In the Ogon bible are the potholes, the parliament...name it.
DRAWING ATTENTION: When our bu-kids ask what we did in our times, I will pull out this book.. see me I had even forgotten about the Togikwatako battle, but everything, the story of our times is locked in that ka-book. Mbu it does not matter where you start off with it, every page gets you to time-travel. Then suddenly you see the patterns, you see the constants, and you see the variables.
See, the last time Ogon released that Hozambe cartoon, it was a mic-drop. I immediately packed my bags, all my books and went to the temple of this cartoonist. Hail Big Head, you are who you think you are. I even borrowed Einstein’s words to Charlie Chaplin; ‘you do not say a word, yet the world understands you.’ The cartoonist brushed it off mbu ‘kugezako.’ Mbu he is just trying. I see a risk. Because if the chap says he is just trying, what happens when he does more.
As I was dealing with those tremors, the chap landed with the compilation. At that moment I knew this guy; ‘alalusiiza ebeeyi.’ See, the writer has to go sketching thousands of words, words upon words, lies upon lies, and then lands his point. That cartoonist, just that totem symbol of Mzee’s clan. No no, it is not the cow horn, it is the ka-AK47. And then the signature legs. Eiish the ones of, her, the one and only, Mama omu bwati. Okay, you see I have to go round around those things. That is the power of the cartoonist, he hits you and you still laugh as he hits you.
In the background, the cartoonist and his crew were compiling something major, a major announcement of our times. The ‘86 generation is coming alive, it is writing its story. When our bu-kids and grand-kids ask what we did in our times, I am going to be pulling out that Ogon Drawing Attention, get my rounded-eyeglasses on, then cough, a phew, show them the moment of our times. But will those bu-grand-kids even have time for us. Will they even be human? We could be the last humans.
To help our memory, see me I had even forgotten about the Togikwatako battle, but everything, the story of our times is locked in that ka-book. Mbu it does not matter where you start off with it, every page gets you to time-travel. Then suddenly you see the patterns, you see the constants, and you see the variables. So like General Kale, was a variable, argggh! Our army commander, that one is constant. Saleh, argggh constant. Wait, nga the bu-cars have been reshuffled. Then the bu-rebels have also been there. Kakwenza, Stella Nyanzi, oh yeah, wueh, Mamdani shudders at the name. But what would life be without the chaos? Every little action matters, thus says chaos theory. Do not forget the 10-point programme. You chaps misread the president, he was simply writing one-zero, as in the binary code. Mbu Uganda going forward would run in binary, some days it would be on, other days off. By the way, the big constant has been the man in the hat, or in the hut. See, man has reigned over the most successful urban-ghetto. I swear, it is there in the Ogon bible, the potholes, the parliament. Again, it is binary, some days we are on, other days we are off.
Remember the Covid-19 pandemic? Anhaa, also there in that book of records. Yes, the spirit of Uganda has been captured. Ogon has freed all of us from that work. Going forward, we can do parte after parte. Wait, atte party yaani? Anhaa, anti Kibalama there, Bobi there. But I am sure P.Kay must have told Ogon; ‘Sikulaaba mu Kigali…’ But problem, dude now got the rizz. Rumours have it the 5K coalition; Kisaasi, Kyanja, Kiwatule, Kiira, Kulambiro have gazetted him man of the year. The cartoonist now turned poet, philosopher, historian, and man of the people has been exempted from transport money.
Okay smackists you also made it, you made it. Nailed on the cross, you lived to your motto, aiming at the highest, thanks to Fire baby. Who else made it? Every Ugandan, every one that belongs to this cow-ntry. Even the billionaire rats. Remember those rats, dressed in Hermes pants and loro piana shoes? Okay not the rats, but the mother of the rats made it. Even our fallen policy is there, hanging in a pothole. Okay, as if I saw my Sheila Gash. Yes, people, the gap made it.
That said,people, the man himself chose to crown the last cartoon with a spike at himself. He took us back to those awards, in his crocs, carrying his L, clad in his Manchester United jersey, and camouflage shorts.
What was I saying this whole time? It is to draw your attention to the things that matter. Ogon has compiled his cartoons from Daily Monitor and elsewhere and he is launching that collection today. He has captured the spirit of Uganda from the governance to the arts, to all the games we have played. Ogon is more than a cartoonist, he has propelled himself into new realms. Perhaps better to say, he is a poet, philosopher and then artist. His cartoons represent ideas, the dialectics of our times, the struggle, the highs, the lows, they are conversation makers, reflection moments, but hey, also therapy, to laugh off our pains. It is our story, it is your story, but above all, it is the wonderworking of Ogon’s imagination. What a mind, what a compilation, whatever he smokes, let him smoke more…
Twitter: ortegatalks
