Legacy of King Herod's... 'Sword of the Damocles'

Legacy of King Herod’s… ‘Sword of the Damocles’

      Sam Mwaka-karama                                      

      2013 years ago – there once reined a King in the land of the Judean people in ancient Jerusalem. ‘King Herod the Great’ was to be the ancient non-Jewish monarch and Allie of the Romans as they ruled over Mesopotamia, Egypt and much of North Africa, to see the words of the old prophets come to pass: “A King shall be born in the house of Judah…” who is the son of Jehovah God of Abraham.

        So that as the Jews flocked to their cities for the population day counting of people, which in keeping with their ancient laws only adult males got counted - and as the old Patriarchs, Rabbis  and scribes of the great Temples, reading signs of the times, accurately focused on the date and time of the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ – the small monarch King Herod was a secretly worried man; [when you find the new-born infant King… come tell me, that I may go pay my respect]. Telling the Gabi; three wise men. And when the wise men avoided him after seeing Christ – the reputed mad king was annoyed!

         But the Angel of the Lord woke-up Joseph; “Arise, Take the child and mother and head for the land of Egypt…”  so that the infant Jesus Christ and the blessed Virgin were to be briefly exiled in the land of ancient slavery where their fore bearer Hebrews lived once upon a time.

Swords of the Damocles

         As the son of God was headed to the land of Egypt, the Herod’s wreath came down and the swords lashed-out; ‘kill all the new-born male child…’ suddenly King Herod’s men slayed scores of the first generation Christmas kids in the Judah linage throughout the land of Judea. Terror reined as babies were sliced wide-open, smashed against the walls or caught dangling by the tender ankles and pierced or cut through… and those were the way such killings were executed from of old.

         Like in the days of King Solomon; whose wisdom prevailed over two women who were claiming and fighting over a child.

         One woman claimed “My child” and the other woman cried “O! No it is my child”

So the wise King Solomon roughly holds out the kid and the sword of the Damocles; ‘the child be sliced in two… each of you takes one part’ – the cantankerous woman said ‘Yes my Lord…’ as the humbled motherly said ‘No my lord give the child to her’.

The Herodian legacy – and the Christmas children up to now!  

        Misfortune, victimization, stigmatization, malice, hate – are some of the many-many evils that are constantly befalling Christmas children. Many of us Christmas children grew-up under very difficult circumstances – with often in-surmountable obstacles barring your way, impossible odds ruining you down… people just hate you and unrelentingly fight you down! Always aiming to ultimately take your life. Those Christmas children who are well-off perhaps having been born to a wealthy pair of parents – might get best education, become successful but, might be accident prone. Some of such Christmas children might develop complicated health that constantly sap your energy and drain your income.

        The year 2013 [unlucky 13] – is more likely ending a bad year for us Christmas children. Every year coming up to Christmas we all face the challenges of [accommodation displacement] – since there was no room for Christ on population day… as Maria labored with the pains of child delivery. Also for many of us we face those odds yearly. Our share of the privilege of being born on Christmas day… many of us live and die not building a house!

        Conspiracy rule our lives and often we even lose our children inexplicably… many people just find themselves inexplicably in groups conspiring feverishly against us – even if they didn't know you; they will somehow find themselves in a group fighting someone they didn't know – but heated. There are untold ends… among us because the King Herod the Great legacy lives on! And continue to wreck us in many ways.

         If you were born on Christmas day… please take good care of yourself this Christmas. For [13] the bad luck number has a proxy crypto-relativity to [33] and, the legacy signs are very-very strong and bad this year – and if you are born child of a father who is a Christmas child… close yourself indoors till the season pass – watch and listen very carefully to everything said and digest them carefully. Be alert and watchful for the King Herod legacy is at its worst this Christmas; food poisoning, accidents, other people’s malice. Pray Quietly. ***

The Writer is an Independent Thinker, Author and Blogger    

    

Africans - the reading culture thing...

Africans - the reading culture thing…

Sam Mwaka-karama

       “If you do not wish it properly understood… put it in writing” – so says a popular joke between the Media and the Political class in Uganda. Actually suggesting that most documents or texts are scathingly scaled over or, not read at all…

       It is official – as in public knowledge, that frequently asked questions in the Ugandan media has this thing about the ‘impoverished reading culture’ that over a period has evolved into jokes between the media and the politicans. Those who follow the media in Uganda closely enough might have spotted this at some-point.

       My purpose here is; how do we Authors help correct this situation?

       To get the drift of my discussion – actually I belong to the thinking that what you read at an earlier age sets you on a path where you cultivate ‘the reading culture’ and, further combinations of certain books as you grow into adulthood [if you were lucky to read them at that tender age] lead you towards developing passion for reading…

       I recently came across a comment by an Author in one of our group discussions on ‘Linked In’ where she says something to the effect that the character “Oliver Twist” might have been her tow into books to the point, she concludes that, she moved over and settled in America; the country of the Oliver Twist story…

      This factor struck me as absolutely true and, one might look back and almost see those fundamental books in the category of “Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn” as being foundational to the ‘culture of avid reading’ – perhaps even habit forming! Personally, I met most of those fundamental books in libraries and along the way.

      This seems to be Africa’s big problem – in that there seem to be a disconnect in the formula and as a result the younger generation African children; especially those born in the 1970/80s were not properly exposed to the right combination of those fundamental literature materials… I may be wrong, but I think things got jumbled-up somewhere along with; Wars, African trend towards idealism, the old socialism and other Independence philosophies; may have somehow created the disconnect.

      Now, before I over do it and bangle-up my discussion my question is;  a new book market (Online eBooks) is emerging and creating widespread challenges to Authors – now the African potion of the book market potential is huge; given new Tablet reading gadgets and so on… now entering Africa. What would your view or opinion be, given the “African poor reading culture” negation? ***

The Writer is an Independent Thinker, Author and Blogger  

     

       

     

      

The Great Walking Train

The Great Walking Train

A night mare; one night long ago…

Sam Mwaka-karama

      In the dry harvest season, the village was always lively, happy and buzzed with busy-bee activities. The village women were already on the kraal spreading the fresh harvest millet for the drying hot day.

      We the village kids hardly ever overslept in the dry season – by the early Lakana sunrise we were already seated atop the huge grand old Aliri anthill; where that little part of the anthill we had broken the previous evening protruded out wet fine earth… the Okok ants had over-night sealed the broken part by rebuilding a small mold. It was this fresh earth that we used to roll small round balls for our catapult. That was our routine; early to rise and sweep the kraal clean of all goats overnight droppings – so that our mothers dried and processed the harvests by day.

      The boys from across the Oitino River were already blowing their hands telling us that the birds hunting party had started moving-out and we should hurry hurry hurry! Otoye-toye-toye… wan-do cako-wot’o, wot-wunnu yo-yot otoye-toye-toye!

      As the soldier ants strike-out at our fingers, we quickly flick them away and sometimes crush them into the balls we now hurriedly roll. ‘Kwiik, kwiik, kwiik’ – suddenly Okwiik the black birds perched high up the tall majestic Tugu palm trees shriek down at us… and using the dried hard earth balls we had made the previous day – we slug them rapidly. They scatter flying north the direction we were preparing to go. So we hurry to run after them.

