ETERNAL HERITAGE OF UGANDA

Murchison falls

Of recent as I was scrolling down my Facebook page, I came across a post by a friend I met on this famous social site Facebook, questioning [due to current political disturbances in Kampala] whether  Uganda was still worthy of being referred to as a land of freedom. To be honest with you dear reader, this question about our freedoms as Ugandans and urban dwellers stirred up my thoughts deeply about nature of interpretation had late prof. George Kakoma when writing the Ugandan national anthem mentioning Uganda as a land of freedom!......

A charged political environment had been the hostile climates that brewed the independence struggles of the 60s.  Drums of wars and rebellion were being played loud all across the east African region. Calling upon all natives of the land into resistance against the white-man supremacy on black African soil.

What had over-shadowed prof. George Kakoma’s vision and understanding of things into seeing a different Uganda from the rest of his kinsmen?

Oppressions of the British on the black-man had given way to anarchistic ideas in many African societies of those evil dark days of the past. It was very easy to think of war as the only means our societies were to survive! Peace was distant, an illusion painted in the fog and smoke screen of armed conflict, an almost impossible dream! Writing a song of freedom [let alone singing it] would have been interpreted as blasphemous to crusaders carrying banners and sounding trumpets of independence freedom across black Africa.

In his song, the late prof. George Kakoma [RIP] highlighted true meanings of our freedoms as a nation. Freedom isn’t the total absence of chaos, but the tranquility we allow ourselves to experience in the midst of chaos. Also, there had been strong evidences environmentally, climatically, socially and economically that overwhelmed dark forces existing from threatening, confusing and over shadowing truths of our heritage to things temporary. For our heritage, the land of our fore-fathers is eternal.

So, is Uganda a land of freedom?

Farmers tilling their gardens in remote distant villages will answer yes to that question, for their lands haven’t lost fertility all these years or have rains stopped coming in their seasons to shower their fields.

Multitudes of different animal species living peacefully in our many game parks would answer yes to that question, for the lion curbs haven’t lacked a single day their providence or our elephants lacked green pastures, the Nile hasn’t stopped flowing with fresh waters irrigating far regions of the Sahara, the Hippos at Jinja source of the Nile and crocodiles on the shores of lake Victoria have never and will never lack.   

Snow still covers mt. Rwenzori and mt. Elgon still finds reason and pride to smoke, Pine, mahogany and Cyprus trees are still standing and growing tall in our forests, hundreds of different bird species sing daily in our many rain forests and how beautiful are their songs of beauty, Green and beautiful are the Teregian mountains flowing with life giving streams!

Different are our many tribes, but united we stand as a powerful nation, our cultural diversities are a design of beauty and colorfulness to our societies.

Uganda the land of freedom, the garden of God, the pearl of Africa, my motherland and home of my ancestors.

We are free not because man defines and sets limits to our freedoms, but because we are simply born free.