Fatalism and the gruesome road crashes in Uganda

According to the 2023 Uganda Police Force annual crime report, there was a six percent increase in the number of persons that died as a result of road crashes from 4, 534 in 2022 to 4,806 in 2023.

The increase was majorly in the boda boda transport sector and most Ugandans either in the rural and urban areas use the boda boda transport at all times.

In the effort to create awareness and sensitise motorists, boda boda users and all road users in Uganda about the best practices of road safety and awareness, there is a very huge elephant in the room that has continued to deter Ugandans from taking up the best practices of road safety awareness . This huge elephant is fatalism.

Fatalism is the belief that is found in many cultures here in Uganda. Fatalism is the belief that unseen powers or fate controls people's destinies, rather than your own will. It can also be described as the belief that people are powerless to do anything other than what they actually do.

Fatalism can be neutral , non judgemental or pessimistic. Neutral fatalism is the belief that people cannot influence events, regardless of whether they are good , bad or different. Pessimistic fatalism is the expectation that nothing good will happen.

Day in and day out the Traffic Directorate of Uganda Police Force and the array of all road safety organisations and bodies are out to spread the word and gospel of road safety in Uganda. Fatalism having formed a wide net in the cultural fabric of Ugandans, these messages of road safety awareness seem to fall on barren and arid land ! 

Every week ending, the Traffic Police Spokesman will carefully and in pain read out the number of road crashes, lives lost , fatalities registered and of course end up calling on Ugandans to do all they can to promote road safety to avert these gruesome deaths and statistics on the roads. However there will always be this saying " God has willed so ".

I have no trouble in giving credit to God for good tidings. Except we tend to forget, as the saying goes , that God only helps those that help themselves. No amount of prayer will help a man who weighs 250 kilograms win a 100 meter marathon unless it is restricted to people who weigh 250 kilograms or more.

It is common to find a motorist behind the wheels not having buckled up their car seatbelt and the answer they will give you is that if my time of death has come let it come but I only buckle up when I see a traffic policeman ahead or when I am on a highway but not in town because I am not a 'muzungu' to always buckle up when in a car! 

Head injuries claiming thousands of boda boda men do not need re- echoing. Fatalism and extreme religious reasons has convinced many boda boda cyclists and passengers never to have crash helmets on them for they believe that they distract the communication between them and their ancestors while on the roads. To this is added the religious insignia that many of the boda boda riders and passengers are not ready to cover up with helmets for fear of heavy reprisal and punishment from the maker.

The attitude of mind which accepts whatever happens as having been bound or decreed to happen is costing us lives on our roads . One cannot caution a reckless taxi driver because it was meant to be so and it is fine for the taxi driver to continue driving recklessly. 

The propensity of individuals or groups of persons to believe that their destinies are ruled by unseen powers or are played out inevitably rather than their will is one of the huge elephants we have in the rooms of road safety advocacy. 

Percy Mulamba Munwankyo, Road Safety Activist.