      Yelling and scrambling down the anthill, we race after them occasionally sending our earth balls at them; Okwiik are a clumsy flier, but they are freak birds – no village boy ever shot them down – so we merely catapult the slugs at them aimlessly. Sensing the slugs zapping around they quickly scale-up flying higher and higher and eventually out of our reach.

       At the Rocky River convergent point we meet the boys from across – we are friends, age-mates and often fighting foes as well. But this morning we were in good camaraderie friendship we all joked and laughed.

        As we walked away from the villages the bird hunting party effectively began then; every boy was on the look-out for the wild doves Akuri; the tough winged pigeons dried on open fire tasted salty – we all looked out for them. The land was vast as far as the eyes could see and, we just kept going.

        By mid-day I had killed three little birds; some of the bigger boys had already killed one or two Akuri wild doves – the biggest boy among us had killed a spy squirrel; Tilli slugged it clean between the eye and the ear… it was warm and its hind-legs kicked weakly as the big boy picked it up, twisting its neck dead.

       Tilli’s father was my father’s brother – and we the kids from my grandfather’s clan saw him as our head. Now we were one up on the boys from across because our head boy had already made the big kill of the day – now he had two pigeons, one Aliboro and the squirrel.

       The wild and now rowdy birds hunting party walked on and on past even the furthest villages on the far outer fringes towards the wild country side. Many times, a rabbit and other small animals suddenly bolted in a blurry get away – Tilli’s dog Genkumi snatched the streak rabbit in a spectacular chase I was to see for the first time – awesome it was!

        The dry season wild fire had swept the country side clean – so our birds hunting party just went on and on. At length, we had eventually gathered around a group of huge trees in the mid afternoon silently searching for birds in the dense green leaves and slugging at them quietly – it was hot and the birds landed on the trees to rest and cool down… I killed two good size pigeons there. Just then the older boys decided we gather twigs and start a fire. The older boys looked for and found a particular type of tree and broke its twigs; sitting on the ground a boy placed two twigs together and held them firmly by his heels and then used a pencil sized twig that he vigorously rubbed between his palms and presently smoke began to appear at the contact point he firmly grinded… another boy added soft dry grass to this grinded-point and blew his cheeks hard at it till the flames appeared – now everybody picked dry grass and lighted the fire and the roasting of birds and small animals spread-out.

The abominable Walking Train…

       It was suddenly getting dark when we realized the day was gone and if we didn’t hurry back we were getting caught-up by nightfall… it was then that we suddenly began hearing some not so far away strange rhythmic weird  crunching, clanging and hissing noise! Bewildered, we all stopped the roasting and eating and listened craning our necks and cocking our ears – we held our breaths.

      We were gripped! Terror rooted us immobile as the noise coming from over the headland westwards was now louder and louder; and suddenly thick black smoke billowed; chwek-whwek-chwek-whwek-chwek; clang-wrek, clang-werk, clang-wrek, clang-wrek – we scampered running homewards, but the hideous menacing noise moved much faster cutting us off – suddenly as we got onto the headland there it was struggling up valley; a twisty long train hissing white hydro-smoke - like out of two huge nostrils and, black smoke out of the top of its head… the train and coaches all moved on legs the size of a huge man’s chest as it walked its multiple legs in unison, bending at the knees and at its Elephant like large heavy feet.

        Many times in the uneven hillside as it detoured to cut-us off from breaking into a terrified home run one or the other of its many-many massive legs jerked sideways revealing an open between the thigh and the lower leg where a glistening hydraulic shock system appeared briefly and steadied it shortened back and walked on – terrified many of the other kids had already run away but three of us were transfixed staring at the awesome walking train… inside it was weak yellow light and head and shoulders of passengers could be furtively seen.

        Two engineers sweat drenched were busy in their tiny cabin: the big fat charcoal black one threw hefty logs in the hellfire that cooked and boiled the engine – while his pencil thin colleague hanged out; his face reminded me of the moon crescent; his fore-head was bulging and his thin mouth drawn tight inwards with a long smoking pipe also with pointed chin was firmly bitten by his clenched hard jaw – spittle occasionally streaked out of the side of his mouth, his engineer’s cap pasted at the back of his head and, his hair around it was graying… I realized that he was unseeingly looking around because he obviously did not see us – as the walking train momentarily stopped and; presently one of the doors flung open and a thin lone woman silhouetted out and claimed down the three steps disappearing afoot the massive walking train at the grassy ground. Then the train began moving… now we ran and ran and ran till I suddenly woke-up! O! O! Ohh! A night mare! I was drenched in sweat my heart beating wildly. I nearly died in the abominable scare! ***  

             

When Uganda Police Detectives First first crossed to Kenya

When Uganda Police Detectives first crossed to Kenya

         A Police Story...

Sam Mwaka-karama

‘Athi River Murder’ – became a first rate Ugandan crime detective story exhaustively followed and reported by DRUM magazines for years in the 1960s and 70s - long after the criminals had either been apprehended, vanished or for others melted away with their trail running cold every year that elapsed.

The drama had unfolded at Lugogo Indoors Stadium – the night was light and somewhat cool as it often was in Kampala evenings, the night sky favourably clear and star spangled up there; a huge tropical moon slightly past overhead noon point.  As the guests packed in, security was normal. There was an air of political anticipation; then President Obote had just few years earlier successfully abrogated the independence constitution, made his ‘Nakivubo Pronouncement’ as the build-up on his ‘Move to the Left’ political philosophy.

 Lugogo was one such political philosophy build-up event - there that night Dr. Obote was set to unfurl his next dictum what would begin to piece together the complex steps towards mapping-out his political philosophy – and the visualized build-up of the ideology [move to the left] - next door in Tanzania then President Julius Nyerere, equally worked-up the Tanzanian people with his “Ujamah” African socialism political mobilization Ideology – already the fire-brand was talking about ushering a transformation. While at the same time then Kenyan President Jomo Kenyatta united the Kenyan people under his ‘fly-whisk’ political ideology of ‘’pull-together’’ in his long characteristic call –‘’ Harambee’’. To foreign observers and African watchers the East African region looked very-much set for a major change.

That night in Lugogo as Obote was set to make another major pronouncement, a group of the Kabaka’s Buganda loyalist die hard; following the crisis of 1966 that saw the exit of Kabaka Mutesa II into exile in Britain – the loyalists were determined to end President Obote’s life – though the old Police systems had already gotten wind of the loyalists arrangements, they had been several steps behind and, actually very late!

The ‘assassin’ moved easily and freely among the mostly security un-conscious VIP and eminent guests, and dressed in a popular Kitenge design with the Presidents head centred on his Kitenge shirt; just like so many chanting praise animatedly, Kyeyune eventually picking his moment approached and actually fired! The rest is a well known police story – in Uganda history.

