Reflections on sunday : Away with killer governments in Africa

April 10th was also Sunday in 1994. But apart from being one day among many that were cold and wet that year, it shared nothing else with our Sunday today. It was not the day of prayer and joy of rest that we are enjoying. It was one in a hundred days of groaning and wailing as demoniac génocidaires put our compatriots to all manner of dreadful death in the swiftest genocide in history. Still, the body of Rwandans has shown that it is stronger than the darkest force of destruction. When the world thought nothing could be done for it and it had met its inevitable end, they saw it persist to breathe. The end was the end, thought the world, knowing very well the story of the headless chicken. But instead, the body was struggling to get on its feet. With time, it was rising more firmly. Seventeen years hence, Rwanda stands tall among its peers, taller than many in its category of developing countries. The seventeenth commemoration this year is a celebration of our martyred compatriots and our healing family. In their name and honour, let’s work hard to make sure the truth of the passing of our martyrs is upheld and the dignity of their motherland is defended. As it was in the beginning, so will it be and nobody will abuse Rwanda again. Seeking to forget the past and rather to concentrate on celebrating the present, I’ve been thinking about other places I’ve lived in. And the country that comes to mind is Uganda because I’ve been there longer than I’ll be anywhere else. Moreover, Uganda nurtured me and I must say I remember it with fondness. Yet, it also has ever been bruised and has had its fair share of nightmares.I remember in 1977 when I was struggling between being proud of being a student of poetry and being scared of being killed as a Ugandan. This was during the buffoonery of Field Marshal Idi Amin Dada who ruled Uganda like a village tyrant. By 1977 Amin had killed many Ugandans but by far the most prominent death was that of Janan Luwum in February of that year. Luwum was the Anglican Arch-Bishop of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and what was then known as Boga Zaïre (eastern Zaïre). Why did the God-fearing Amin kill such an important man of God? Having deposed Milton Obote who was president of Uganda in 1971, Amin lived in mortal fear of retaliation from any of Obote’s Langi tribes-mate or anyone from the neighbouring tribe of Acholi. The truth about the Amin killings was never told officially, of course. It used to be transmitted to us through whispered word of mouth. So, we gathered that when a Ben Ongom was arrested and tortured so that he could reveal his accomplices who intended to kill Amin, he named A-B Janan Luwum. Believing that his life could be spared, Ongom just picked the names of any Langi or Acholi he knew. However, when soldiers searched A-B Luwum’s residence in the middle of the night, they found no arms. Ongom named someone else! Even then, A-B Luwum had been fingered and, a few days after, Amin summoned him. He was found to hide no arms but made the mistake of complaining to everybody, including Amin, about being handled roughly. He went to answer the summons, accompanied by some of his bishops. Amin never did anything without drama, so a reception party was waiting when the clergymen arrived at Nile Mansions. Government ministers, diplomats, army officers and other high ranking officials were gathered but hardly paid any attention to the new arrivals. They were listening to Amin’s vice-president as he lambasted clergymen who were engaged in treasonable acts of trying to topple the government. From 9 O’clock in the morning, A-B Luwum and his bishops stood in the sun until 5 in the evening when everybody else had left. Every time any of them attempted to go under a shade, he was roughly shoved back to the cemented path that led to the conference centre. After an hour, A-B Luwum was called inside while the others were told to go home. They went back to the arch-bishop’s car but refused to leave. As they stood by the car waiting, the bishops saw their arch-bishop being pushed from the side of the conference hall to the hotel side of Nile Mansions by men in dark glasses. There was no doubt that they were from the infamous state research bureau; the dreaded intelligence officers. At this point, the bishops were forcefully driven away. That evening the national radio announced the “unfortunate death in a car accident” of Arch-Bishop Janan Luwum. The following morning, the photos of a mangled car under the over-sized tyres of a lorry were splashed under headlines announcing A-B Luwum’s death. In the evening news on TV, the photo was of a completely different mangled car!Have we seen the last of such killer governments in Africa? Libya, Cote d’Ivoire or anywhere else, Africans must make the answer an emphatic “Yes!” ingina2@yahoo.co.uk Ends