Good Idea bad press.

Its been about four weeks since the launch of a new project to help register Ugandans. The project is a great idea but also a challenge for the new head of the Internal Affairs Ministry.

Around the time of the previous elections, we became familiar with the new system and many of us indeed did brave the process,long lines, photos and finger printing that came with this project. It is highly doubtful that the Germans that helped manage this project could have failed in its execution (but that is just my opinion regarding the effectiveness of our Bavarian Friends). But that is besides the point.

The ads that are running in some media outlets are rather discouraging especially for someone who has lived in other countries (Kenya, Uganda and South Africa?). For starters, the ad refers to kitambulisho which is an infamous term that those who lived in Kenya in the early eighties are all to aware of. At the time, many Ugandans were living as refugees and fears were ripe about the possibilities of being deported to a country that at the time was rather unstable and still recovering.

The Kenyans too had similar encounters although their experiences predated independence and were more common in the class system that separated blacks from white and that brought about the rise of the Mau Mau movement.

As the gap between rich and poor grows larger and as a revival of precolonial tendencies seems to reemerge, i suspect that we will find ourselves battling our old colonial demons.

Another common reference that has fueled many concerns amongst historians and common citizens is the return of late seventies systems of leadership and law enforcement that were referred to as panda gari. At the heart of some of this concern was the use of the Swahili language which was often used by liberators but that was also used by rowdy and undisciplined soldiers to intimidate the populace.

Hard core ganda loyalists were therefore often anti-swahili because they seemed to have borne the brunt of the force.

South Africa comes into mind because more and more Africans seem to look on her as a liberator of sorts mainly because of the work of men like Madiba. Others though have seemed more doubtful about the true demonstration of these freedoms and have accused the ANC of failing to deliver and instead consolidating power into political hands. South Africa has relevance because here too, the concept of Kitambulisho came to the fore and was fiercely resisted by the vibrant populations.