For the detectives, headed by Indian Hassan Sundrani, and going by the book as it were - they were said to have been closing on the trail of the suspect group a long time, Kyeyune just freaked them out; because he was the ‘dummy’ - he was the most unlikely of the group that included names like John Obo (1965/6 Army dismissed mutineer Captain), and some of Katwe’s toughies the detectives trailed all the time. It was in the dying eleventh hour of the ‘Lugogo take’ – that Hassan’s detectives got the name and identity of ‘the man with the golden gun’, from a Suzana Night Club prostitute – now they knew the ‘dummy’ was the assassin; but where was he? The last minute race began then...

In the blinding stampede that followed Kyeyune’s shot – the assassin aided by his back-up [who suddenly crushed and demolished their way through the scampering mass of falling entanglement of bodies] rode on the back of the stampede-crowd and falling VIPs and hysterical everybody and Kyeyune  was out of the focal point perimeter in barely seconds. Huge throngs of people burst out of the gates, in minutes a whole lot of them wearing that Obote Kitenge, spilling onto that stretch down towards Lugogo by pass – where those detectives later theorized that the most likely route where the getaway car probably waited for the assassin action team.

 Other theories said the action group might have fled [along with the huge crowd of dancing groups from the Naguru community, who had been the mobilized welcome cultural group entertaining Guests outside the indoor stadium] running on foot across the Lugogo by-pass and onto what used to be open rugby ground and probably boarded the getaway car someplace near the Delinquent kids’ home close to the old Naguru housing estates flats. And the convoy of perhaps three or more cars drove through the night in sturdy Datsun 1600 SSS - to Kenya border. Kyeyune, the man who nearly killed President Obote disappeared into Kenya. It was rumoured among the junior detectives that a top Kenyan political criminal who went by the fake name of Mark twist might have master minded the Obote assassination attempt – however the many-many investigative articles written in the Drum magazine for several years after, never actually associated Mark Twist to the Lugogo event.

Emancipation of Uganda Police

Kampala was in turmoil after that fateful night – though Obote was out of danger, and was healthy enough to live many more years after the hurting of that assassin’s bullet; the challenges fell squarely on the shoulders of the Police; to find and bring to justice all involved accountably. The Scotland Yard landed investigators to aid the Ugandan detectives structure the group identikit and, begin tracking them down...

Since the UPC and KY political alliance had collapsed and come to an end – with the Kabaka of Buganda having much earlier fled into exile in Britain. And, Dr. Milton Obote assuming position of Executive President thus making Uganda a Republic by abrogating the Independence Constitution – the Buganda loyalists of the Kabaka had pledged a bullet on Obote’s head... and that was delivered by Kyeyune that night... the drums resounded throughout Buganda as the people were hysterical that actually President Obote had miraculously survived.

The now really heated President bared  down on the AG, DPP and IGP and the three  powerful officers pretty-much roughed-up Commissioner Hassan the CID Chief – who quickly delivered a report that the assassination group had fled to Kenya and, he needed clearances to cross a detective team into Kenya. Obote was a powerful East African President and, a friend to his East African peers – Hassan’s team was in Kenya in no time at all.

While in Uganda in the period following the Lugogo incidence, a spate of violent robberies broke-out as the loyalists raised cash for the exiled assassination group now living in Kenya... the robbery money used by the group in their settlement in Kenya was to dramatically make things doubly difficult for the detectives holed-up in Nairobi.

The team comprised high ranking action oriented detectives included a group of Police Women accompanied by top prostitutes who knew the assassin group well and had divulged a lot of their plan and contacts in Kenya. Rampant arrests back in Kampala had set the loyalists fleeing, and even as the core assassination group secured houses where they lived in posh areas of Nairobi – the detectives never the less closed-in and found outer periphery members, but not the core group till one prostitute found the men and, was lured into some meandering randes vous that eventually ended in the cat and mouse where the women were murdered in Athi River – the night the assassins drove to Mombasa, where they barricaded themselves for years later.

‘Äthi River Murder’ – hit the headlines all over East Africa and beyond – for the core group of the assassins, that was the desired thing, something as big as the shot in Lugogo – would get the detectives off their backs at least for a while... and as the group went underground in Mombasa, the team of detectives pulled-out with the bodies of the dead women. It would take sometimes for the re-org and given the political weight of the whole matter, it eventually became an indefinite thing. Uganda detectives kept the thin line alive though and, many others were periodically picked.

In the final analysis the blockbuster as punitively nibbled out by DRUM and other magazines and newspapers actually eventually spelt-out the emancipation of the Uganda Police – highlighting standards exhibited in the field of crime detection for which Uganda was more often internationally considered as performing fairly well. ‘Athi River Murder’ is on the very top of Uganda Police detective achievements to date – as it was foundational. Assassin Kyeyune was reputed to have materialized during the Amin era a free man with a business in Kampala – was the paradox! ***      

          

Re-Discovering the HIV Fight...

Re-Discovering the HIV Fight or Re-Creating Stigmatization – Job lines again?

Sam Mwaka-karama

Puppet on the string starts another stroke: jumping this side and then that side - HIV/Aids – is historically known to have started somewhere around mid to late 1970s. In between a period of about five years 1975 to 1979 is the gray area internationally known and have been established by WHO and other Global health concern entities; as the period the disease initially materialized.

In the early days of people generally discussing HIV verbally or in writing – which began more seriously around the [1988-1991s] – the concept of what people now loosely talk of as [HIV Fight] was also established in this secondary period. I personally made my written contribution in discussing HIV in my own publication of a personal ‘Newsletter’ in 1991. My maiden publication [MONAKK] printed by Uganda Co-operative Alliance UCA on Nkrumah Road circulated in Kampala, Jinja and my home town Gulu, was also the initial point of my entry into writing and publishing material that could be internationally read and digested. Basically HIV/Aids was at that time a darkness unknown ambiguity globally.

After this initial period of people widely and publicly talking about and discussing HIV/Aids; something that in Uganda here was limited to then very scanty press and media and wide-eyed café, restaurants, bars and beer hall scares – actually to think backwards a little; it was a most difficult time for anybody who cared to think at all… because at the top of the world’s most advanced health ‘Think Tanks’ so many abstracts were devised, crafted then advanced, modeled and re-modeled, then juggled about in Journals, magazines and academic publications and forums; abstract theories that practically scared people virtually to the very death…

Compounded by a terrorizing tabloids horde of weird shifting and sieving wild analyses and, scrap definitions of compound laboratory genetic findings: mostly ambiguous stuffs like “human Carriers” of the molecular HIV [x or y chromosomes] genes… that once fused with certain other blood types [in sex] instantly sparked [full blown] cureless HIV/Aids!

The academics abroad in their disease anthropology - researched some colonial time disease called; “Brucellosis” which quickly zeroed the suspicions on a spot inside Uganda close to the Tanzanian border – where colonial health officer Bruce ones carried out his research among roadside communities… and the disease defined by Bruce way back in the 1950s was apparently of similar identifiable symptoms and general characteristics as that of HIV/Aids.

