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DENNIS D. MUHUMUZA
“Well, reggae music is created by Rasta people, and it carries earth force, people rhythm...it is a rhythm of working people, movement, a music of the masses, see?” – Bob Marley (1945-1981).
True music lovers find it absurd that many years after those words were first uttered by the man that is globally recognised as the father of reggae music, Uganda has not felt the sweet tremors of that genre like Jamaica or South Africa have. And it’s largely because of this that Edson Nimwesiga, known onstage as Jare, set out to help Uganda find its reggae identity.
The lean Kampala-based singer and composer recently released his debut album titled Bad Man’s State.
“I’m the original reggae comrade; I call my music truth and roots reggae,” he said with a Jamaican twang. “No nation can live without reggae music and it’s historically known that it’s only through reggae that we can strengthen our roots and cultures.”
Jare’s music comes with mellow choruses and a militant message that reflects a strong awareness of betrayal on earth, the suffering of people and the unfairness of life. In Take It or Leave It, he has a sermon to the different political camps: “Togetherness is still needed for the common vision for it is the common vision that made Romans make Rome look like it is now,” he sings.
Listening to Jare’s music, one almost feels the spirit of Peter Tosh, Bob Marley and Lucky Dube floating by. He actually tributes them in Back to Babylon, a song he was forced to do after Lucky Dube was murdered.
“The people who have really struggled to fight for the black man’s peace have been killed – Patrice Lumumba, Martin Luther, Lucky Dube…” he says. “In the song, I say worse shall come to worst if the Rastaman hates another Rastaman, worse shall come to worst if the Rastaman fights another Rastaman, worse shall come to worst if the Rastaman kills another Rastaman; who’s gonna stand to fight for our rights and freedom when the Rastaman is gone?”
So, does approaching his music in a Rastafarian fashion make Jare a Rastafarian?
“I really wouldn’t mind someone calling me a Rastafarian as long as he sees the true colours of a Rastaman in me,” he says humbly. “Rastafarianism is a conscious movement whose slogan is love, peace and maximum respect. And whoever brings all the three to light is a true Rastaman.”
Interestingly, Jare is not a man with rugged Rastafarian dreadlocks, and this he attributes to his beliefs as a Christian. Ugandan politicians will particularly not like listening to Which God is 4 yo Country. Jare sings: “They say for God and my country as if they have no eyes to see disadvantaged children sleeping on the streets, starving, burning, dying, whose parents still live but split because of adultery…they say abortion, lesbianism and homosexuality should be legalised; are we gonna be ruled again by mercenaries? Because procreation definitely is gonna be less or no more…and they say for God and my country but remember they shall be cursed if they used My name in their wickedness…”
Another song, We are One, draws from the violence that followed the last presidential elections in Kenya. It reminds the listener that we all are children of God - “big up people, stop the violence, we are brothers and sisters”.
A computer Engineer, Jare began singing in primary school, and often courted trouble for skipping school to listen to reggae music. But it was not until 2005 that the 32-year-old started composing his music.
“It’s not been easy, because in Uganda you have to first pull crowds before sponsors can step in, and what’s more, some artistes want to do music for business so they do one reggae song and switch to other genres of music; which is why reggae music has not taken root,” says Jare.
“The Holy Spirit connects my words to rhythms that’s gonna impact and gain me worldwide respect,” he says. “I’ll continue to do this music till I can breathe no more!”
--Sunday Monitor, August 31, 2008
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Living the ambience of the poetic world
DENNIS D. MUHUMUZA
The 100-seater room at the National Theatre was on Saturday night full; so packed in fact that one could hardly find where to stand. Now, this was shocking because previous poetry events, at least in Uganda, are not known to pull such crowds. And you ask: why was this different?
The answer lay not in the fact that the show was free but in the packaging of the product. Apart from the musicality of the name The Lantern Society of Poets, this was the opening of the many poetry recitals dubbed ‘The Lantern Meet of Poets’ by this group of creative artists and budding Ugandan poets.
It was not until last year that they began and continue to meet fortnightly at the National Theatre although the idea was first mooted three years ago by four Makerere University students with the same passion for poetry.
“We wanted to share poetry, talk and critique young poets’ work with a view of raising the intellectual bar, the social bar, the literary bar and all the bars you can think of,” said group member Colin Asiimwe.
If the hush that encompassed the room and the concentration of the viewers and the wild applause that followed every act meant raising the bar, then it’s alright to give credit where it’s due, after all that is a mark of intellectualism.
