations to what may have happened in the past and help shade some light on the future.
This, dearest reader , is just a journey through humanity. To fully understand ourselves, sometimes we must make an important journey inside our own selves.
Uganda 1979.
The Uganda army with the orders from field marshal Idi Amin invades Tanzania with reasons of only total and pure madness. later on as the battle raged fierce towards the Uganda army flanks, commanders at the front lines beyond the Kagera seem to be awakened by the reality of war from the trance of Amin' madness and begin to surrender. The Tanzanian led coalition forces, the Wakhombozi (as were known in Uganda), advance towards the Ugandan border towns successfully defeating Amin' army forcing it to retreat. What really happens is that, since Amin had been so discriminative and such a lousy bossy type of a military leader, most of his army commanders didn't see it as to why he shouldn't fight this war by himself and those "elites" he had gotten himself from southern Sudan, the Kakwas, the so called warrior mercenaries!
Many of these Soldiers ( Uganda Army) had joined the army for what it represented, the Uganda Army.
As a newly born nation struggling through post colonial times, many Ugandans had enthusiastically loved to be part of the building process of their country. The army service was viewed as the core strength of the new Independent government reflecting Unity and determination to the road leading in the bright future of Uganda. To serve and protect it with their own blood if need be; This was no longer the matter!! The army now was being used as a tool of terror!
Those who tried to openly question orders that tortured and killed unarmed combatants or civilians, disappeared in Uganda' many unmarked graves or worse, into a predator's belly in the games of Uganda.
Now, the resilience built in a soldier' mind don't give room for quits so, they went underground.
During Amin's unfruitful campaigns of forcefully turning Uganda into an Islamic state, this courageous group couldn't take it any more. They went a step further into plotting an assassination by use of an explosive device timed and hidden in the trunk of his mercedez. But the dictator was lucky that he got tipped by a traitor who sought favor and mostly a position in the high ranks of this oppressive regime!!..... Dearest reader, these kind of short sighted cowardice acts mankind tends to play whenever constrained with life determining needs of humanity, when he plays dumb to the loud cries of multitudes, when he understands our reasons to fight and demand what is right and just, but selfishly decides to rob it away, his cravings for the ever diminishing values, an almost impossible attempt to build himself a comfort seat out of our bones; is the first fuel used in running the mad engines of brutal tyrants. Many people during Amin' regime never thought of thousands of Ugandans they kept informing to the state research bureau operatives to be rebels and terrorists as Ugandans that had kept sacred, undefiled the original vision of the future Uganda where everyone had freedom. For them, it was deemed patriotism in dealing "thoroughly" with the "Zionists", imperialists as they were referred to!!
In return, they would be given favors like "your shop won't be looted or your daughters won't this time be gang raped but instead married to a single male," you will be able to live in towns and cities and get to enjoy the Congolese live bands performing and, of course, your tea will have sugar in it and salt in your sauce; Only you have to cooperate with the government". And when desperate families would approach the authorities to inquire of the where abouts of their members after witnessing them being hauled into car trunks by state agents, would only be cautioned that it wasn't smart to insult the loyalty of afande Amin and besides, it was for the "greater good"!!
So, the people of Uganda in those dark days of fear and ignorance, were made to believe that peace and freedoms of life belonged to a particular individual seated in a top government office and to lead a quiet and decent life, one had to maintain relations with this god like figure in a straight and transparent manner.
Human rights had a price and a cost set by those in power, and anyone who didn't meet that cost was liquidated, erased and it was normal in those days!!!!....... It was as if the conscious of civilization had been hijacked into a trance by some sort of supernatural charm! To be fearful was normal but the braveness of heart in calling upon those who ran the government to account for their actions and mostly involvement in abuse of human rights, was very
much doubted.