The world of the academia can be very brutal and merciless or insensitive – as the world of the media is cramped with daring, hard and terribly malicious minds as well. Between those two important worlds of ethics, back then, fragile emotions [among early day’s victims] were crushed! Falling infected people thronged about swayed by the winds of wheeler-dealer and brave-minds that capitalized on the ambiguity of HIV/Aids prevalence; Thus creating [stigmatization] and, soft hearted people began to accept publicly that they were HIV sufferers – with this concept of stigmatization the acronym [HIV Fight] came to existence. Very quickly things boiled down to bare ‘escape goat’ stigma thinking… which gave birth to the enormous blame syndrome; someone else less known, but of notoriety of some kind was always the blame victim.

To us Africans ‘blame syndrome’ is a natural to most of our cultures – feuding family against family, clan against clan, tribe against tribe, competing individuals against one another – actually it all started with the focal-point area of the disease Brucellosis findings in Rakai district.

The silent stigma fight saw many people blaming each-other to death causing many others to flee… then the scenario painters in the press brought in the concept that ‘Transit truckers’ were initially the ones that infected the area; now that brought to attention ‘trucking Somali drivers’ and the beginning of the metamorphoses of the stigmatization phenomenon. Its wild bush-fire burning effect spread country-wide - from Bruce’s focal point Rakai.

My Newsletter articles; one of the earliest really objective observation of the HIV/Aids problem and positively encouraging layman view became the fundamental material that fed clearer thinking among victims and concerned local thinkers, writers and discussants; some form of analysis that cleared hearts and minds clogged by abstract academic publications and distressing tabloids and other genre mainstream media views – I got encouraging feed-back that time – I recall funders were suddenly running around with cash in hand putting together Journalists to found some new robust newspapers… I wasn’t a trained Journalist so I was unknown; so that my inspiring newsletter folded as suddenly in Gulu; I found myself a HIV Stigma! I am not from ‘Bruce’s Rakai’, nor was I more importantly one of the early victims – but I became “suspect” – to this day now about or nearly thirty years down the road I am still not HIV positive. Though back then it became very difficult for me to do anything at all… I was caught-up in a vice that has now lasted 27 years; lost two daughters in Germany and a son in California. Branded that I was the infector of all the victims – to this day I am not living on ARV.

Stigmatization then and Stigmatization now    

Philosophically a fight is two sided: on one side you and on the other side the enemy – actually in this sort of ‘vice’ situation [the enemy] is not necessarily your enemy nor are you necessarily his enemy either – he is just some Guy whose character [and or tribe or race] you often didn’t just like; he is dangled there with the ambiguous [escape goat] accusations as ‘the enemy’ and, so what! It serves the purpose; the fight begins, like it did between 1988/1991.

And like in the [cock or bull] fights those who stake them out benefit on bets and collections from those who are entertained, stake holders and gamblers on whoever wins the [HIV/Aids Fight]. In the rough and tangle that embodied the three or four year fight: the Berlin wall came down! Northern Uganda bled! Wall materialized between Israel and Palestine! Twin Towers came down! The Black Hawk came down! Bosnia was aflame! South Sudan broke free! Rwanda bled! DR Congo and other parts of the African continent ‘saw red’! Iraq was a-storm – And things now evidently are getting better though the under-belly of the world still rumbles; the rhetoric, claims, talks, dialogues and discussions even accusations still goes on…

What I believe is the fertilizers of renewed local political problems are those political fall-outs among allies of the [HIV Aids fights] being the ones who will publish the real [beans] smear books someday… former allies who irrationally become enemies are the ‘squealers’; the ‘turn-coats’ who leave and then double-back are the 4’ 2” Gnomes still clinging to the [old] vain, useless stigmatization because obviously they didn’t even have the innovations to even find some scrap ‘reformative themes…’ and go back to try and eat-up the stinking hair of some Rasta…   

An HIV/Aids victim who has weathered the storm managing to somehow prolong his life should not try to play the old [stigmatization] lyrics again and yet again: the house you built out of it should be enough; the cars you bought out of it should be enough – jumping here and there is sometimes good politics - but there are certain old songs that might trigger stray thinking back to days gone-by that many might no-longer want to revisit. What stigmatization did for you then… should not be what you pursue now – compose a new song and create a change of heart and mind; a quarrel on phone between a [father and his son] should not be your early morning TV breakfast material… why not retire and write a book about how you survived the pre TASO much hurting period – instead of getting in-between a man and his son! 

The early day HIV victims – and the stigma               

It is not the purpose of this blog article to name anyone… for the benefit of refreshing memory and in solidarity with the living sufferers – in a small way I want to observe here that the early victims mostly died away quietly actually guilt-ridden; they were the ones who never benefitted from the subsequent phenomena of “Counseling” which came much too late for many! Counseling effectively began after the good women of TASO had established their organization – in time to save those who were infected much later. By then the tough-hearted who also publicly accepted that they were the earliest… to be infected with HIV/Aids had survived the first generation victims – who hopelessly died enmasse.

Those tough-hearted mostly survived through quest for knowledge and ceaseless reading and formulating of survival kits of their own: like regular vitamin and nutrition intake to enhance their resistance and eventually stayed the demise-point. Till TASO came to the rescue - It is only the lucky few who merited there otherwise in Uganda even the highly educated succumbed – despite their abundant knowledge and even money! The early day victim who was lucky enough to have had money and basic survival skills and is still alive today – is a great person. ***

Writer is an Independent Thinker, blogger and book Author    

On [On posh white blokes in NGOs]

On [On posh white blokes in NGOs]

           ‘Our Kingdom - Power and Liberty in Britain’

Sam Mwaka-karama

An article published on a British website; ‘Our Kingdom - Power and Liberty in Britain’ – caught my attention yesterday 16^th Oct 2013: Subject; Race, Development, NGOs, Gender, UK… [Guppi Bola’s] story is blue eyed in a subtle kind of way; however it seems the hazel eyed original writer of the title above [Peter Buffet], and someone else Ben; [Guppi’s boss] may have triggered the ultimate controversy. Reading Guppi, as the black [under dog] man I am; I want to appreciate Buffet’s metaphorical ‘I am full, here please’ – like at the dinner table – the old English country gentleman would most likely do that and, walk away calmly to the smoking room, as it were.

    The issue at hand in Guppi’s discussion [of Ben’s response to Peter’s Guardian article – and protractedly New York Times earlier?] opens a direct debate topic and, dramatically; “The world of development NGOs is full of white men from well off backgrounds. One of them wrote about how this is a problem in the Guardian last week, and here, one of their employees responds, looking at who speaks about these things and how; who is heard, and what should be done about it?”

    Certainly to me I think what should be done about it is encourage the ‘Posh white blokes’ to accept that the Africans [am Ugandan] are getting well educated enough to run those NGOs. This is a recognition the [model] or posh white blokes need to share with the [model] or posh black blokes. It might not be the matter of vacating the seat for the new-comer at the club dinner table as such – but perhaps creating a squeeze-in slot.