Poetry is said to be an intricate subject too deep to be comprehended or performed by ordinary mortals. But don’t be deceived. A girl named Rachel had it right with enunciation and her system was sync with her rippling voice. She seemed unaware of the spotlight and her recitation of The Musician left the spectators spellbound.
The live musical breaks too had the audience riveted –especially the guitarists plucking away like no one was looking, and the guy that came and sat on a wooden stool and played a love song on his violin for “all the ladies in the house!”
Here were poems on the circumstances that define life; the good and bad times, love and hate, fortune and misfortune and all things brought out dramatically vocally to make the sensitive cry and laugh and the stony-hearted drink from their small bottles of gin. Only one or two of the performers were slightly inaudible.
When finally the curtain fell after three hours of outstanding performance, the Lantern Poets received an explosive ovation from the audience, at which point, a smiling Guy Mambo, the group director, promised another show over the Christmas holiday.
It was time to head home, singing that old Luther Vandross/Janet Jackson song, that truly the best things in life are free!
--Daily Monitor, August 23, 2008
The 100-seater room at the National Theatre was on Saturday night full; so packed in fact that one could hardly find where to stand. Now, this was shocking because previous poetry events, at least in Uganda, are not known to pull such crowds. And you ask: why was this different?
The answer lay not in the fact that the show was free but in the packaging of the product. Apart from the musicality of the name The Lantern Society of Poets, this was the opening of the many poetry recitals dubbed ‘The Lantern Meet of Poets’ by this group of creative artists and budding Ugandan poets.
It was not until last year that they began and continue to meet fortnightly at the National Theatre although the idea was first mooted three years ago by four Makerere University students with the same passion for poetry.
“We wanted to share poetry, talk and critique young poets’ work with a view of raising the intellectual bar, the social bar, the literary bar and all the bars you can think of,” said group member Colin Asiimwe.
If the hush that encompassed the room and the concentration of the viewers and the wild applause that followed every act meant raising the bar, then it’s alright to give credit where it’s due, after all that is a mark of intellectualism.
Poetry is said to be an intricate subject too deep to be comprehended or performed by ordinary mortals. But don’t be deceived. A girl named Rachel had it right with enunciation and her system was sync with her rippling voice. She seemed unaware of the spotlight and her recitation of The Musician left the spectators spellbound.
The live musical breaks too had the audience riveted –especially the guitarists plucking away like no one was looking, and the guy that came and sat on a wooden stool and played a love song on his violin for “all the ladies in the house!”
Here were poems on the circumstances that define life; the good and bad times, love and hate, fortune and misfortune and all things brought out dramatically vocally to make the sensitive cry and laugh and the stony-hearted drink from their small bottles of gin. Only one or two of the performers were slightly inaudible.
When finally the curtain fell after three hours of outstanding performance, the Lantern Poets received an explosive ovation from the audience, at which point, a smiling Guy Mambo, the group director, promised another show over the Christmas holiday.
It was time to head home, singing that old Luther Vandross/Janet Jackson song, that truly the best things in life are free!
--Daily Monitor, August 23, 2008
Wapi brings out youthful vitality and talent but...
DENNIS D. MUHUMUZA
“Word for real, hip-hop in the buildin’,” rapper 2-Xtrim shouted as he swaggered cross the stage. He was right.
How then is the British Council initiative going to help the industry by bringing out the best in these budding artistes if all they can do is mime? Perhaps we should let that slip as music is but a tiny strand of Wapi as a whole.
In fashion and modelling, creations by Mukisa Harriet Nagaya from Natty Fashion House, with their original African touch, casual as they came, stood out. The audience were particularly drawn to the Ethiopian scarf designs and the wedding attire.
The ‘bride and groom’, dressed to high heavens, slow-walked on stage in the radiance of all as real wedding couples do, to the beat of P-Square’s Do Me, a song which added a comical twist to the affair. Ugandan rapper Saint CA, did something different –recited a poem about victims of crime that truly was a revelation.
Art lovers were also captured by the expressive live paintings of Rolands Tbirusya Roldan, particularly the piece that preached against homosexuality: “Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman;” it was written on, “that is detestable” –Lev. 18:22”
However, more professional assistance must be put in place to propel these youngsters into the mainstream limelight and be appreciated on the world stage.
The second edition of ‘Words and Pictures’ (Wapi) concert kicked off with hype on Saturday at Hotel Africana’s People’s Space. Performers competed to live up to the do’s theme, “Gwe Ani? Define your identity” as they flashed unique identities in the way they were dressed, performance styles to their stage names and hip-hop parlance.
