A longtime ago, I came across a small piece of paper, perhaps a book page, and some disturbing words were written on it. The words were coming from a slave father somewhere in the American deep south who was advising his teenaged sons who had this burning desire to escape racial segregation and head north.
So you know, centuries ago, the United States of America was divided between the south which supported the continuation of slavery and the north which supported it’s abolition subsequently creating the conditions that resulted into the American Civil war. This war was basically fought over the moral issue of slavery with some Americans, especially in the south, preferring to maintain the trade for economic reasons.
But the north said that it was economically and politically wrong to trade in human beings. Keeping them like one would keep domestic animals had even far- reaching moral issues. Today, this trade is called ‘human trafficking’ a designation with serious criminal charges.
Therefore a black person became ‘free’ the moment he or she crossed the racial borderline and entered what was known as ‘free states’, like Michigan and Washington.
But the negro father, having lived all his life among white folks, was not so sure about their general behaviors towards black folks.
This was his advise to his sons:
“My sons, when you finally succeed to reach north and become freemen, remember always not to act like ‘clever’ negroes. White folks ain’t interested in negro with sense!”
This advise was given more than 200 years ago but I think it still holds true even today.
During apartheid, South Africa had racial classifications where people were ranked according to color of their skins with white Afrikaner farmers (Boers) being on top of the food chain. But even among the last group which was of blacks, the Xhosas (Nelson Mandela, Oliver Thambo and Walter Sisulu tribe) were ranked last. According to white people, the Xhosas who seemed to harbor freedom dreams were seen as too ‘clever’ therefore a danger to white establishment with it’s racial segregation policies.
The apartheid regime in Pretoria did whatever it could to jail as many Xhosa men as possible and others pushed out of the country to join liberation groups especially the ANC (African National Congress).
In neighboring South West Africa (now Namibia), another apartheid territory, a black tribe called ‘Ovambos’ was also treated like South African Xhosas. It was the tribe of Sam Shafishona Nujoma, Andimba Toivo ya Toivo, Pombili Hifekepunye Pohamba and Nkrumah Musherenga. Most of these ‘clever’ blacks were forced into exile to wage a liberation war based in Angola, Zambia and Tanzania.
The architect of apartheid racial policies was a crazy man called Hendrik Verwoerd who had said that:
“Giving education to black people is equivalent to giving razors to whites and tell them to slit their throats!”
The architect of apartheid was assassinated by a white cleaner in 1966, but his policies were not; the system that Verwoerd helped to establish would continue to subjugate black South Africans for many years to come.
Unlike other whites elsewhere, South African Boers were at least polite enough to say to black people’s faces that “we hate you” which made more sense than pretending. They, Boers, also agreed that black people were as intelligent as other humans therefore they had to restrict them from acquiring knowledge.
The bottom line is that white people have not learnt how to treat or even live with black people especially those they deem to be intelligent. Because their ancestors named everything unpleasant ‘black’, now it is hard for them to come around and accept that we, blacks (more correctly brown people because ‘black’ is the color of charcoal or shoe-polish) are more deserving therefore treated as equals.
Actually ‘white’ is a color of papers or snow and no ‘white person’ looks nearer to that. They would have been correctly named ‘pink’ people.
Be that as it were, surely this ‘equality’ is the basis for revealed religion which was apparently also brought here by white people! A person is a person no matter how much you twist the facts. The people who are still discriminating against blacks are even more ignorant than Adolph Hitler who thought that Germans were better humans than Jews!
Why have I brought up this conversation?
This conversation is emanating from the way Uganda was unfairly treated by the global north or west or white people for refusing to accept homosexuality. Our country was punished unfairly in the process condemning many people to harsh lives.
That is why when the Ugandan Parliament decided to follow what you would term as ‘democratic practice’ and voted against homosexuality in the “Anti Homosexuality Bill 2023,” the entire white world went bonkers.
And yet it was them, white people, who taught us about the dangers of this vice. They had actually included it in the Bible, ‘their book’, they introduced to us in the process demonizing our own beliefs in the deity. Now they are turning around to telling us that “after all Sodom and Gomorrah were lies!”
Where does this leave democracy a practice white people taught us to trust and like religion, believe in it wholeheartedly?
They, white people, had told us that all matters of national importance had to be voted on by legislators whom we had to vote in to be our representatives.