    To me, the problem here might however be the ‘well off background’ factor. I think all these posh white blokes are being done favors massively by that ‘well off background’- now don’t read me wrong here; I think charity management is a delegation of responsibility. And I believe the Philanthropists or funds contributor charity groups might want to know who runs the overseas NGO office – what merits might they [as unknown Africans have] to fit in as a team of ‘posh black blokes’ taking-over from ‘posh white blokes’. How would the blacks perform anyway? I see and seem to hear these sort of subtle debates at the boardrooms there at the ‘background’ and, my brother Africans might not be up to it by my knowing – I do not want to sound like one trying to dismiss the status quo in total favor of the white blokes – because surely management of ‘development NGOs in the social justices’ field need change as well.

    The murkier end of the debate is the shroud! That that dirty old cloth that always covered-up white minds on certain issues pertaining to black peoples – as Guppi Bola observes; “It strikes me that it takes someone who looks like you to encourage a response to a problem that marginalized people have been talking about for many-many years. In understanding what's needed for a free and fair world, maybe my boss would have noticed the hundreds of other articles, emails and conversations that spoke of oppression, privilege, diversity and respect way before Buffet scored an article in the New York Times”.

    And that brings me to my own point of entry in registering this comment; Guppi slots-in another writer who had for several years been airing this same views; “Take Teju Cole for example, who tweeted a series of phrases about the “White savior industrial complex” after the Kony débâcle more than a year earlier. Cole, an effusive novelist and passionate equal rights campaigner, speaks vividly about the role of the white male in many different movements. His article only made it to The Atlantic, but its relevance is no less significant.

The inference to ‘[Joseph] Kony 2012’ stark débâcle of the Jason documentary – which to me points out yet another point in the sometimes fumble-some affairs of selfless greed in the world of the development NGOs – is fact that the old boy ‘posh white male’ syndicated by that powerful Philanthropic ‘background’ as catapulted into the African open field, also developed a hidden [personal] agenda. Now this new situation is the one that makes some considerations valid; for instance how the voice of the oppressed actually triggered the precarious set-up [in the Kony affair] to finally ‘stark debacle’. But certainly even the Kony documentary had its merits – I mean, what is the point; a man makes a plan and implements it meticulously to success is merits! If he was white or if he was black is not the issue. The problem is one way or the other whatever one does [from within the development NGOs] will eventually involve both black and white people anyway so, how do you debate powerful ‘posh white males’ dominating the development NGOs and jump to the conclusions that carry racist under-tone – fine they are advocates of equal rights; the issue is that the development NGOs field is charity driven and, if a ‘posh white bloke’ wanted to maintain his personal ‘posh-ness’ then he founds his own money maker and not ‘posh-it’ in the field that has so much to do with not very posh black people. Your merits are yours personally and, if you use it there and not in public domains of charity – your achievements will still advance communities of the world one way or the other be you white or black. I think ‘posh white blokes’ should found their own ‘Virgins’ and get out of development NGOs. $$$ 

         Writer is an Independent Thinker, Blogger and Book Author.   

The Fatherhood Ransom

The Fatherhood ransom: the Diasporas prodigal sons and the ‘tithe’…

Sam Mwaka-karama

God actually gave away fatherhood to mankind: ‘multiply and fill the earth…’launching human procreation; so that when you call God “Father” while you shun your biological ‘father’ then you are ignorant and even a little bit backward! Unwise and irrelevant.

You are absolutely free and, your independence is guaranteed as long as you respect and absolutely show total loyalty to your biological father. God is represented in your life by your father – and it is only through him that you get that blessing to play your role in procreation… no matter how much you pray through Jesus Christ or even directly to God - as long as you hate or disrespect or shun your biological father; you are still the “Prodigal son… in the diasporas” who will [one day] come back home barehanded and need help and sympathy of the father; and get do what you should have done [in the first place much earlier] to buy your own passage into procreation by affording the blessing of your father; by working that ‘tithe’ peacefully at home. Or sending back home that ‘tithe’ 10% of your income regularly. So when things finally grind to a halt… that signifies your home-coming.

Like it or not; you are bound to your biological father by the simple linkage for procreation, the one thing that Jesus will not dispense – the one thing for which mankind labors is that in the process of development, procreation disseminates itself and the son is always tied-up to his father by that ‘tithe’ till productivity.

Churchmen say that to gain blessings from the God of creation from whom all things is said to process… you have to tie a ‘tithe’ in your offering to God – through the Church regularly – then your path in life is made smoother.

But then in the story of ‘Yakobo’ and ‘Rebecca’ and their two sons; we learn that – there still exist a cache of the ‘Fatherhood ransom’ a son owes his biological father; we learn that without paying this ransom to your biological father in your [youth] and or working life, you may at some point realize that you didn’t have your-own kids because you did not labor for your father, nor did you regularly tie a ‘tithe’ [the mandatory 10%] for your biological father – even though you regularly tied a ‘tithe’ in church, prayed regularly, loved a spouse and gave-out alms to the less fortunate; still [a void of emptiness might still vacuum itself deep inside you] occasioned by that wanting “Fatherhood Ransom” – a serious and formidable challenge to your manhood. A confusing entanglement to your mind and personal psychology – and an opening for doubt and sneer by the proudia big-headed lucky class, who are always there to prod and bruise your wounded feeling and self doubt, till you become an all round phobic… and perhaps make a dash right into the ‘chasing of the wind’ evangelical and gospel churches to be ‘born again’. Not only that; the story of “Laban” and the Guy who labored for his Uncle for seven plus seven years for the hand of his daughter; these are biblical tales that perhaps mildly indicate to us that ‘procreation’ is not a free ride… [you don’t just find somebody’s daughter on a silver plate and produce your own kids because you respected your own good father and, at the same time you insult the father of that girl mothering for you kids]… you either labor for it or you buy it from her biological father by giving respect and support to the aging man who fathered and placed her on that silver plate for you to luckily access… otherwise there is misery ahead waiting for you, or you might die early, or you might bury all those kids, or their mother might die.  

But many [including I] have discovered the [hard] way that the ‘Fatherhood ransom’ is the key to procreation and [therefore] longer enjoyment of functioning and working marriage or spoucing life. Certain traditional characteristics often vices parenting especially here in Africa – blown by the winds spewed by the demons of the larger turmoil over-loaded spiritualities and principalities that are permanently in anarchy and, whose superior wars constantly affect life here on earth.

Procreation is direct from the Creator to Adam and Eve – shouting ‘praise the lord’ or ‘God is great’ won’t help you there; for you to produce a child of your own, you must respect and stay loyal to your biological father by regular support… fine, for argument’s sake; a son could leave home go away at a tender age, finds a woman even bear children – here he might have found also a [proxy of his father] from whom he found the passage to procreation and, as long as he treats that substitute with respect without shunning his biological father, the boy finds passage into procreation as long as he engages into strenuous physical workout – like the Guy in the Laban story - in the modern day you might have to become a sportsman, hard-laborer, or throw your life away into the army [and work honestly] to gain your life and win into procreation.

