[UAH] Ssemujju Nganda: Sweden royal wedding shows why Kampala will not develop
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10:54 AM |
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The expo was postponed because the Swedish Immigration Board, which these days issues visas through Norway's Kampala embassy, rejected nearly 100 per cent applications of the would-be Ugandan participants.
This, sad as it is, gave us an opportunity to concentrate on meetings with Swedish politicians and the Ugandan Diaspora to discuss the ever deteriorating political situation back home, but this will be a story for another day.
I returned to a livelier Stockholm than the one I visited November last year. Because it is summer, there are more people on streets after work but the city remains largely calm compared to London, and maybe other cosmopolitan cities. My impression of Swedes is that they are calm people, cautious and in some respect, almost slow.
I arrived also in good time to witness Princess Madeleine Thérèse Amelie Josephine, the youngest of Carl XVI and Queen Silvia's three children and fourth in line to the throne, marry Christopher O'Neil, a New York banker of American and British citizenship. This royal wedding was the talk of the city and I think the country.
An MP who guided us during a parliamentary tour told us that the Princess' choice of a husband was even discussed by the country's cabinet and endorsed. I don't know what would have happened if the cabinet had rejected the New York banker. The Church service, and I think all other ceremonies, were by invitation.
Thousands, therefore, lined up the streets to have a glimpse of this royal couple riding on a horse carriage through crowded streets. I briefly went out not to see the couple, but the crowds of white people honouring what some of our African leaders dismiss as primitivity.
The monarch in Sweden is not directly involved in administration but enjoys a special status. In fact both the prime minister's office and residence located near the palace don't compare. The palace remains a symbol of some sort.
This particular wedding was covered live on at least four television networks and unarmed police was everywhere to guide the procession and the crowd. It was more or less a state function. The biggest problem with our leaders is that they have sought to elevate themselves above people's culture and cultural leaders.
They have systematically attempted to dismantle everything that makes us what we are. Too much love for one's culture has come to be equated to chauvinism, thereby fuelling their drive to bury the reminder of our traditions. And yet the same leaders are forming patriotic clubs under the guise of teaching Ugandans, especially the young ones, how to love their country.
Someone keeps saying it was even a favour for him to have restored people's culture which Obote banned laying a foundation for his ouster. I think we will need to hire some experts to make our people know that too much love for my culture doesn't always translate into hating yours.
It is this pursuit of what Francois Heisbourg, a Paris-based writer, calls Zero Sum perspective by our leaders that has become very disruptive and destructive. Their win must always translate into someone else's loss for them to take it as victory.
As they host a victory party, someone must be organising a funeral for them to feel men enough.
A, statement like "we silenced Besigye with tear gas" is testimony to what I am saying. If someone becomes a president, there must not be any powerful leader in the vicinity for him to feel president enough.
That is what is disturbing Kampala and Uganda for that matter. Someone responsible for something else, wants to be a speaker of Parliament, wants to be the Kabaka of Buganda and wants to be the Archbishop and Mufti and now misses being a lord mayor of Kampala.
Stockholm, or Sweden for that matter, is one of the highly-developed places, according to the UN human development index, but people there still line up streets to honour their royal family. And their prime minister continues to live like a servant of the people and doesn't in anyway elevate himself above people's culture.
To develop Kampala, we must as of necessity, have and grow our culture. Culture is what distinguishes us from other human beings and probably animals. But most important, we must be ashamed of certain things and cherish some values. People from the cattle-corridor areas will be familiar with the concept of herding. But unlike animals, human beings hate to be herded.
When human beings understand and agree to do something, they need no supervision. Even these flowers and grass being planted in Kampala will be destroyed if they are not embraced by people. And that is where Erias Lukwago comes in.
For Kampala to develop, you need heavy involvement of Buganda and His Majesty the Kabaka, in particular. Then allow popular and elected people like Lukwago to lead the charge. And as long as people feel that what you are developing is not theirs, they will certainly resist or at least resent it.
That is what we must learn from Sweden. You don't need to dismantle culture for you to develop and you must not pursue a zero sum (they must lose for me to win) approach in your endeavours.
The author is Kyadondo East MP.
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