White people had told us that democracy was exercised in a house called ‘Parliament’ after members in that house- MPs- are voted in through elections. When in that house, bills are passed on the basis of voting. The “Aye- yes” votes had to be more than the “nay- no” votes for a successful passing. On May 2023 the ‘aye’ votes took the day and the “Anti Homosexuality Bill” was passed.
This issue was a true national issue that united the entire country. Our people, though not new to homosexuality practice, they detested the idea that their sons would openly marry their neighbor’s sons! It was even an abomination for girls to marry girls!
“How about Creation as laid down by religious teachings?” Many were heard asking openly.
I recall an interview I had with a white lady where I was supposed to answer 10 personal questions without lying on any one of them.
She caught me lying on the last question and she commented thus: “now that you have lied here, I will take it that you have probably lied on most of the other questions!”
Now a pertinent question is: “If ‘Creation’ as advanced by religious teachings is wrong and that Sodom and Gomorrah are probably made up ‘stories’, where does that leave religion?”
Of course white people, an inherently curious specie, are never bothered by such issues. Their points of view will always take the day no matter how flavorous!
I am still failing to put my hands on the logic apparent in the LGBTQIA movement. Why is it so important that entire countries are even changing their immigration policies in order to accommodate ‘persecuted’ gay people?
After President Museveni had signed into law the Anti- Homosexuality Bill, all hell broke loose. Uganda had done something unthinkable infact equitable to a sacrilege.
In western capitals from Washington to Ottawa then to London and Vienna, alarm whispers were making rounds with one unanswered question: “What the hell just happened in Uganda?” They were wondering ‘who’ gave Uganda the ‘right’ to decide on an issue the west had told them not to decide on!
Uganda was a sovereign country according, once again, to the definition as given by white people. It had borders, a national anthem, emblem and a constitution; it had a Parliament, a Judiciary and an Executive all set up according to what white people taught us. But it had no right whatsoever how to use those tenets.
The lawyers who presented and defended the bill were all graduates of the British Common Law practice. And to a person, they were all children born of a mother and father. Again they were religious fellows therefore aware that ‘God created man to fill the world’ with people and the only way to do this was through sexual reproduction.
Of course sexual intercourse between two men or between two females, could not produce babies! “But they can adopt!” Someone has just screamed. “Adopt which baby? One produced between a union of a man and a fellow man?”
And yet this ‘homosexuality’ thing and it’s attendant vices comprised in the acronym LGBTQIA, was not a new thing to Africans. In Kiswahili, homosexuality is called “Usenge” and “Okulya ebisiyaga” in Luganda. It is likely these names, like God, were already known by Africans before the coming of the white people.
Like President Museveni always says: “Imagine these young white girls teaching me about democracy!”
Therefore white people were wrong as they were during slavery and colonialism to even think that they knew more about ‘homosexuality’ than Africans!
Africans, according to whites once again, are the cradle for human kind. Therefore whatever the wide world knows, black people had known it beforehand. We are only not too adventurous or greedy enough to claim our true position on the dining table.
Therefore the problem with homosexuality in Africa is not about the vice being an alien practice (as some of our people actually think) but the public display white people want to turn it into.
We really don’t know for certain what consenting adults do in the sanctity of their beds. Whether it is heterosexual activity or otherwise, we don’t want to know. In fact human’s greatest secret is sex. No two couples do it the same and it is done in secrecy and at times in the dark!
As a matter of fact, making sex of any form is shameful if it becomes public. Prostitutes are detested in many societies for turning sex into a public display. Have you ever been to a party and a couple disappears to make love either in a bush or in a car or any secluded place? Once their escapade becomes public, they have to head to the nearest exit. Shame is always written all over their faces hence the disappearing act.
We don’t want to go into the biblical story of Adam and Eva and why God never allowed them to ‘eat’ the fruit. They had done it in the open now all humans are paying for this unauthorized indulgence. Even the snake, who simply watched when Adam and Eva ‘ate’ the fruit, his siblings are forever paying for this same crime!
Therefore God did not intend sex to be a public act. All His creations who do sex in public were denied the ability to speak and even reason!
In Africa, forget about homosexuality, and think of kissing! It is an abomination to do it in public. While young white people can kiss in public, in Africa, you attract a public beating for that.
This is what African leaders and legislators were telling white people about the dangers of supporting homosexuality. It is not about discrimination or failing to protect minority rights. Not at all. It is about what society as a whole believes in!