In our disorganized African mentality it is this factor that disarray Africans; we are the less organized world. We are the more difficult to organize. We Africans have all the properties and materials of and for chaotic manipulatable existence… a child growing-up in this ‘helter-skelter’ develops more than enough ingredients that feed parental hate and disregard – where a son might [someday] work, say far away from home and, never look back; ignorant of all these [saving] factors, he floats and get carried away by the winds: He ties no ‘tithe’ to his father [he might of cause tie his ‘tithe’ in church and give alms – therefore even make money] which he loses fast as it comes - and as the gap widen the son becomes prodigal – shuns home and disregards his father – but then the dimaconian  ‘Fatherhood ransom’ is poised over the back of his neck; for either you respect and support [biological] fatherhood by the ‘tithe’ 10%, that you also become a father and further the process of procreation - or you play the prodigal son to the hilt and lose your head. The dimaconian wreath will eventually come-down. This is not addressed to any particular person. $$$$

Writer is an Independent Thinker, Blogger and Book Author

    

Hidden Arrogance: preaching proudly and cynically is not a virtue

Sam Mwaka-karama

Hypocrisy – is not the virtue: Some men who are favored by their fellow men, to appear on TV, seem to imagine they had the full right, to stand there and sarcastically tell viewers rubbish; in the name of Jesus Christ – that is ‘hidden Arrogance’ and, will never be a virtue.

If you are there to tell viewers how they must “humble” themselves “because nobody wants to live with an arrogant person” and, you want to tell them TV audience that; they, the targets of this your clearly hypocrite-arrogance talk and sort of demeanor… this your preaching advise [and invocations] might be falling on deaf ears – Here on Earth and in Heaven.

Jesus did not teach anybody to [“humble yourself - because nobody wants to live with an arrogant person”] – Jesus said [“…unless you become like these little children…”] – that is what humbleness is to Christ – please better not to say anything at all… better not to even pray in public at all - than try to do something without a vocation; because the sins of your false preaching might become worst than that of the man who does not pray at all…

The mushrooming of preaching in this age and times is the opportune convenience of the Hi-tech and ICT; net and web and the internet that brought Televangelism closer to all of us here in Africa as well… this does not mean that the Holy Spirit is calling on everybody to evangelize – copy-cats are not inspired - please evangelism is and must remain “Virtual”: addressed to mankind and not to one particular person.

 I think it better to discuss the relationship between Man and God… this discussion has been going on for thousands of years and every created human being is entitle to discussing that in whatever personal or public way – but it might not be in righteousness to preach outside the restricted scope of philosophy and theology there you might need a ‘vocation’; to interpret the word of God you need God’s own calling… but to discuss God, Creation and Salvation you don’t need a vocation; the process of discerning history is a natural thinking process.     

What you might not be conscious of as a prospective [or learning] preacher is fact that they [TV watchers] might actually be [less] myopic than you imagine in this your clearly misguided preaching… TV watchers are not blind-bats and idiots who might not recognize your behavioral ‘hidden arrogance’ – in fact on TV your behavior and your words may conflict – your inspired preaching and not so inspired preaching and personally crafted nonsense are all visible between your words and your behavior; what they call body language - so that your message carry negative connotations covered by your silly invocation of the name of Jesus Christ; actually in vain!

Because you very shallowly think that whenever you [utter] the name of Jesus – people automatically come-down and absolutely believe and ‘respect’ your [every] word - rubbish. Faith did not begin with you and also evidently you miss-out on psychology: firstly your own intended [hidden message] is showing and very much visible and clearly heard and seen. Secondly you don’t even know when or where Christ talked about [humbleness] which you should quote… and, on two occasions I have watched you – you did not make that quote. That is why I have addressed this blog to you… YOU!

Your lucky strike was evidently appearing on TV regularly; since you are actually a youth who is initially inexperienced in life but was lucky enough to be offered a slot to say whatever you want on national TV.

But then before you can tell us all how ‘arrogant and stupid’ we are – you should better preview yourself, check your own body language and hear your own voice [on TV] and what you are actually not saying and listen and see what you are actually saying: you have been sending a secret message! And I should have sent you a rude sms – stop invoking Jesus Christ in your deceitful, arrogant, self important, hidden messages targeted at an individual [one you clearly had in mind] – that is vain preaching.   

My role in the [VeryMuchSo] documentary you are [indirectly] pitting yourself against me for, was well acted, well spoken and professionally done [over six years ago]. I conveyed what was wanted, in the appropriate calm manner, professionally giving the right and accurate picture the project was planned for… you want to use Jesus name to justify the jealousy you feel over that? It is you who is being arrogant, deceitful, disrespectful and stupidly envious – I have already lost every opportunity to get money I deserve out of that feature documentary I honestly participated in – what else would you want to take away from me there? [Where were you when I was involved in the making of it? Where were you when I was with the Olympic athletes?] 

You should actually realize that you might be breaking one of God’s laws: [Thou shall not utter the name of the Lord Thy God in vain] – because you are using the name of Jesus Christ in coverage of matters meant to convey your own hidden personal messages to [one target TV audience] in a hidden way - that is hypocrisy and terrible arrogance when exhibited on national TV by some silly amateur who should keep his [personal] issues to himself. The documentary is long since made – what will calling me ‘arrogant’ help you with – isn’t it enough that clearly the documentary [especially my role in it] inspired you into getting on TV?

If you finally got [the] camera from the [whosoever] and, you are recording yourself in your home [studio] or office – you don’t need to have me as your perennial subject of discussion and presentation and also audience anymore; the whole world, the entire Globalization is out there to attract your camera and broadcasting attention; now go do your own [VeryMuchSo]… go do your own Olympian documentary. Go do your own water project… Now go build your own family wealth – if my family is down because of my arrogance… don’t make it your bread and butter, milk and honey and mandazi.

Don’t rub it in too hard onto the name and blood of Jesus Christ. Watch out! You might be over invoking Jesus; he never talked of [arrogance] he only advised on humility; humbling oneself “like these little children” – please leave [VeryMuchSo] it was not my initiative or my business I was only a participant. If you were hurt by my participation… there is nothing you can change there. It was an objective relevant professionally done part of research and recording of an element of humanity and history – your hurt and jealousy is not. You are free to cut-off everything and interfere with the little peace in my dwelling and in my interactivity with others. What I have lost in life is bigger and it has all stopped hurting me. I am beyond caring. Your hurt and the purpose of your preaching will never touch me. ***

         

The Global Fifth Estate

The Global Fifth Estate: Diaspora freedom, borderless-wealth, lifestyle and influence

Sam Mwaka-karama

The state has always had private individuals as friends: These were always ordinary people who did what state machinery weren’t mandated to do… they were shadowy nondescript characters who somehow interacted with leaders [in the olden days – they even arm-twisted individuals under secret instructions of some top leaders] they went for whatever a certain leader wanted and got it – drove around in fancy personal cars. Flew abroad and returned with duty free items the leaders need and may want. They ran secret errands for the big men or made it easier for lower or mid-range foreigners or organizations to access a particular leader or the state; introducing business contacts or managed whatever business for a leader – the ordinary private friends of the leader often organized foreign shopping trips for the leaders’ families; helped with tedious documentations and, tracked the trunks or containers shipped. The errand runners go-for nearly everything the leading family needs or want done.

