Of Reader’s Digest, Uganda’s Mr Gimmes and Joseph Insingoma

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WHAT’S UP!

I grew up reading the Reader’s Digest magazine, originally published in the US but now with several different country editions all over the world. It was written in an easy and engaging way, which was almost irresistible to a young, avid reader.

While of course the stories were about life in America, most were about doing good to one’s neighbour, which is a universal theme.

Reader’s Digest was started in 1922 by an American couple who hoped to get about $5,000 as revenue. It currently has a reach of 40 million people in more than 70 countries, and its circulation of 10.5 million makes it the largest paid circulation magazine in the world.

Those magazines, and an elderly English lady called Margaret Collard, who was a teacher at Budo Junior School, embedded in me the importance of always thinking about the other person. There was a short film she would show us several times a year, of Mr Gimme and Mr Give. While Mr Gimme was always grabbing things (sounds familiar?), Mr Give went out of his way to help others, giving them of the little that he had. Essentially, Miss Collard was teaching us to be good citizens and members of society.

Anyone who lives in Uganda today, or has had to deal with Ugandans in whatever way, can tell which of those two most of our fellow countrymen and women are. Every day, whether on the roads, in business, in relationships, or even in religious institutions, we see Mr Gimme. On the road, that taxi driver, or even the ‘my car’ (haven’t heard that term in a while), won’t give you an inch, even if they are really going nowhere. A driver can block others and refuse to give way. If they are not going through, then no one else will.

In almost every institution in this country (yes, including religious ones) you cannot get any service without someone asking for ‘facilitation’. Traffic officers no longer hide their asking for money from motorists, and every driver in Kampala (and Uganda) knows to keep a few sh5,000 notes at hand. Just say, “hello officer’, and hand over the sh5,000. And you’ll be on your away.

Those millions of bodaboda riders on our roads are especially evil clones of that nasty Mr Gimme, and if we are not careful, they will soon take over the country. And not all the government’s horses or the government’s men will help us.

Of recent, my X (formerly Twitter) feed is full of people doing good unto others, mostly in the US. I’m not sure how the algorithm decided those were the posts I wanted to see, but they are the first I see when I open the app. I’ve got a sneaking feeling they are AI-generated, and whoever is generating them thinks America needs many people doing good unto others, as Donald Trump’s ‘imperial presidency’ gathers steam.

Like the old lady who died and left all her money to a school of disadvantaged children, anonymously, as opposed to the immigration officers who arrested a blind immigrant, then left him 8km from his home, in winter. The poor man was found days later, frozen to death.

But there just might be some hope in Uganda, after all. Tuesday’s New Vision newspaper had a page one story about an eight-year-old boy who lives alone, in a relative’s house in Fort Portal. As the story goes, Joseph Isingoma’s mother died when he was still young. His father remarried, but when that wife also died, the father simply took off and left the young boy all alone. For two years, he has looked after himself, but has never dropped out of school. A female relative of his visits him once a week, delivering some food and supplies.

While his teachers and neighbours are making the usual noises, asking well-wishers to come support the boy (but I do give them the benefit of doubt), some young school girls have come out and actually helped the boy. The Senior 4 class has collected money, and the Senior 3 class has resolved that each one of them will donate sh5,000 at the beginning of each term to help the boy stay in school. Isingoma is currently in Primary Two at Bagaaya Primary School. The relative was only identified as Bigambwenda, who works at the Ntoroko landing site.

Unfortunately, the school which these very kind girls attend was not identified in the clip that followed the story.

If Miss Collard was alive today, she would have been very proud of those young girls. In a country of Mr Gimmes, who regularly steal the country’s sustenance without any remorse; and where religious leaders are wont to sell blessings to the highest bidder, these girls are a beacon of hope.

These girls should be leading the ‘patriotic’ classes, and their names should be sung and used as examples in all churches. For they surely ‘...loved their neighbour as they loved themselves’. And Reader’s Digest should be required reading in all schools in Uganda. So, maybe; just maybe, not all is lost in Uganda.

You can follow Kalungi Kabuye on X: @KalungiKabuye