Reflections of an entrepreneur on humour, media and culture

Author: James R. Tumusiime

Review by: Angel Musinguzi

What Makes Africans Laugh? is woven around the life of James R. Tumusiime (the author) as an entrepreneur in humour, media and culture. By telling his story, Tumusiime seeks to tickle the African reader to be firm in asserting his/her cultural values and heritage in this fast-evolving world, the reason he partly describes this work as "...an opportunity to advance my quest for the African soul”.

The journey through this great tale will most definitely leave every African reader wondering, as well as yearning to contribute something in shaping the African story. For the Rwandan reader in particular, the author’s trials, tribulations and successes, as narrated, can only endear them more to the ‘Made-in-Rwanda’ brand.

Tumusiime’s experiences growing up in rural western Uganda, through primary and secondary school and later university, mostly at the tutelage of an all-white staff, will help the reader appreciate where we draw some of the things that define us today, like the languages we speak, the way we dress and what we eat. But most importantly, in all this, the reader shall, without a doubt, begin to question what is in all this for Africans.

The first chapters of the book also provide an insightful description of Tumusiime’s early days in the traditional Ankore family and cultural setting. Later as a graduate of Makerere University, the author is welcomed into the world of employment by a struggling economy that characterised Uganda in the late 70s and early 80s. He narrates how he survives on money generated from drawing cartoon series known as Ekanya.

Later in exile in Nairobi, Kenya, in the early 80s, Tumusiime explains his role and that of many others in the NRM/A liberation struggle that brought President Yoweri Museveni to power in Uganda in 1986. However, it’s his time practising in the Kenyan media, both as a cartoonist and editor, cuopled with the trials he had to overcome to fend for his family, which are more riveting.

Tumusiime would later return to Uganda when the NRM/A took power to oversee the establishment of the country’s leading media house, The New Vision.

Driven by his desire to provide more African content in the various spheres of Uganda’s growth, he braved the stormy times to establish Fountain Publishers, Radio West and Igongo Cultural Centre.

But most importantly, the book opens the debate on the status of local publishing, local literature, local history and mnemonics, and the media.

What Makes Africans Laugh? will not only open the reader’s eyes to the challenges that inhibit Africa’s growth, but also ignite a fire in each one of us to aspire to conserve our traditional values to remain relevant in centuries to come.