These sort of contacts and influences of these men [and sometimes women too] are fairly widespread across the world. They were the positive small players who unofficially spread an ‘unseen partnership’ among the men at the top between various countries.

 In the earlier days of African Independence, it was possible for them [unseen partnership makers] to quietly acquire property for a leading family [even royalty] in a city of another country; with understanding between the men at the top who often became partners in such ventures and investments.

When Africa was still vulnerable to coups or military takeover – this sort of networking provided the convenient clandestine logistics, for safe passage, even quiet exiled settlement in another country; not only for the overthrown leader, but also for a whole lot of their relatives and followers… and the same network [sometimes] enabled the underground channels, for able fellows among the exiled group, float a struggle to fight for a return; these are the characteristics of the ‘unseen partnership’ in some cases activated between early African leaders by influences of certain individuals, in the first three decades of African independence; personalized friendships existed between and among some leaders. Ugandans have walked through these tracks with their colleagues – especially when things went wrong and many Ugandans needed support and help.

 This phenomena happens all over the world with deferring levels and degree of impact – but the created [networks] remain a unique diasporas phenomena that for some, have built valuable ‘unseen wealth’ that have over the many-many years become solid visible and perfectly legal property and business assets and investments in a friendly foreign or neighboring country or in some far away country; many rich people around the world [with some luck] made it in this way.

This is the story of fundamental worldly exile; Diasporas life and wealth making. This is the positive story of the ‘Fifth Estate’; the story of the unseen tentacles of influences that have over the past 50+ years of African and Asian independence intertwined with the state becoming an enormous global influence.

Many Asian investments in Africa linked to leaders [back in their home countries] have been the humble initiative of individual non-state ‘unseen influences’ perhaps started in exile… between Asian countries and some Arab countries; cross-country investments between the leading families in each other’s countries are the mainstay of strong national economic ties that enable and ensure mutual development and common peace.

There is strong spillover of these sorts of influence peddling and search for personal wealth creation and developments between leaders and their families in Africa - from the more affluent Asian and some [positive] Arab countries.

The less affluent Africans are still slow to understanding these aspects of Globalization: the leading family wealth interests and the State and country development interests; even tentatively accepting the two as detached from each other and yet secured and complimented by one another - that a leader can use his legitimate earnings in government service to develop family farm, industry and property honestly and bank-ably… these are still virgin fields of thought many traditional thinking African leaders are yet to scale over and accept as normal…

Donor Blackmail and stigma…

Unlike the Asian and Arab experiences in worldly affluence, few African leaders contemplate personal family investments in foreign or neighboring countries… This is largely because the ‘donor countries’ and groups have blackmailed the African leaders against ‘personal wealth interests’; anti-corruption watch-dogs set-up by donor countries threaten and disgrace leaders who seem to be wealthy.

The donors invade foreign banks and fish-out money belonging to former African leaders on the flimsy claims and accusations that they were money obtained from [public development funds]… in certain instances the accusations of the donors were right – however, African leaders should take heed and visibly create their family wealth and build their homes and properties conspicuously [documented from scratch] to deter donor sponsored stigma on their wealth at some future point…

The problem with the old African leaders [1960s/70s/80s] was of cause ignorance or little knowledge; they mostly believed in amassed cash wealth abroad – and have no defendable personal family investment portfolios or farming and ranching activities at home to show as source of their wealth – so the donors ignite local oppositions and syndicate human rights organizations paid by the donor countries to lead the campaign to disintegrate a leader’s wealth-base locally and financial banking status abroad. Shame-faced African leaders [cocoon] their thinking so much that they are defenseless when the donors bring-out the guillotine accusations. The average African leader is not a sport; they don’t see that the claims and accusations are a generalized affront against everything potentiality out of Africa.

The educated Whiteman will never believe that an African has intellect; that given level ground and exposed to equal resources Africans might play the better game – is what the Whiteman perennially fights against. Their strategy is rendering African leaders disgraced! With all due respect to the white race I prefer to tell the truth and shame the real devil in them that spew hate and confusion over nonexistent accusations and stigmatizations.  

The donor countries are on another kind of [in-direct] protracted war: a major programme to ‘keep Africa poor’- to the donors Africa must never get to know how real wealth is made. And if you are careless they waylay you at some point; remove the support and protection you enjoyed while in leadership and throw you down… African leaders are yet to learn how to off-set them and insure your post leadership days; create family wealth that are not challengeable by the Conrad Adenoids of this world.

And if a leader’s village home was weed overgrown and fake looking… then he didn’t have the business acumen to create a wealth base at home – so the donors get the legitimacy to invade his bank accounts abroad – neither did he build a mall or plaza, even industry with a loan from a local or foreign bank; so where does his money come from? What services was the leader rendering to his country outside of his state duty? Such leaders become vulnerable to ‘corruption’ accusations and donors might wrestle his finances down and confiscate them – as ill gotten wealth, probably from donor funds.   

The overseas and local factor   

Between Asia and Africa: Diaspora returns in terms of wealth and influence to the home and neighboring country differ from one country to the other; depending on the sense of organization and loyalty to culture from a variety  of country and tribe backgrounds of the individuals. Asians are certainly in the lead  here – they turned around earned Diasporas wealth [including those earned in East Africa] into investments in Europe, Ireland, Britain, Canada, Australia, US and in some South American countries. This has placed vast share of the enormous global business in the hands of Diaspora Asians who have the superstructures for manufacturing at home and products distributions network worldwide.

Potentially, this should also have been the direction Africans abroad, might have wanted to explore if it wasn’t for overly localized thinking rendering Africans abroad marginal players and non-players at all. The Africans perennially mulling over their vain claims of [non-existent] political victimization at home – when actually they were just sweet-toothed eaters and burping nibblers hooked-up to goodies and comfort abroad, and little else.

Few African exiles in Europe and the Americas actually manage to pull out of the magnet of comfort and good feeding in the diasporas; so that what Asian and Arab diasporans achieved since World War Two – that revolutionized development in their regions [though with extreme difficulties] in certain countries who have reservations and suspicion of western ideas…

Even then, the exile or Diaspora  contributors have changed and developed Asia and the Arab world despite overwhelming and sometime deterrent religious extremism and conservative thinking that the west eventually overcame with decades of [constructive engagement] devised during the Henry Kissinger’s [Shuttle Diplomacy] – which helped the Asian and Arab diasporans soften the ground enough to be trusted with their western friends and their proposals that slowly changed that vast part of the world… making a kind-of business as usual atmosphere [following formation of OPEC] that had affected especially Arab mentality towards the west and the world at large - that al Qaeda actually managed to defused and dismantle much of that ‘constructive engagement Kissinger diplomacy’ will remain the myth of history hard to understand.   

The new African leadership

The local African factor is ever bleaker: the influence and network of [unofficial local contact] used by African leaders outside of the state is diminished! The [unseen partnership] phenomena ended with leaders of the 1960s, 70s and 80s… contemporary African leaders openly use state functionaries even to handle hidden family investment interests at home or in another country or abroad.