Slowly by slowly after the legalization of ego-centric behaviors, Ugandans started demanding for a wage in exchange with a civil right or service the other party would come seeking. The historical moment of that night of October 9th 1962 when Uganda was getting itself Independence, started to fade away. It was now just one of those many days of a lunar calender. Literally, the spiritual part that made sense out of things in our country had died, the unity we once shared was then fragmented by exploits of dirty politics in the early stages of Uganda' childhood. Uganda as a country stood firmly on the global atlas with all its boundaries well marked out. The national flag, national emblem, national anthem, the irresistible symbolic structure of the building that housed the parliament, the high court of Uganda as custodians of the rule of law, were all viewed internationally as instruments that proclaimed Uganda as an Independent state. Yes, Uganda was a country and a state now with its own supremacy, but the majority looked at the whole thing as a desert mirage, a big con ran by the political man of the west.
Ugandans were much divided more than before, only this time confined in a perimeter wall of the international demarcated boundary with the name Uganda on it. It was as if, during that October night of 1962 while we were busy cerebrating the Union Jack being lowered down the mast and for the first time watching the Uganda flag being raised high, waving quietly in a silent wind, someone had secretly stamped an invisible seal onto our foreheads reading 'Ugandan'!Whatever would follow then would be a national responsibility be it good or bad.
Even when you could get a chance and slip through these set boundaries of identity, still you couldn't erase the memories of Uganda from your mind. The beauty of the Nile would haunt you forever, the longing in your soul to watch the setting sun in the calm green hills of Uganda, and that feeling of renewing of the heart would be just enough to kill the escapee!!!
We were bonded for life!
Then we got ourselves wounded in violent battles of dirty politics and unending string of selfish leaderships. Everyone cared only for him that came from the same tribal group as his, so in those days we got ourselves much divided more than the colonial powers came, but no, this time we were bond together with word of our mouths "Independence."
"How did it have happened that we got stuck with these guys who are so primitive that they prefer eating small tiny birds to chicken, how so dark a complexion to belong to sane human being....." These discriminative descriptions started to arise and later led a successful separation between the Nilo hamites, Luo tribes in the Northern regions from the central and Southern Bantu tribal groups.
Now my dearest reader, dirty politics played to an inexperienced generation like this would only be a suicidal notion planted into the genetic strands of future generations and then multiply in those societies yet in the making. When fully grown and developed, its self-destructiveness is then dubbed names like genocide, terrorism, ethnic cleansing......, politics didn't just end at a single societal split. Tribal groups started tracing their origins, this had no evil in itself, but without a common and broader national identity this trend can be disastrous and can act as a fuel driving fragile and explosive political scenes.
In the act of tracing one's identity also came territorial demands! Lands that were demarcated to belong to the people of Uganda as a Nation, here now appeared to have been stolen from rightful owners! Since we are not judging using the measure of 1962 October 9th when everything belonged to Ugandans as a Country/ Nation. Later on.........,this act of seeking tribal identity would be then used as leverage by politicians seeking support from whoever felt the unjust division of Tribal property ( as it was then perceived ). Demands to restore ancient cultural leaders would be railed to whoever would be in power and it would always be a conflict point of debate. As in fulfilling this act of granting every tribal group its authority and powers,(if its even possible) will only mean that the Country, Nation and State of Uganda ceases to exist.!! Now that's a lot of twisted puzzle to undo with tribal self-identity alone!!!
VANTAGE POINT
I have taken a lot of contemplating of how best to explain an incident that happened to me and my family in contrast with the above. Sometimes I think that if finally I got the guts to spill out what I feel uncontrollably tumbling in my soul, would open up old wounds of the authorities in my country or worse, a blasphemous act to the Lord God who saved the whole situation. I feel like, rather not thinking, that it would be an act of trying to take credit that belonged to God alone or a vanity of trying to explain a miracle. Whenever I get my pen and my dairy determined to tell this story (like now), all of a sudden am blocked!!...............
The writers' block! My mind then shifts to thinking about this writers' block thing. Why do writers have to be blocked at certain moments in their wonderful writing discipline? What or who blocks writers? Its so bizarre!!! The enigma surrounding this block, I must confess, has contributed to my failing to come up with a right writing and story telling attitude!!
If you've been reading this article closely, you have noticed my maneuvers into trying to apply the discipline of events chronology in my efforts to unveil this mystery. I hoped that I would ambush it chronologically and before its aware of my schemes, I would have captured it and made illustrations of its grotesque face to you my dearest reader; But, am being watched.......................
