{UAH} When did begging become virtuous?

When did begging become virtuous?

• August 21, 2017
• Written by DR JIMMY SPIRE SSENTONGO

It appears our dependence on aid has not left us the same.

Now few functions can happen without massive beggary!

You see, our national budget is never complete without factoring in assistance from donors. Most of our non-governmental organizations and research projects also survive on donor money. As such, our prosperity has come to depend on the mastery of the art of beggary.

Gradually, our entire society has been socialised into begging and thereby living beyond our means. I am a bit of a loner, maybe that is why I do not quite appreciate these many extravagant parties, especially that organizers arrange them with eyes primarily on other people's pockets.

Many of our African cultures encourage generosity and communal celebration, which is a good thing. Among the Baganda, for example, traditionally, if you have a function, people will freely contribute food, firewood, banana leaves, and labour.

But you do not organise a party because your neighbour has a big banana plantation. In the first place, you should be able to meaningfully contribute to your own function. If you want to add pomp and luxury, you shoulder it. Thus, it is said that 'nanyini mufu, y'akwata ewawunya' (the 'owner' of the corpse holds the smelly side).

We have gradually turned our positive communitarianism into capital for shameless beggary and senseless celebratory extravagance. It is okay to expect some support from family and friends, and many of us do, but not when you have budgeted for Range Rovers as your bridal cars and indicated, Not Covered!

Who do you expect to cover it for you, my brother? If you can't afford that luxury, then find whitewash and cover it properly. Don't abuse our gullibility.

If we don't scream out our exhaustion, soon we shall be fundraising for bridal undergarments too. Look, you are invited for a wedding 'planning' meeting and presented with an obese budget where all that the bride and groom have covered are socks, onions, handkerchiefs, straws, shoes, and salon!  

Meanwhile, they are both seated in front of you like helpless orphans, smiling as if there is nothing to be ashamed of. See what is not covered on the budget of these beggars with a choice: cake (Shs 3m), entertainment (Shs 4m); food (Shs 8m); bridal gown (Shs 3m); groom's suit (Shs 1.5m); drinks (Shs 5m); venue (Shs 4m)...! Whom are you leaving all these for?

At such meetings, low-income friends and relatives are humiliated and stigmatized. First, there is a round of collections for the 'chairman's bag'. Then there is often something to be auctioned, usually a well-wrapped useless item.

If you have no money to offer for it, they make you stand and carry it – at times on your head! Fines too! And then the notorious pledge cards!

We should, instead, be humiliating the bride and groom to make them earn the offers and learn not to develop appetites far bigger than what they can put on their plates. For instance, if we must cover those luxurious items, then we can ask them to wash our feet and cut our nails. But, ironically, it's the fundraisers to be inconvenienced!

Now the best for the poor is to avoid such meetings; but in so doing, they don't get invitation cards to the function either.

This is the exclusionist society that our materialism has led us to. Unfortunately, wedding and introduction ceremonies are as well losing meaning as they increasingly deteriorate into show-off platforms. Most introduction ceremonies among the Baganda have turned into comedy and fashion concerts.

The secondary consequence to this extravagant drama is that, in fear of being laughed at, those who cannot afford such celebratory showbiz and without a social network to beg from tend to avoid marrying. We now cut our coats according to other people's sizes, which sizes are sometimes not theirs either.

We had gradually gotten used to fundraising for weddings, but it appears the list of things we are being asked to contribute to keeps getting bigger. How meetings for introduction ceremonies and dowry started, I can't remember.

Now there are also begging meetings for last funeral rites, 'visiting' the bride's parents, baby shower, bridal shower, graduation parties, marriage anniversaries, house warming, baptism parties... We need a social revolution; otherwise, we shall soon be asked to fundraise for birthday, conception, and teeth removal parties.

Everyone seems to be scheming for an opportunity to beg. If they can't start an NGO or a church, then they look for something to opportunistically celebrate. With this begging epidemic, it shouldn't surprise us that what we call prayers today are largely moments of begging from God.

That is why churches are tending to fill in proportion to expected miracles. Followers go to beg from God, while preachers go to beg from followers! Hence the joke that while Jesus fed 5,000 people, now you find 5,000 people feeding one pastor.

Our society has evolved into a state whereby now if you randomly throw a stone into an audience, chances are high that it will hit a beggar. If it doesn't hit a beggar, then it might hit someone looking forward to reaping from where they didn't plant.

The genuine generosity and pressure of social conventions aside, sometimes there is also a bit of hypocrisy and impulsiveness on the side of the givers. Why are we ready to contribute towards luxuries but slow to help the sick, the starving, and those who can't afford school fees?

Why would we hesitate to contribute towards a couple's startup capital but be in position to offer one million for their wedding cake? Why do we want our pledges to be announced with applause? As Fredrick Nietzsche asked, shouldn't the giver be grateful to the receiver?

jsssentongo@gmail.com

The author heads the Center for African Studies at Uganda Martyrs University, Nkozi.

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Gwokto La'Kitgum

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"Even a small dog can piss on a tall building" Jim Hightower

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