This has impacted rather negatively – considering fact that it cuts-off certain build-up of personalized friendships that were developed in the long past; the subterranean current of influential friendship between personalities at the top of neighboring countries is suddenly gone!

Even as the EAC fast-tracking narrowed down the country relationship gaps with better legislature formulated to finally cement the E A Community ties.

Sometimes one gets the vague notion that – while the positive aspect of the ‘Global Fifth Estate’ are gaining in creating the network of contact and [somehow even forging friendship on personal levels with African leaders] there is nevertheless an existing factor of the same; developing the proverbial [negation of the negation]: ‘We want you but we don’t like you’. So that the flow and fluctuation of movement and information in the interactivity of African neighbors’ citizens carry both negative and positive effects; what breeds mutual suspicion and distrust.  

And so just like the EAC process of unification that is being developed amidst ‘expulsions’ of the neighbors’ citizens… AU itself still has massive hurdles to clear. Some African countries are still bundling the other’s citizens on the old beaten-up ‘panda gari’ and we think ‘officially’ the unification of Africa is a workable project? If our leaders do not get the interest of setting-up personal family shop in his neighbor’s city… how will the neighbor country’s peace or no peace ever matter – to whom?

The informal bridge of ‘unseen friendship’ among and between leaders is missing – the potentials of the positive aspect of the ‘Fifth Estate’ has not been encouraged by the contemporary leaders of the East African Countries – we are united by treaties, principles and policies, but the leaders have no personalized investment interests in the others country.

Between us the positive aspect of the ‘Fifth Estate’ is therefore inactivated, while the ‘Global Fifth Estate’ is boldly and actively spreading business interests of foreign leaders, who are forging personal friendship with our leaders - into our countries – and we will never be able to contemplate exchange of personal family investment interests [among our own leaders] within our region - we still believe that only corporate and industrial investments [cross-border] between us will guarantee peace and unity in our region… we are wrong.

The issue is: in order to off-set potentials for donors’ accusations in the future… African leaders must invest openly their family business interests. So that those [developed world stigma-tizers] who feed on the blood of the stigma – in donor countries will be exposed as well and, their heinous crimes of sponsoring violence and terrorism become prosecutable crimes and also exposed – African women are coerced into promised jobs abroad that become sex-slavery; in modern Europe. African women even born in European exile by African parents are turned into sex-objects and drug addicts… heinous crimes openly committed by the stigma-tizers in their own countries that are prosecutable; are covered-up by the human rights sponsors themselves – when will African leaders stand-up and create counter accusations instead of religiously “go marching in” to the ICC.   

What is the ‘Fifth Estate’?         

‘Fifth Estate’ is that body of undefined individual or group used by the state in errand that are outside official known duty of state functionaries; to run any form of errand for a top leader, to help run personal family business within, in another or neighboring country on behalf of any leader, his family or any member of state – such unofficial personalized service provider to a top leader and family - is an entity I call the ‘Fifth Estate’.

In Africa, the best example of the ‘Fifth Estate’ is a negative one - the story of the friendship between a Kenyan leader and a vicious criminal known as “Mark Twist” – the criminal was known to have carried-out some errands, for the leader, in exchange for his freedom after an arrest and that started a friendship that lasted several years.

About Two decades after demise of Mark Twist and the old leader; in October 1995 about ten thousand criminals were forgiven and sent home to rehabilitate themselves back to positive community mentality acceptable to their country… within a few years the criminals created what the world know today as “Mungiki” a crime based organization with tentacles in every government office, institutions, companies, industries, NGOs and have since crept into Embassies and International agencies with offices in Kenya – it is said that to go past an Embassy gate or have your documents carried from there to the inner office for visa, you would have paid well. Inside, to access the diplomats for an interview you pay – Mungiki has become the [buffer between] you have to “respect” to get your visa or any other whatever services you want from any office in that country.

Mungiki influence now border on lobby groups and community concern entities… its strong point is therefore business with support from the state since the mostly criminal founders were under-educated people. Mungiki is the legacy of Mark Twist; created by unseen, unofficial friendship and sympathetic influence that materialize [between leaders and ordinary people] for services privately in the interest of the statesman – That is the [negative or positive] factors of the ‘Fifth Estate’.

These undefined contacts that conduit subterranean friendship influences [outside the state or rigid religion] between leaders so that below the hardness of policy and state function and diplomacy, there is soft footedness and humanity that make ordinary movement, freedom and daily business of citizenry supple and easy – these unofficial contacts have maintained business between leaders for centuries right across the broad spectrum of civilization’s history: but I believe it had never before been called by the acronym I have created – The Fifth Estate.

 Without the subterranean friendship players between and among leaders of a given region: chances are ideologies, principles, policies, white papers and legislatures and policies might more often threaten to grind relationship between countries to a halt; even where well defined treaties exist. The ‘Fifth Estate’ always exists in infinite and diverse potentials to be made use of or ignored by leaders. They are common place people every leader always encounter them one way or the other.

Leaders must always have personal business interests in the next country, a second country, or even an investment abroad… it is the safety valve; because elites are entitled to invest their income. Leaders with little or no personal business investments in the regional community countries might encourage too much selfish country pride that eventually may turn events in the community altogether negative even perhaps counterproductive – what do we really want, a self integrated, consolidated EAC economy – really?; then why not try investing or starting a small family business activity in the neighbor’s country? In the interest of local regional citizens who tend to move about freely and blandly. Why not take your family to explore endowments of your neighboring country – spend your holiday there and see their country side? – I think it is a blatant lie no-one wants this Unification!

Negative aspect of the Fifth Estate

When leaders don’t even visit their neighbors [I am not talking about state visits] relationships might just about remain perfectly official to the letter. However the problem with that is fact that the ordinary citizens who embody the tentacles of the Fifth Estate [like it or hate it] in its negativeness and in its positiveness - might stumble on something and spark a situation – like the Mungiki nearly created a bloody scene on a tiny island between Kenya and Uganda on Lake Victoria in the recent past.

Similarly, a Ugandan General and Minister once lost his entire consignment of Sugar reportedly imported from Brazil – his transit consignment was entangled in the tentacles of Mungiki at the port of Mombasa – according to newspaper reports the Kenyan criminals cannibalized the entire import and, were protected by the state; newspaper reports and investigative stories followed the controversy closely and, legal battle supposedly ensured with the Ugandan minister attending the “Kangaroo Court” that had become Radio Fm laughing matter for a long time.

That was the power of the Fifth Estate; the General had no chance however, had the minister been able to established his business interests in Kenya properly, Mungiki might have not created the loss of his import consignment the way it happened – to me I see that the EAC has a big problem because the negative aspect of the Fifth Estate; the criminal entanglement is already very widely spread and, to Kenyans there is an accepted patriotism to Mungiki that cannot be challenged by law or bureaucracy of any sort. ***

The Author is an Independent Thinker, Blogger and Book Author