END OF PART -1-
Uganda 1979.
The Uganda army with the orders from field marshal Idi Amin invades Tanzania with reasons of only total and pure madness. later on as the battle raged fierce towards the Uganda army flanks, commanders at the front lines beyond the Kagera seem to be awakened by the reality of war from the trance of Amin' madness and begin to surrender. The Tanzanian led coalition forces, the Wakhombozi (as were known in Uganda), advance towards the Ugandan border towns successfully defeating Amin' army forcing it to retreat. What really happens is that, since Amin had been so discriminative and such a lousy bossy type of a military leader, most of his army commanders didn't see it as to why he shouldn't fight this war by himself and those "elites" he had gotten himself from southern Sudan, the Kakwas, the so called warrior mercenaries!
Many of these Soldiers ( Uganda Army) had joined the army for what it represented, the Uganda Army.
As a newly born nation struggling through post colonial times, many Ugandans had enthusiastically loved to be part of the building process of their country. The army service was viewed as the core strength of the new Independent government reflecting Unity and determination to the road leading in the bright future of Uganda. To serve and protect it with their own blood if need be; This was no longer the matter!! The army now was being used as a tool of terror!
Those who tried to openly question orders that tortured and killed unarmed combatants or civilians, disappeared in Uganda' many unmarked graves or worse, into a predator's belly in the games of Uganda.
Now, the resilience built in a soldier' mind don't give room for quits so, they went underground.
During Amin's unfruitful campaigns of forcefully turning Uganda into an Islamic state, this courageous group couldn't take it any more. They went a step further into plotting an assassination by use of an explosive device timed and hidden in the trunk of his mercedez. But the dictator was lucky that he got tipped by a traitor who sought favor and mostly a position in the high ranks of this oppressive regime!!..... Dearest reader, these kind of short sighted cowardice acts mankind tends to play whenever constrained with life determining needs of humanity, when he plays dumb to the loud cries of multitudes, when he understands our reasons to fight and demand what is right and just, but selfishly decides to rob it away, his cravings for the ever diminishing values, an almost impossible attempt to build himself a comfort seat out of our bones; is the first fuel used in running the mad engines of brutal tyrants. Many people during Amin' regime never thought of thousands of Ugandans they kept informing to the state research bureau operatives to be rebels and terrorists as Ugandans that had kept sacred, undefiled the original vision of the future Uganda where everyone had freedom. For them, it was deemed patriotism in dealing "thoroughly" with the "Zionists", imperialists as they were referred to!!
In return, they would be given favors like "your shop won't be looted or your daughters won't this time be gang raped but instead married to a single male," you will be able to live in towns and cities and get to enjoy the Congolese live bands performing and, of course, your tea will have sugar in it and salt in your sauce; Only you have to cooperate with the government". And when desperate families would approach the authorities to inquire of the where abouts of their members after witnessing them being hauled into car trunks by state agents, would only be cautioned that it wasn't smart to insult the loyalty of afande Amin and besides, it was for the "greater good"!!
So, the people of Uganda in those dark days of fear and ignorance, were made to believe that peace and freedoms of life belonged to a particular individual seated in a top government office and to lead a quiet and decent life, one had to maintain relations with this god like figure in a straight and transparent manner.
Human rights had a price and a cost set by those in power, and anyone who didn't meet that cost was liquidated, erased and it was normal in those days!!!!....... It was as if the conscious of civilization had been hijacked into a trance by some sort of supernatural charm! To be fearful was normal but the braveness of heart in calling upon those who ran the government to account for their actions and mostly involvement in abuse of human rights, was very
much doubted.
Slowly by slowly after the legalization of ego-centric behaviors, Ugandans started demanding for a wage in exchange with a civil right or service the other party would come seeking. The historical moment of that night of October 9th 1962 when Uganda was getting itself Independence, started to fade away. It was now just one of those many days of a lunar calender. Literally, the spiritual part that made sense out of things in our country had died, the unity we once shared was then fragmented by exploits of dirty politics in the early stages of Uganda' childhood. Uganda as a country stood firmly on the global atlas with all its boundaries well marked out. The national flag, national emblem, national anthem, the irresistible symbolic structure of the building that housed the parliament, the high court of Uganda as custodians of the rule of law, were all viewed internationally as instruments that proclaimed Uganda as an Independent state. Yes, Uganda was a country and a state now with its own supremacy, but the majority looked at the whole thing as a desert mirage, a big con ran by the political man of the west.
