In Uganda, everyone is ‘passing their thing’

But above all, you land on the one big truth about this world. This truth was apparently revealed in the eighties. In the eighties, it became evident that there was only one truth in the affairs of men. The truth was stated in Luganda; ‘Buli Omu Ayisaawo Kikye.’ And that in this life, everyone had an agenda known only to them. That a human being in the attempt to win the game of life never came short of answering the question; ‘What’s in it for me?’

It’s this question that has perturbed the world. There are no common agendas in this life. Instead, we have scenarios where agendas get to intersect. When we meet on Sunday or any other day to confess our sins. It’s not that we’ve committed the same sins. We have those who sinned by scamming some of land, we have those who made men other men’s children. We sin differently, but we pursue the same mercy.

Once one understands this truth of ‘everyone is passing their thing’ in Uganda, one finds serenity. That friend who’s telling you on the hottest new deal in Kampala, he’s passing his own thing. It’s for this reason that the rich will never be short of relatives in Uganda. But the rich should always remember that every relative is passing their own thing. Love is a concept we create to cover many interests.

Because what kind of love forces a great minister to attempt and break a kissing record? If she was investing on the stock exchange, one would describe her as a bullish investor. But then, you remember the grand rule, and realize that the minister was passing her thing.

The other man who bombards us with English but can’t clear his debts, recently the whole world realized that the Latin maxims have been a disguise for his to pass his thing. It’s a world of survival, and you only survive by disguising the fact that you are passing your own thing. It’s a world of smokescreens. Perhaps we all know this about the world, that we’re all covering our self-interests, and dressing them up in garbs of invented reasons.

Everyone claims they are saving the world, every business these days claims social impact. Can’t we for once just accept that we are here to make profit? Can we stop the hiding? The world will change itself, as long as we’re more honest with it. We don’t have to invent new theories as to why we exist. We just exist. None of us received a reason. We got conscious one day and saw fellow human beings around us. Then we started to copy those beings. We mimicked everything they did. We mimicked the mannerisms, but we also mimicked the desires. We are caught up in the mimetic circle of life.

So then, how do we become more confident with passing our thing? You could be like a Cindy that accepts to be a Nokia. You could be a Spice Diana that’s yet to find out whether she’s a Casio. You could even be the Ugandan President, keep the mask while home, drop the mask while abroad. The man must be passing his own thing, it’s surely not about the mask.

When you see a man confidently confess to bribing his executive board, that man is passing his own thing. But then as usual, we make noise about the medium and miss the message. The message is always the unsaid, the things that didn’t come to light. We rush for the surface, for the symbol. The symbol is not the message, or the symbol is not the meaning. Search for the meaning behind the symbols.

Now, you should be asking; ‘what are we passing with the Military Traffic Police?’ In Uganda, we should constantly be asking; ‘Oyisaawo kki?’ Because that’s the only way we shall understand our country. Because if you can know what someone is passing, you won’t struggle to answer; ‘Kati tugoyinge wa?’

 Twitter: ortegatalks