“Word for real, hip-hop in the buildin’,” rapper 2-Xtrim shouted as he swaggered cross the stage. He was right.
Hip-hop dominated the repertoire of creative acts. But that’s not to mean it was the best. Some songs carried a message on cross-generational sex, the dangers of drugs and generally advocated social change. However, everyone was miming.
How then is the British Council initiative going to help the industry by bringing out the best in these budding artistes if all they can do is mime? Perhaps we should let that slip as music is but a tiny strand of Wapi as a whole.
In fashion and modelling, creations by Mukisa Harriet Nagaya from Natty Fashion House, with their original African touch, casual as they came, stood out. The audience were particularly drawn to the Ethiopian scarf designs and the wedding attire.
The ‘bride and groom’, dressed to high heavens, slow-walked on stage in the radiance of all as real wedding couples do, to the beat of P-Square’s Do Me, a song which added a comical twist to the affair. Ugandan rapper Saint CA, did something different –recited a poem about victims of crime that truly was a revelation.
Art lovers were also captured by the expressive live paintings of Rolands Tbirusya Roldan, particularly the piece that preached against homosexuality: “Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman;” it was written on, “that is detestable” –Lev. 18:22”
You could read the hunger and thirst for fame in the eyes of the youngsters who performed at Wapi. Many echoed the same sound –that of gratefulness for the exposure and for the neutrality of the event.In that way, the British Council gets the plaudits for creating a forum through which these young and talented visual and verbal artists join artistically to express themselves.
However, more professional assistance must be put in place to propel these youngsters into the mainstream limelight and be appreciated on the world stage.
--Daily Monitor, August 23, 2008
Pneumonia kills more children than malaria
New evidence shows that pneumonia kills more children than malaria, measles and HIV/Aids combined. Though preventable, the disease remains neglected mainly due to ignorance of its causes and immediate symptoms, writes Dennis D. Muhumuza
In the acute child care unit of Mulago Hospital on Thursday mid-morning, a child of about five years lay in a slanted little bed; eyes sunken, pain all over his face, lungs visibly stiff. He was using a lot of energy to breath in what the doctor called “in-breathing.” Every time he did, his skeletal lungs expanded and contracted in a violent and alarming manner. A tube run from a container fixed to his bedpost, into his nose and directly into the blood vessel on his wrist. He was on oxygen which if removed, would make breathing difficult: “The oxygen is piped and must pass through water because if you don’t make it a little bit humid, it becomes dry and it dries up the chest,” explained the doctor.
Like tens of others packed in health centres countrywide, this child was battling a very painful case of pneumonia and would stay up to three days on oxygen depending on the severity of the disease. Unknown to many, pneumonia kills more children than measles, HIV/Aids, and malaria combined, according to a report, Progress For Children on www.unicef.org.
According to estimates from the United Nations children’s fund (Unicef), pneumonia kills over two million children in the world under the age of five every year. That is about the population of Kampala.
“Pneumonia is actually the leading infectious cause of death in children, contributing to about 20 percent of all under-five mortality rates. That translates to about 20,000 Ugandan children dying of pneumonia per year,” says Dr Eric Wobudeya, a paediatrician at Mulago Hospital Complex. “It’s a severe disease yet it has not been given the priority it deserves.”
This is because there has been little input to understand the grim disease. In fact, the first study, what Dr Jessica Nsungwa Sabiiti of Ministry of Health, called “A verbal autopsy” was only recently conducted around the country to determine the number of children the disease kills annually. The report is yet to be released.
As a paediatrician heading the ministry’s programme for the management of childhood illnesses, Sabiiti agrees that pneumonia has not been given enough emphasis because of the push given to malaria – long viewed as the number one cause of death in Africa. So malaria monopolised nearly all medical attention but all that is changing because with the help of the Global Fund, the effectiveness of the interventions put in place (mosquito nets and the new drugs) have weakened the severity of, and significantly reduced the proportion of patients dying of malaria.
After the examination of 2,080 children under the age of five in Mulago Hospital, it has been established that pneumonia is more common than malaria and needs to be dealt with before it wipes infants of the face of Uganda.
Things have not been helped by ignorance and the misconceptions surrounding the disease. Many times people say pneumonia is caused by cold – that if you don’t wrap your child in as much warmth it gets infected. Others are known to get painkillers and to administer all sorts of syrup or cough mixtures when a child begins to cry and cough and the temperature shoots off. The truth is that pneumonia is an infectious disease caused by bacteria and sometimes viruses.
