SAM EVIDENCE ORIKUNDA: Literature shouldn’t be used to insult leaders

A number of personalities have made themselves popular through abusing people in the foolery of writing poems and other genres of Literature. The first one was Stella Nyanzi who badly insulted the President, later added on the first lady and other members of the first family. Ugandans as usual like cheering the individuals who confront leaders with ugly insults on social media Maybe as a way of Expressing themselves but of course those so called writers are driven by extremism and radicalism. As a student of Literature I was taught that there’s a language considered informal and therefore disrespectful meaning not fit to be used on the people we hold in high esteem. I was also introduced to something called politeness and which I was taught that it can be used for the communicator to achieve the intention of communication and also for purposes of protocol.

Literature is so interesting and enjoyable but it shouldn’t be used to insult people more especially the leaders. It should rather be used to teach, inform and sensitise. There’s no individual. Who will ever be impressed when literature is used against them? The individuals in Uganda who are mainly using poetry to abuse leaders should put themselves in the position of the leaders they abuse and just imagine if they would be happy when a such a diction they employ to express themselves is used against them. This also, brings us to the paradox of human rights. Some people think it’s their right to cause psychological torture against someone but it’s an abuse of human rights when they’re are called to answer. It’s as if one party has more rights than the other and therefore they’re free to abuse, harass and embarrass. Our leaders are human beings they get angry like any other person and they deserve respect, the law protect them just like it protects us.

Some writers are using poetry to abuse leaders because of the praises they get from Ugandans on social media and the kind of attention given to them by the main stream media. The politics of populism which is used by the opposition is spoiling the morals of Ugandans, someone can do anything to gain fame or appear in the news or maybe be talked about as a leading government critic. Maybe they earn something from it.
Using poetry to abuse our leaders is also caused by idleness. Before Kankwenza was arrested, I used to follow him on Facebook and I would read his comments on almost every sex related post on Facebook. Someone who is busy doesn’t have that time. Perhaps his mind get filled with abuses when he is idle and he needs to be told that we are not responsible for his idleness. I don’t know if Kankwenza has ever known that he also has a number of things that we can write about in away of insulting him and he won’t be happy about it. If he doesn’t agree with the commander of the land forces or the president himself why would he take the route of insults? Isn’t there any other way he can express himself without abuses and his views be respected? Well, the people who are good at debates understand that a person who engage in insults has either run out of ideas or has no idea at all.

I have not read anywhere in history where the famous writers like Ngugi wa thiongo, Chinua Achebe etc used their writing skills to insult the individuals. They would simply express themselves in a dignified manner or use their skills to produce novels to used for academic work. Their pieces of writing would actually be used to sensitise the masses about a number of things. Ugandan writers are taking a wrong route of pouring out their hatred through ugly insults that no upright human being would love to read or listen to. They’re hiding under the skill of writing to harass the people they don’t agree with and they would want Ugandans to clap they do so which is absolutely wrong. The people who have passion in writing should condemn this because at one time readers will be biased about their talent because it’s being spoilt by the selfish individuals who are chasing their own things.

Let’s stop the foolery of hiding under poetry to insult, harass and abuse people we don’t agree with politically. The writers who are doing so, should instead invest their time in producing more literature items that can be used by students in Schools because I understand most novels we use in schools are written by foreigners. How about if our writers involve themselves in creating more of this Literature for purposes of academics? Our children would gain more and our country would be more famous. Away from that, Uganda’s natural resources, Uganda’s history, Uganda’s agriculture and many things are some of the topics that can be written about for purposes of record keeping for generation to come.

The writer is a deputy RDC Kyenjojo District.