Ugandans were much divided more than before, only this time confined in a perimeter wall of the international demarcated boundary with the name Uganda on it. It was as if, during that October night of 1962 while we were busy cerebrating the Union Jack being lowered down the mast and for the first time watching the Uganda flag being raised high, waving quietly in a silent wind, someone had secretly stamped an invisible seal onto our foreheads reading 'Ugandan'!Whatever would follow then would be a national responsibility be it good or bad.
Even when you could get a chance and slip through these set boundaries of identity, still you couldn't erase the memories of Uganda from your mind. The beauty of the Nile would haunt you forever, the longing in your soul to watch the setting sun in the calm green hills of Uganda, and that feeling of renewing of the heart would be just enough to kill the escapee!!!
We were bonded for life!
Then we got ourselves wounded in violent battles of dirty politics and unending string of selfish leaderships. Everyone cared only for him that came from the same tribal group as his, so in those days we got ourselves much divided more than the colonial powers came, but no, this time we were bond together with word of our mouths "Independence."
"How did it have happened that we got stuck with these guys who are so primitive that they prefer eating small tiny birds to chicken, how so dark a complexion to belong to sane human being....." These discriminative descriptions started to arise and later led a successful separation between the Nilo hamites, Luo tribes in the Northern regions from the central and Southern Bantu tribal groups.
Now my dearest reader, dirty politics played to an inexperienced generation like this would only be a suicidal notion planted into the genetic strands of future generations and then multiply in those societies yet in the making. When fully grown and developed, its self-destructiveness is then dubbed names like genocide, terrorism, ethnic cleansing......, politics didn't just end at a single societal split. Tribal groups started tracing their origins, this had no evil in itself, but without a common and broader national identity this trend can be disastrous and can act as a fuel driving fragile and explosive political scenes.
In the act of tracing one's identity also came territorial demands! Lands that were demarcated to belong to the people of Uganda as a Nation, here now appeared to have been stolen from rightful owners! Since we are not judging using the measure of 1962 October 9th when everything belonged to Ugandans as a Country/ Nation. Later on.........,this act of seeking tribal identity would be then used as leverage by politicians seeking support from whoever felt the unjust division of Tribal property ( as it was then perceived ). Demands to restore ancient cultural leaders would be railed to whoever would be in power and it would always be a conflict point of debate. As in fulfilling this act of granting every tribal group its authority and powers,(if its even possible) will only mean that the Country, Nation and State of Uganda ceases to exist.!! Now that's a lot of twisted puzzle to undo with tribal self-identity alone!!!
VANTAGE POINT
I have taken a lot of contemplating of how best to explain an incident that happened to me and my family in contrast with the above. Sometimes I think that if finally I got the guts to spill out what I feel uncontrollably tumbling in my soul, would open up old wounds of the authorities in my country or worse, a blasphemous act to the Lord God who saved the whole situation. I feel like, rather not thinking, that it would be an act of trying to take credit that belonged to God alone or a vanity of trying to explain a miracle. Whenever I get my pen and my dairy determined to tell this story (like now), all of a sudden am blocked!!...............
The writers' block! My mind then shifts to thinking about this writers' block thing. Why do writers have to be blocked at certain moments in their wonderful writing discipline? What or who blocks writers? Its so bizarre!!! The enigma surrounding this block, I must confess, has contributed to my failing to come up with a right writing and story telling attitude!!
If you've been reading this article closely, you have noticed my maneuvers into trying to apply the discipline of events chronology in my efforts to unveil this mystery. I hoped that I would ambush it chronologically and before its aware of my schemes, I would have captured it and made illustrations of its grotesque face to you my dearest reader; But, am being watched.......................
END OF PART -1-
Watch this space and enjoy the most exciting journey through Humanity as we trace the origin of conflict in Uganda.................................
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