Signs of pneumonia
Cough, fast breathing and high fever are signs of pneumonia and your child should be taken to the nearest health unit for proper treatment. These symptoms defer from those of the elderly where headache, chest pain, lung congestion and sometimes nausea and vomiting are symptoms.
Health experts say indoor pollution caused by smoke from firewood, congestion, poverty, poor ventilation, malnutrition and staying in a poor place like slums are some of the factors that influence infection.
Although a big problem among children under five and the elderly, with the spate of HIV/Aids, not even the youths can be spared.
“Pneumocystis Carinii Pneumonia (PCP) is the common cause of death in people with HIV/Aids but can be prevented with Septrine,” says Dr Wobudeya. He was quick to add that all forms of pneumonia, however fatal, are preventable when the disease is detected early and proper medication sought.
“Viral pneumonia is dangerous but the bacterial ones cause more deaths. And most of these are caused by two types of bacteria: Haemophilus Influenzae and Streptococcus Pneumoniae and both of these bacteria have vaccines and beyond the vaccines are other important preventable methods, for instance, if children develop measles, those children are more likely to get severe pneumonia, so if we immunise all our children against only measles we reduce the amount of mortality in pneumonia by about 10 percent,” says Dr Wobudeya.
“And in addition to drug treatment, a patient with pneumonia should stay in bed, eat healthy meals, and drink large amounts of liquids. With good treatment, it usually takes three days for patients to get better.”
Getting better is essential if Millennium Development Goal Four, which aims at reducing by two thirds the mortality rate among children under five by 2015, is to be achieved. There is however fear that it may take long to subdue this contagious disease especially with the fist of poverty dealing cruel blows in many households.
More troubling, according to Dr Wobudeya, is that pneumonia has become resistant to our simple drugs and yet chemotherapy which has helped combat the disease in the developed world are unavailable in government hospitals and poor clinics because they are expensive. While this poses no danger to the affluent who can rush their children to well-oiled clinics, the poor are left in despair because they cannot afford expensive treatment.
Kitagata Hospital, one of the biggest government hospitals in western Uganda, admits about 150 children suffering from pneumonia every month, according to its medical superintendent Dr Wilberforce Owembabazi, but the majority are those who don’t get to hospital.
This is a dire situation that the Uganda Paediatricians Association, whose major aim is to take care of the country’s children by ensuring they get good health care, may not handle on its own although it has rolled out an awareness campaign on child pneumonia throughout the country.
“We are working together with the Ministry of Health to prevent early neonatal death” [of babies aged 1-7months], says Dr Sabrina Bakeera Kitaka of the Department of Paediatrics Makerere Medical School, and the general secretary of the association. “Our aim really is to make pneumonia visible, do more advocacy and educate the communities but we are still limited by resources.”
The call by World Health Organisation (WHO) to have pneumonia managed at the community level has been heard by the Ministry of Health which is training nurses, nursing aides, lay workers and other volunteers in northern Uganda to become what Dr Sabiiti calls “mini-paediatricians.”
“You don’t need to be a paediatrician to manage pneumonia,” she said. “We are training them in using a respiratory timer developed by Unicef; we have taught them to examine the child and count the respiratory rate; and to ask the right questions from mother, and if the child is breathing faster than normal, has a cough then that child has pneumonia.”
The pain on the face of that Mulago child on oxygen is a haunting scene. Whatever means are used to scale up effective interventions; preventing death is all that matters.
--Daily Monitor, August 21, 2008
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| A child suffering from pneumonia at Mulago hospital |
Like tens of others packed in health centres countrywide, this child was battling a very painful case of pneumonia and would stay up to three days on oxygen depending on the severity of the disease. Unknown to many, pneumonia kills more children than measles, HIV/Aids, and malaria combined, according to a report, Progress For Children on www.unicef.org.
According to estimates from the United Nations children’s fund (Unicef), pneumonia kills over two million children in the world under the age of five every year. That is about the population of Kampala.
“Pneumonia is actually the leading infectious cause of death in children, contributing to about 20 percent of all under-five mortality rates. That translates to about 20,000 Ugandan children dying of pneumonia per year,” says Dr Eric Wobudeya, a paediatrician at Mulago Hospital Complex. “It’s a severe disease yet it has not been given the priority it deserves.”
