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WHAT’S UP!

Solar eclipses are fascinating, I agree. But the way the Americans went about it on Tuesday, you would think it was the first time it had ever happened anywhere on earth. And the international media was right there with them, which was not half annoying, for those that wanted the latest news, to be treated to almost a whole day of ‘eclipse coverage’, starting with the build-up.

It got almost nauseating when the actual eclipse started, somewhere in Texas. We got full coverage of it happening, with interviews of excited residents saying “oh my God, oh my God” over and over again. And as the eclipse moved so, so did the coverage, small town after small town, with different reporters but the same “oh my God’ reaction.

Till it moved on from the US and to other non-interesting places like Canada.

“So very American,” my brother Fred said.

What is it about eclipses that fascinates the human mind so, and almost turns people into bumbling idiots? I have watched just one total eclipse in my life and maybe what they say that it is a once-in-a-lifetime experience has some grain of truth in it. But I do not remember going all gaga when it happened. It was during school and I remember we made special glasses out of photographic negatives to watch it.

Actually, I do not think it was total over King’s College, Budo. Google says there was a total solar eclipse that passed over northern Uganda in June 1973. But we must have got really close, because I remember even the flies stopped flying that day.

Weirdly, the main thing I remember about it, as the time approached for the eclipse to start, was some guy saying, “eh, as the moon has cowardised”. And we all looked up to see if the moon had, indeed, not shown up for the ‘battle’.

Of course we did not quite understand the science behind it then, that the moon was there all the time, but we could not see it because it was ‘facing’ way from the earth.

But maybe we should cut the Americans some slack, as Ugandans did more than just go gaga in 2013 when a total solar eclipse went over the small town of Packwach. It became a national event, and we even had a ‘chief watcher’, which meant with all the added security many Ugandans that went to watch it could not get near Packwach. But you got to feel for the dude, last time a total solar eclipse happened over Uganda he was probably in some jungle fighting Idi Amin. And, I wonder if the then Life President decreed that the eclipse was a sign of approval from the gods?

Recently, a team of scientists set out to find out if there are any areas that are predisposed more than any other to experience total solar eclipses. After going through more than 15 trillion checks on eclipse data going back 15,000 years, they found that, on average, a place will experience a total eclipse once every 374 years. And it happens more frequently to areas in the northern hemisphere, for all kinds of reasons (if you want a lesson in the science of solar eclipses, give me a call).

But for Uganda to experience two total solar eclipses in just 40 years is something special, maybe we really are gifted by nature.

Uganda’s most ‘famous’ eclipse is said to have taken place in the year 1520, in what is now Mbarara district. As the story goes, Omukama Olimi I of Bunyoro was on his way back from raiding in Rwanda and had loot of women, cattle and property with him. When he reached Biharwe hill, an eclipse happened. Not knowing what was taking place, the Omukama took it that his gods were unhappy with him, so he fled, leaving all his loot behind.

The Banyankole then took over the loot, declaring it was Empenda ya Munoni (cows from heaven). A monument commemorating that incident has been built on Biharwe Hill and has now become something of a tourist attraction. There is also a monument built in Packwach, but no one really talks about it. Next time I am passing through Packwach, I will ask where it is.

There have been some pretty famous solar eclipses in history, like the one that took place in 2137 BCE over China. Unlike Omukama Olimi I, the then ruler of China was not impressed with his astrologers, who were too drunk to predict the eclipse, and he had their heads cut off.

The ancient Greek writer Homer described an eclipse in his classic book Odyssey and scientists have dated that one to have taken place in 1178 BCE.

In 1851, a Russian photographer took the very first picture of an eclipse; just think about it, before that all folks had to go on were descriptions of what had taken place. And I can imagine how vivid some of those descriptions were, no wonder people thought an eclipse was an omen of doom.

Incidentally, I missed that 2013 eclipse because I was in South Africa. I felt bad at missing it, but it was somehow mitigated by the full jazz band that greeted us when we landed in Durban. Nevertheless, seeing that the next total solar eclipse to go over Uganda will not happen until the year 2200, 276 years from now, makes we wish I had seen it. But there will be a total lunar eclipse, next year, 2025; so we’ll just have to do with that.