{UAH} The 1979 Muslim Massacre in Uganda by Mohles Kalule Segululigamba

Dear Editor,

 

In The New Vision story, 'Sheema Muslims demand sh2.7b compensation – Page 9 of May 28 2015, your reporter Dismus Buregyeya voiced Meshach Katusiime of the department of leadership at Makerere University Business School, who hails from Sheema. In his academic gurgle, Meshach said, 'the claimants are trying to exploit the political temperature.' What an epiphanot! He regurgitated in further philosophical destinesia, 'no mosques or houses were destroyed and those who left the area sold their land.' This awoke me from my choicest sleep on the topic lest your readers are warped by Meshach's youniverse. Ugandan History - indeed any piece of information by a Ugandan - including this missive, should be viewed from multiple angles.

 

Dismus' story typifies a breakdown in professional codes where errorist journos continue to brandish their pens with the bravura of gangsters. As such macabre media gyres have symptomised accident, murder and rape scenes - where pictures and cries of the victims and family – are told in opinionated, politicised, denigrating, trivialising and incoherent sub-plots by reporters. Dismus' pokes his fountain pen into the spiritual wounds of the victims as they writhe about in abject abandonment. It would seem, the editor licensed Dismus' by-line with smidgeons of officialdom including - a UNIVERSITY DON'S name, replete with a colour mug shot of MESHACH KATUSIIME - sniggering at the victims and their families – and regaling the unsuspecting readership with a eureka moment. This debasing ink letting needs to be tempered by the editorial of The New Vision.

 

In this stereotypical Ugandan narrative, the victim is often silenced and spoken for by the lawless and their apologists. And who is better at telling it than Meshach Katusiime - the schooled son of the soil. Unfortunately, Meshach's media babble is unrivalled in intellectual dishonesty. 'Genocide is always perpetrated by more than one person, (The Crime of Genocide, Holly Nyseth, 2012). The perpetrators of the Muslim genocide in Sheema included among others, Kyatwoha of Bushenyi, Clemetia Nkonge and Manuel Kaweesa of Ishaka (Is the Muslim Muslim Blood-bath In Bushenyi History?, Abas Kiyimba, 1990).  This is no ad-hominem attack on Meshach.

 

In 1979, there were, societal wide propaganda campaigns were implemented by agents of the state,'us vs. them,' in which code words and avowals were used to dehumanise the Muslims in Ankole after the fall of Idi Amin.

 

'Ebisiramu ebi'

 

'Tuteme omuti n'amataagi gaagwo'

 

Indeed generalisations such as, 'having mistreated them when Amin was in power' are still pedalled by some elites who eschew legal action against

the supposed injustices of Sheema Muslims against the community, even as their memory still lives!  

 

In Kiziba, banditti of machete toting villagers rounded up Muslims –– tied them up like slaves, and drove them in caravans to their butchers' prepared death spot on the shores of a lake – the Rwizi - where Lake View Hotel seats. In one diabolic incident, a woman's foetus was bowdlerised out of her stomach - found to be male – tossed up in the air – to fall on the pointed and sharp edge of a machete. Needless to say, the foetus' mother died of her gaping womb. Such a ghastly and lithe murder must have had a moniker and rehearsal among the genocideurs in their twisted pogrom. Among 'those who left the area [and] sold their land' was the family of Mualim Haj Abdullah Ssegululigamba – a pioneer grocer– whose son Dr Twaha Kabuye signed a sales agreement under duress to a one Murangira Rwehakanira whose estate is the current overlord of the tenants on the family land in Itendero.

 

When the pillage finally ended to the naked eye, 55 Muslims had been massacred in wanton and ghoulish vivacities by the genocideurs. Currently there

are 12 documented illegal occupants of land by the genocideurs who still enjoy the spoils of war and; 49 recorded cases of arson where victims lost houses including a mass grave of Muslims at Nyamitanga mosque in Mbarara.

 

In the years since the genocide, the victims' families have sought fair hearing and compensation from the State with no success. Undeniably, the Uganda Human Rights Commission held hearings in 1997 and heard from a host of victims - leading to the incarceration of some genociduers

including Barutasya, Bucunku, Kyakanga, Machote and Kamugisha in Luzira Prison.

 

 

Therefore Meshach Katusiime embodies the classical description of a genocide denier in his attempt to minimise the scale, severity and incidence of the Muslim genocide of 1979, in Bushenyi. In his academic exuberance at the department of governance and leadership at Makerere University Business School, he blames the massacres and banishment of Muslims – 'what happened to the victims of the genocide,' on the Muslims themselves (The Eight Stages of Genocide, Gregory H Stanton etal, 1998).

<p> </p>

It is the progressive view of some in the Muslim community that the State breaks its inaction regarding the plight of the victims by systematically engaging with their families beyond media reports. It is appreciative to note that the Minister for the Presidency, Hon. Frank Tumwebaze has taken the first steps in this direction. The suggested course of further action would be to rigorously identify and assess the claims of the victims' families; publish the official list in media, and; compensate the beneficiaries in a transparent, accountable and fair manner – i.e. similar or even better than that of the victims of the Kony war in Northern Uganda and the people of the Luwero Triangle.

 

Mohles Kalule Seguliligamba

Grandson of Segululigamba

mohlesk@hotmail.com

--

Rehema
Patriot in Kampala,East Africa:UMBS is a registered organization devoted to matters of interest to Muslims in Uganda.Muslims from other countries are welcome to join us too. Follow us on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/#!/UMBSFORUM. To donate to UMBS activities, click on: http://um-bs.com/donate/ or just deposit money on UMBS Bank A/C at Bank of Africa:07074320002 .

--
Disclaimer:Everyone posting to this Forum bears the sole responsibility for any legal consequences of his or her postings, and hence statements and facts must be presented responsibly. Your continued membership signifies that you agree to this disclaimer and pledge to abide by our Rules and Guidelines.To unsubscribe from this group, send email to: ugandans-at-heart+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com or Abbey Semuwemba at: abbeysemuwemba@gmail.com.