This is because there has been little input to understand the grim disease. In fact, the first study, what Dr Jessica Nsungwa Sabiiti of Ministry of Health, called “A verbal autopsy” was only recently conducted around the country to determine the number of children the disease kills annually. The report is yet to be released.
As a paediatrician heading the ministry’s programme for the management of childhood illnesses, Sabiiti agrees that pneumonia has not been given enough emphasis because of the push given to malaria – long viewed as the number one cause of death in Africa. So malaria monopolised nearly all medical attention but all that is changing because with the help of the Global Fund, the effectiveness of the interventions put in place (mosquito nets and the new drugs) have weakened the severity of, and significantly reduced the proportion of patients dying of malaria.
After the examination of 2,080 children under the age of five in Mulago Hospital, it has been established that pneumonia is more common than malaria and needs to be dealt with before it wipes infants of the face of Uganda.
Things have not been helped by ignorance and the misconceptions surrounding the disease. Many times people say pneumonia is caused by cold – that if you don’t wrap your child in as much warmth it gets infected. Others are known to get painkillers and to administer all sorts of syrup or cough mixtures when a child begins to cry and cough and the temperature shoots off. The truth is that pneumonia is an infectious disease caused by bacteria and sometimes viruses.
Signs of pneumonia
Cough, fast breathing and high fever are signs of pneumonia and your child should be taken to the nearest health unit for proper treatment. These symptoms defer from those of the elderly where headache, chest pain, lung congestion and sometimes nausea and vomiting are symptoms.
Health experts say indoor pollution caused by smoke from firewood, congestion, poverty, poor ventilation, malnutrition and staying in a poor place like slums are some of the factors that influence infection.
Although a big problem among children under five and the elderly, with the spate of HIV/Aids, not even the youths can be spared.
“Pneumocystis Carinii Pneumonia (PCP) is the common cause of death in people with HIV/Aids but can be prevented with Septrine,” says Dr Wobudeya. He was quick to add that all forms of pneumonia, however fatal, are preventable when the disease is detected early and proper medication sought.
“Viral pneumonia is dangerous but the bacterial ones cause more deaths. And most of these are caused by two types of bacteria: Haemophilus Influenzae and Streptococcus Pneumoniae and both of these bacteria have vaccines and beyond the vaccines are other important preventable methods, for instance, if children develop measles, those children are more likely to get severe pneumonia, so if we immunise all our children against only measles we reduce the amount of mortality in pneumonia by about 10 percent,” says Dr Wobudeya.
“And in addition to drug treatment, a patient with pneumonia should stay in bed, eat healthy meals, and drink large amounts of liquids. With good treatment, it usually takes three days for patients to get better.”
Getting better is essential if Millennium Development Goal Four, which aims at reducing by two thirds the mortality rate among children under five by 2015, is to be achieved. There is however fear that it may take long to subdue this contagious disease especially with the fist of poverty dealing cruel blows in many households.
More troubling, according to Dr Wobudeya, is that pneumonia has become resistant to our simple drugs and yet chemotherapy which has helped combat the disease in the developed world are unavailable in government hospitals and poor clinics because they are expensive. While this poses no danger to the affluent who can rush their children to well-oiled clinics, the poor are left in despair because they cannot afford expensive treatment.
Kitagata Hospital, one of the biggest government hospitals in western Uganda, admits about 150 children suffering from pneumonia every month, according to its medical superintendent Dr Wilberforce Owembabazi, but the majority are those who don’t get to hospital.
This is a dire situation that the Uganda Paediatricians Association, whose major aim is to take care of the country’s children by ensuring they get good health care, may not handle on its own although it has rolled out an awareness campaign on child pneumonia throughout the country.
“We are working together with the Ministry of Health to prevent early neonatal death” [of babies aged 1-7months], says Dr Sabrina Bakeera Kitaka of the Department of Paediatrics Makerere Medical School, and the general secretary of the association. “Our aim really is to make pneumonia visible, do more advocacy and educate the communities but we are still limited by resources.”
The call by World Health Organisation (WHO) to have pneumonia managed at the community level has been heard by the Ministry of Health which is training nurses, nursing aides, lay workers and other volunteers in northern Uganda to become what Dr Sabiiti calls “mini-paediatricians.”
“You don’t need to be a paediatrician to manage pneumonia,” she said. “We are training them in using a respiratory timer developed by Unicef; we have taught them to examine the child and count the respiratory rate; and to ask the right questions from mother, and if the child is breathing faster than normal, has a cough then that child has pneumonia.”
