Ubuntu can get us out of this dark hot and gloomy reality
Seeing the crowds of our South African brothers and sisters brandishing sjamboks and long canes as they marched through the streets to protest the presence of “undocumented” and “illegal” non-South African Africans on their land was heart-breaking.
Simon Kaheru.
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OPINION
By Simon Kaheru
Not all of us are enjoying the 2026 FIFA World Cup because it is too dark, hot and gloomy out here in more ways than we normally want. A few people I know flushed the World Cup when the main host — the US — blocked some players and officials, and subjected them to the irritating stringency that too many ordinary people of the world face.
‘Immigration’, as a topic, came to the fore once again there because of the World Cup. And yet some of us are watching the games and enjoying them. Such is life. Not everything comes to a stop for everyone at the same time.
After the Venezuelan earthquake struck the other day, I only had one WhatsApp group acknowledge the horror of the situation.
Even now, if you turn to six people around you none might have heard of it or even know that 2,000 people have died there, more than 10,000 needed serious hospital attention and more than 50,000 are unaccounted for.
Unaccounted for. 50,000 people.
Venezuela is the country whose President — Nicolas Maduro — was abducted by the US a short while ago.
Here, within my lifetime as an adult, that sentence would not sound sensible — that a president of a country was abducted by another country.
But we are here, he is there — abducted with his wife since kamanyiro those ends is so strong — and life moved on long ago. (So fast that the US escalated matters and killed off a world leader then kicked off an entire war — but we must not digress).
Somehow, people have explained the reasons for the abduction and arrest of a president and his wife, aside from the public comments by the US president himself.
Now, just a few months later, not many of us seem to recall President Trump’s declaration about taking over Venezuela’s oil and that he was president of that country.
Online reports have told us that the US selected commodities traders to manage the sale and export of crude oil from Venezuela and ensuring the revenue generated from sales are deposited in ‘US supervised’ accounts...
We are living in a very changed world. A gloomy, dark world in some corners.
Here, there is a general sense of gloomy dismay at the arrest of Hon. Miria Matembe, whose position in the hearts and minds of many has been firmly entrenched over decades.
Some in my age group saw their mother being led into that court room and were honestly confused why, which raised the anger levels in our hearts even higher.
But we are a minority.
The majority of Ugandans are in an age group that watched those video clips and saw their GRANDMOTHER.
I won’t discuss the charges. I am not qualified to do so right now.
This was another unimaginable incident just a few years ago. But here we are today.
This is a new reality we have arrived at for reasons that can be explained by political historians with an appetite for rancid arguments as our current environment serves up.
It is dark, as I said, and temperamentally hotter than Europe physically is right now.
The world around us is making less and less sense every single day and yet, again, this is our new reality.
Ubuntu: “I am because we are.” It is an ancient African philosophy that we have been proud of as a continent because of how magical it is within our souls.
On the ground? Not so much, and not this week.
Seeing the crowds of our South African brothers and sisters brandishing sjamboks and long canes as they marched through the streets to protest the presence of “undocumented” and “illegal” non-South African Africans on their land was heart-breaking.
And yet, it was real and people could explain how necessary it was. Two Ugandans were reportedly killed in recent days leading up to the main march itself, and thousands of non-South African Africans are being flown or bused out of the Republic of South Africa.
I won’t discuss the reasons. I am not in the mood to do so right now.
This is a new reality we have arrived at.
Africa should be more concerning for us.
The situation here in our homes is where we should be serious about changing this dark, gloomy reality that we now find ourselves in.
We can’t take Maduro back to Venezuela or open the Strait of Hormuz, but we can stop and take some action around making Africa work so that our fellow Africans don’t have to go illegally into South Africa and cause anger or anguish.
We can change our internal politics and their terms of engagement to remove the vitriol that leads to the video clips of people like Hon. Matembe weeping in court.
Unlike the US, WE can — and should — build up this continent and our resolution of issues based on Ubuntu. I am because WE are. It means the same whether we are handling internal political issues in Uganda or a continent-wide one like economic immigration across lands where income inequality is stark.
Ubuntu can get us out of this dark, hot and gloomy reality we find ourselves in.
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