We must study trends to prepare for contingencies
A society that fails to organise and stay vigilant leaves room for political opportunists to hijack its journey towards true liberation, writes Magode Ikuya.
Magode Ikuya. (File)
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OPINION
By Magode Ikuya
“A cat which pins its ears towards the thickets succeeds to catch mice.” This apt observation of the cat's behaviour enabled African society to draw valuable fables that, in ancient times, guided the guile of its existence.
It was assumed that rats were no simpletons who freely loitered and offered themselves as easy prey for hungry cats. They were always predisposed to be in concealment under burrows or shadows, sneaking out in the open after careful watch and survey.
It became known that the life of any creature in nature is always a contest of vagaries and options. Therefore, realisation of any heartfelt dreams by humans had to proceed from faculties portraying diligence and patient scouring of the ground to unearth the secrets behind which lay the bounties of life over which must be scrounged.
This old wisdom has been a useful tool for many in society to wriggle their way to various schemes for society.
But not everyone in the present political scene is a keen broker for earnest answers to African society, much less sharing out any of the proffered views. Often, examples of zeal for interaction over political ideas are not sufficiently ingrained in the spectrum of tendencies of politics of our society.
Thus, the panorama of Uganda’s politics represents both the achievements and shortfalls of our society. Some old hands at doing mischief are still extant, amidst croons which cry for a renewed search for a new type of handling public affairs, while many much younger others pulse with their incoherently different colourings of vision.
Alongside this broad range of different wavelengths, the political sphere is also inundated with a flood of fortune seekers who are without any premonitions for society. This kind of influx has bloated the political field with large numbers of specialists who fill the political arena mainly out of scheming for self-survival.
This ought not be considered an abnormality. Not every animal in nature is endowed with the ability to live from their own kill; many species secure a livelihood by way of scavenging from the kill abandoned by others or the waste they did not need.
During early moments when the weather is cold, flies have a tendency to swarm on the back of humans for warmth. Those who have a journey to undertake cannot spend time first quarrelling with flies over why they desire a free ride.
It is only by keenly observing and watching the social space that snaps of insight can be formed about the course and speed of Africa’s journey.
Liberation from colonial control is not attained through mere denunciation. Colonialism enmeshes and integrates the colonised society into the entrails of the digestive system of the colonisers.
To free oneself from the prospect of a colonised prey demands deep insight into both the chemistry and physics by which colonial biology operates. Only by counteracting its biological processes can it be possible to assert self-existence by way of safe recovery of one’s body system from being dissolved and consumed by a predator’s enzymes.
The issue is not contriving the downfall and banishing of schemers in politics. It is the conscientiousness to draw the general populace into the everyday conscious duty of active members of society, which denies fertile ground for adventurers to subvert the African cause.
For this to be realised, society itself must ripple with appropriate awareness and motivation throughout its ranks to counteract perfidy.
Those who do not organise should not expect a positive outcome.
The writer is the State Minister for East African Community Affairs