The pain on the face of that Mulago child on oxygen is a haunting scene. Whatever means are used to scale up effective interventions; preventing death is all that matters.
--Daily Monitor, August 21, 2008
Losing isn’t an option for me - new Miss Uganda
By DENNIS D. MUHUMUZA
Oftentimes, in the absence of her parents, about 13 years ago, a five-year-old girl would wear her Sunday best and smear her small lips thick with her mother’s lipstick, and after seeing her reflection in the mirror and making sure everything was alright, would frolic around the room proudly and gracefully like many little girls do.
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| THE WINNER'S SMILE: Dora Mwima, new Miss Uganda 2008 [Photo by Dennis D. Muhumuza] |
The chance she had been waiting for came in August 2006 when she participated in the Miss Teen Kenya but was disqualified on account of being Ugandan. It was a blue day for the then 16-year-old but she vowed to do it again when she returned home.
All is well, it is said, that ends well – thus it ended for the beauty on that glamorous night at Kampala Serena Hotel, where she was crowned Miss Uganda 2008, replacing the outgoing queen, Monica Kansiime. For a fleeting moment shortly before she was crowned, as she strutted across the stage in a self-designed creative outfit that she believes amplified her magnetism, with all eyes on her, Dora Mwima prayed in her heart: “Oh God, please give me this crown; I’m so not going to let you down; I’ll make everyone proud, please!”
It was a prayer said with the confidence of knowing she had her parents’ blessings. Her father, Mr Benjamin Mwima, is an evangelist who has travelled to over 150 countries preaching the gospel. Her mother, Ms Imelda Mwima, also did her best to encourage her.
“My family supported me because they have always known about my dream to succeed especially in the fashion and modelling world,” said the 5’6 girl. “They know that I’m a strong Christian and that God does not look at the outside but inside, and that it doesn’t matter if I participate in this show, which many think is immoral.”
Beating 17 other equally stunning beauties to the crown was a remarkable feat for the 18-year-old, who at the same event was voted Miss Personality.
“I think I deserved all this because of my character, my attitude and my behaviour,” she said confidently. “I’m more than unique, courageous, and more than confident; and above all I don’t fear failure at all.”
It’s this lethal combination of uniqueness, courage and fearlessness, she said, that will help her make history as the first Miss Uganda and the second African after Agbani Darego in 2001, to become Miss World when she represents the country at this year’s pageant in Ukraine.
“Why not? Who says that a Miss Uganda can never become a Miss World?” she poses her own questions and answers them: “I’m not going there to merely represent my country but I’m going there with all my zeal to bring the Miss World crown home.”
She speaks with a strong will and a fierce determination this girl, and for a moment you wonder where hails all this boldness, seeing as she has been home- schooled from all her life. It’s more of an American system and she says she has been trained by her mom with a professional supervisor dropping in occasionally with exams.
For someone who is inspired by God and not man, she’s quite something. Fluent in English, Swahili, French, Luganda and Greek, and with the exposure attained from travelling with her Dad to many countries, this Tororo girl has an independent outlook on life and has set high goals which will definitely help propel her further during the Miss World contest.
Ms Solaya Zalwango, the director of MKM Promotions, the official Miss Uganda organisers says: “We’ve scouted girls before but this is the first time we had someone like this; someone that young women will want to be like. She has a very good chance of winning Miss World; in fact if she drops out in the first lot, I’ll be so disappointed.”
The big-hearted beauty wants to help the hopeless; the people who have come to their endpoints and don’t have the spirit to face another day: “I’m going to go out to hospitals and orphanages, talk to people, and encourage them. I volunteered in Aga Khan in Kenya so I have experience at sharing with people and I know I can do it.”
She also wants to build something for her community in Tororo on her plot of land, given to her by her father when she was a child.
“Perhaps an institution for ladies; a clinic, or a school; once I‘m sure of what it should be, I’ll just develop the idea,” she says.
When reminded that some of her predecessors promised much but did little, this third of four children said, “I cannot do everything, because I’m only one, but at least I can do something and I will never refuse to do what I can. I will do it will all my heart. I want to work with the Miss Uganda organisers and any well-wisher who loves to see this Ugandan succeed in her vision of reaching out to the hopeless and needy.”
One thing Mwiima will never do is pose nude for magazines. In her own words: “Not even a million bucks are worth everyone out there looking at my goodies.”
It’s clearly the voice of an articulate girl who likes sweet potatoes as much as she likes listening to instrumental music and soft rock, reading motivational books, and visiting new restaurants, shopping malls and boutiques “to gaze at the different designs and know what’s on the fashion market and all that.”