Look, Islam allows a man to marry four wives. In Africa you can marry as many wives as your resources can allow you. And among white people, one woman is the ideal. Now imagine if Africans were to also force white folks to marry many wives considering the undeniable truth that all human societies have more females than males!
After many years staying in western capitals, I had returned home all ‘civilised’ and attempted to hug my sisters and give pecks to my step mothers. I was dressed down by my elders and called “omugwenyufu- uncivilized” for showing such public display of affection. I learnt the hard way. Up to this day; I even fear to hold a lady’s hand when walking on the street!
Are my people therefore primitive for not showing affection in full view of everyone? I don’t think so neither are white males ‘primitive’ for not knowing the beauty of marrying many wives.
We once roamed the jungles in a naked way, like all humans anyway, and even made love to our young. White people came over and told us that making love to one’s relative is called ‘incest’ therefore punishable by law. They taught us about the dangers of ‘rape’ and ‘defilement’ and we reformed.
What went wrong then? Why do they now make a u-turn and change things which were settled a long time ago?
I don’t think white people will one day accept to eat what we ‘eat’ in Africa. And over their dead bodies: they will never accept ‘extended family systems’ like we do in Africa. Will they accept, one day, that it is ‘logical’ to be polygamous considering the ratio of females to males? Of course they will not.
Therefore it was wrong indeed cruel for them to punish Ugandans by stopping loans; visa burns and cancel both multilateral and bilateral assistance. Our country was even removed from AGOA- an American initiative to help poor countries sell their products to American customers.
Why would America even consider punishing Africans for any reason whatsoever given the dark episode of slavery?
Ugandans, a people who have suffered so much since creation, did not deserve to have no medicines in hospitals and not happy to move on pot-holed roads after the suspension of aid. Now we cannot sell our products to lucrative American markets because we don’t want to openly display our sexual orientations.
Considering what Uganda, indeed President Museveni, has done for the fight against terrorism and for African unity, it is a bit too harsh to treat him that way. What will be the lesson taught to other African leaders who wants to cooperate with white leaders?
If they had stopped loans and other assistance basing on poor politics or corruption, it would make sense. But suspending aid because we don’t want to display sex in public? This was cruel and a clear sign that “white people ain’t interested in clever negroes!”
Today, an African who fights indeed puts his people first, is detested in the west. Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe was not a bad leader per se, but suffered immensely for loving his people too much. He wanted them to share into the riches of their country by at least owning some land to cultivate from. He was a ‘clever negroe’ and punished the same way they punished Kwame Nkrumah, Samora Machel, Thomas Sankara, Amilcar Cabaral, Muammar Gaddafi, name others.
The most detested African leader today is a young firebrand politician known as Julius Malema of South Africa. Malema wants black South Africans to share into the vast riches of their country. He is therefore seen as a threat as was Yasser Arafat who lived all his life fighting for a homeland for his Palestinian people.
It is more than likely that Julius Malema will never become South African president because the west will not allow it.
I would also like to caution our young politician especially Hon. Robert Kyagulanyi that white people will not allow him to come to power because Mr. Museveni is still doing their billing. To them, it is never about how we feel, but how they feel! It is about strategic national ‘interests’ not that an African president is mistreating his people.
When Mr. Robert Kyagulanyi (Bobi Wine) visits western capitals and carry out interviews, white people, especially those in power, see him as a threat. That is why DRCongo will never be allowed to be ruled by a president with sense!
President Museveni has ‘sense’ but he fits perfectly well in their strategic national interests. He remains the pin-point man in as far as fighting militant Islam in the greater Eastern- Horn of Africa region. For this reason alone, they will still tolerate him for a further 10 or more years.
If you have been following what I have alluded to above, white people don’t care what we think. In fact we are not supposed to think in the first place!
In conclusion, I would like to appeal to white people to accept that we are a self-thinking people who knows their rights. Thanks to them, we are now in a better position to tell what is right and what is wrong.
Therefore we are no longer ‘monkeys’ but part of the fellowship of humans without our contributions in many spheres, the world would not be whole. If everything fails, they should remember that we gave them Barrack Obama, Tiger Woods and Michael Jackson! How about Nelson Mandela they jailed for 27 years and came out of jail and kissed their children? That was greatness personified!
Last word is from Nietzsche: “And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music!’
Adam Kamulegeya
adamkam2003@gmail.com
0779 104 336
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