{UAH} It is cool to have 'lugezigezi' in Kampala

It is cool to have 'lugezigezi' in Kampala

May 20 2014 11:19AM

By Kalungi Kabuye

 

We were in Mbarara for the western regional Miss Uganda finals and I was trying to convince the Fenon guys, who were in charge of production, to change the way they had set up the lights.

 

They were not buying it, of course and one young lady seemed to take it personally. After a few choice four letter words, he sought to deliver the coup de grace.

 

"You even have lugezigezi" he yelled. "You think this is New York where things are done properly? This is Uganda and we do what we want."

 

Then came one of those moments when everything suddenly goes very quiet and everyone around us, including the other Fenon guys, waited for what I would do next. I am not known for being patient with people who do not know what they are doing, and don't know that they do not know.

 

They all probably thought I would get really mad at that, but I just smiled and walked away. Because that lad had just paid me the ultimate compliment a Ugandan can give somebody these days.

 

'Lugezigezi' is a Luganda word with not a very precise meaning. It can be used in several contexts, but generally the person using it means you are trying to show off that you know more, or are better than anybody else. In today's Uganda, showing that you know more than others is considered bad manners and actually being better than the rest is downright anti-social.

 

A long time ago, when we were all poor and uncivilised, people were encouraged to stay where they were in their 'stations', so to speak. If you were born poor, it was bad manners to try and get rich.

 

If your dad's job was to clean latrines, then you would also clean latrines for the rest of your life. If you tried to show your skills level was higher than a latrine-cleaner, then you had lugezigezi: who were you trying to rise above your station?

 

Recently, I had dinner with a white friend who has settled in Uganda and doing business here. Inevitably, talk came around to Ugandan work ethics, or the lack of them. He complained that Ugandans do not like keeping time, are always on their phones and have several dozen excuses not to do what they should have done. 

 

I asked him if he hears the world lugezigezi around his office. He was not sure, but three weeks later he called me and said, sure, he had heard it several times when his workers were using Luganda.

 

I explained to him that they were talking about all the things he is trying to make them do, like show up on time for meetings. Why should they be on time, when everybody else they know always comes late? Somebody would accuse them of having lugezigezi.

 

Why should they do what you asked them to do, what you pay them for, when everybody is busy trying not to do their job? That is the worst kind of lugezigezi, and they do not want any part of it.

 

There is a section of Ugandans that like accusing people who went to Kings College Budo of having lugezigezi, that they try and show off that they are better and smarter than the rest.

 

But they do not know the half of it. When I was in Budo, on joining Senior One each student's particular type of genius was identified and they were put together with others of like (ilk) mentality. Away from the rest, they were pushed and taught to excel in their particular fields and to always try and achieve what others thought was impossible. 

 

They were taught to believe in themselves and their abilities, that they were special and could achieve and succeed where others failed. To Ugandans, that is big time lugezigezi.

 

But taken in a different light, lugezigezi can be the ability to dare to be different, do what others have not done before and go where no man has ever gone. All great inventors, philosophers, thinkers, explorers, even adventurers must have that ability. They need lugezigezi to reach that greatness that is waiting for them.

 

Socrates, Aristotle and Plato must have been told off by many Geeks that they had lugezigezi, but that definitely did not faze Nicolaus Copernicus, 15th century mathematician and astronomer, who dared say he was right and that the rest of the world was wrong – that the earth actually went around the sun and not the other way round. Beat that for lugezigezi.

 

Okay, Galileo told the church different, but only because otherwise he was going to be burnt to death and he chose to live.

I would not be surprised if Erias Lukwago accused Jennifer Musisi of having lugezigezi, how dare she clean up the city? She is even a Budonian, so that is double lugezigezi!

 

But at the end of the day, as you go on trying to make this world a better place and a Ugandan says you have lugezigezi. Celebrate, because it means you are doing something right.  

 

Catch KK on twitter @KalungiKabuye

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Gwokto La'Kitgum

"Even a small dog can piss on a tall Building", Jim Hightower

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