With an innocent exterior, a dark smooth skin, bright eyes, a smile made more dazzling by pure white teeth, two little pins on her nose and a commanding height and warm personality, Dora Mwima is quite memorable; the kind of person you look at and want to look again.
Sorry guys, no boyfriend, right now she’s focused on accomplishing her dreams as Miss Uganda, and then she will fly to France or Italy for professional studies in interior design, fashion and art.
Her parting words after this interview, done at Sheraton Kampala Hotel, were inspirational - “I don’t see any virtue in losing. This society wants people who win.
--Sunday Monitor, August 17, 2008
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
The greatest show on earth is here
DENNIS D. MUHUMUZA
In a 1992 Collier’s Encyclopaedia article, Chris Wood says to forget soccer’s World Cup, baseball’s World Series, even the Super Bowl; that “Only one event truly fulfils the grandiose claim of being ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’: the Olympic Games!”
You cannot dispute his observation when you consider the mass of stars from different countries parading every four years and fortnightly battling for medals in dozens of sports as the rest of the world watches.
It’s only at the Olympic Games that national flags of hitherto struggling and unknown nations such as Ethiopia dance spectacularly in the sky; like when Abebe Bikila became the first black African to win an Olympic gold medal. Those who were in the stadium will never forget that delightful day in Rome in 1960, when they saw the small man running barefoot cross the finishing line of the Olympic marathon 200 yards ahead of his nearest competitor.
At the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles, the first officially recognised female track and field star, Mildred “‘Babe” Didrikson of Texas, set a world record in the high jump and 80-meter hurdles, and won the gold medal in the javelin on her first throw.
How about that electrifying moment during the men’s 400meter semi-final in Barcelona in 1992 when British runner Derek Redmond got injured mid-race but limped on with determination, and fearing that his son might give up due to the terrible pain, his father jumped from the stands, evaded security and aided his weeping son to the finish line while the crowds ecstatically cheered themselves hoarse.
At the Olympics, emotions never before known gush when those who arrived with great expectations return home empty-handed and heartbroken while surprise medal scoopers become instant celebrities.
From early 1986 in Athens – Greece, the Olympic Games, previously largely a Greek affair, were given a facelift by successful French thinker and educator, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, into what is the modern Olympic Games.
A dark cloud has many times descended upon the Games but not overshadowed the euphoria surrounding them. In Germany in 1972, Palestinian terrorists murdered 11 Olympic team members from Israel while 63 countries withdrew from the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow over the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. In South Korea in 1988, Canadian runner Ben Johnson set a new world record of 9.79secs in the finals of the 100-metre race.
Moments later, a drug test revealed his use of steroids. He was stripped of his gold medal and record and returned home disgraced. These are only a few of several stains but it’s better to dwell on the definitive moments.
These are best captured in the evolution of the competition. According to Encarta Encyclopaedia, the Olympic Games began in ancient Greece in 776 BC and were celebrated every four years at Olympia in the sanctuary of Zeus, the god of the skies and god of all Greek gods.
Only “honourable men of Greek descent” would come from all over and pay tribute to Zeus by vying with one another “in the splendour of their equipment and the proficiency of their athletic feats.”
The order of events is fuzzy but it’s said that the festival started with sacrifices and on the second day spectators packed into the stadium “enclosed by sloping banks of earth” to watch men wrestle and box each other.
“In the first of these sports, the object was to throw the antagonist to the ground three times” but with time the fights became violent as blows rained with fluid brutality until the vanquished acknowledged defeat.
Then there was horse racing - very popular but a preserve of the rich who could afford a good horse; and then pentathlon: a combination of wrestling, discus throwing, hurling the javelin, long jumping, and splinting. The closing sport was a “race run in armour.”
Unlike today, the winners would “live for the rest of their lives at public expense” after being decorated with wreaths from a sacred olive tree and marching around in glory while the crowd roared and sang the works of the great poets of the day.
After 1170 years, the adorable games were suppressed by the Roman emperor Theodosius until their revival in 1896. Greek millionaire George Averoff supported the cause with some fine Drachmas that helped erect an imposing arena on the foundations of the old Panathenaic Stadium.
That memorable day of the first modern games in 1896 started the popular marathon race, covering 26 miles 385 yards in honour of the ancient Greek splinter Pheidippides, who galloped from Marathon to Athens to announce the Greek victory against the Persians.
The man behind the real revival, Pierre de Coubertin (1863-1937) wanted to promote friendship among nations; something connected to his famous statement: “The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part…the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well.”
Since that day in 1896 in Athens, Greece, when America’s James Connolly entered records for winning the first race of the modern games, the world has witnessed and continues to see sports personalities fighting well and ugly if that’s what it takes to win that little thing called medal.
It was the greatest honour for any Greek worth his salt to win at Olympia. And generally all Greeks loved contests and conquests and were consistently driven by one thing –to win. This mentality is now embedded in the psyche of every performer at wherever the Olympics are.
It explains why a 22-year-old African American, Jesse Owens, squashed a long-held Nazi racist ideology that whites are racially superior by winning four gold medals in track and field at the 1936 Olympic Games in Germany. An angry Hitler unwittingly cultivated him cult status when he refused to recognise Owens’s four gold medals because he was black.
It’s the same craving for victory associated with the Olympics that saw “underdog” Nigeria upset “super” Brazil in the semi-final before going on to win gold in the final against Argentina. Viewers will never forget the thrilling exploits of then young Nwanko Kanu with his little figure and sharp ‘French cut’ hairstyle.
The year was 1996 that the first 100 years of international modern Olympic Games were celebrated during which a couple of new sports, such as softball and women’s soccer, were introduced.
This day honoured the ancient Greek games and slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. The man who in his best days was known to dance like a butterfly in the ring and sting like a bee, oh yes, Olympic gold medallist and former heavy weight boxing champ Muhammad Ali, lit the Olympic torch.
For the 29th edition of the prestigious Olympic Games which kicked off in Beijing, China on Friday, the same torch was lit in Olympia in March and after being received in Beijing, began on its trip through six continents covering 137,000 km. This is the longest distance of any Olympic torch relay, according to torchrelay.beijing2008.cn, since this ritual started at the 1936 Olympics in Germany.
China has done everything including putting up appearances to make sure the games go well. The New York Times reported in July that in the west gate of the Temple of Heaven and along the Olympic marathon in Beijing, the government built “a 10-foot-tall brick wall” to hide ugly buildings. For a developed and technology-suave country like China, it was laughable and worse than the quick and quack road patch-ups in the name of Kampala city beautification shortly before Chogm.
Truly, Chris Wood was right when he called the Olympic Games the greatest show on earth. However faint the hope, Ugandans will be watching to see if one of our boys in China achieves or come closer to achieving what John Akii-Bua famously did at the 1972 “Olympics of serenity” in Munich, Germany.
--Sunday Monitor, August 10, 2008
Story book on the future of East Africa launched
DENNIS D. MUHUMUZA
Bow your head and close your eyes for a moment and look ahead into East Africa. What do you see? A dark menace, a beautiful woman or are you afraid to stare into uncertainty?
In that case don’t worry because the ‘clairvoyants’ from Society for International Development (SID) peered for you into the East Africa up to 2040 and came up with triple stories otherwise known as the East Africa Scenarios Stories.
The stories come under three titles: I want to be a Star, I Want a Visa and Usiniharakishe (Don’t rush me).
In the first, E.A. is a woman named Cea whose magnificent beauty draws endless admirers. When the heroine, overwhelmed, succumbs because of the bright promises from these men, she’s raped and all her dreams shattered.
I Want a Visa is captured fantastically by a comic strip of poor citizens flocking to a new land with a beautiful thought on their minds: “Welcome to the new life…” but blind to a roadside signpost that reads, “Welcome to the shity!”
The last story describes “the struggle of the ordinary East Africans to retain and reclaim control over their most local assets and who learn that success is not guaranteed.”
These “fables of the future” are explored at length in a book, What do we want? What might we become? Imagining the future of East Africa, that was launched alongside the State of East Africa 2007 report at Kampala Golf Hotel a few weeks back and officiated by the Minister for East African Community affairs, Eriya Kategeya.
It remains for Timothy Kalyegira’s maverick seer to emerge from his hidden lair and tell us what he makes of the stories! Seriously though, the fables are a result of a three-year research on the region intended to stir our minds to the challenges East Africa is facing and what the future might look like.
Among more interesting revelations, the symbolic stories show that by 2013, more natives from the five East African countries will still be struggling to accept the regional bloc and the region will not have found jobs for its fast growing population.
Overall, the scenario stories dramatically provoke the leader and policy maker to study the forces shaping East Africa and also show ways through which these dynamics can be made to swing in favour of the people of East Africa and for the future.
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