I hope you all had a great weekend. I spent almost half of my day attending a MDD (Music, Dance and Drama) weekend organized by a Catholic church at St Charles Lwanga Catholic Parish in Jinja Kaloli (am not sure if this is the true name of the church),a kilometer from Bombo Road just before reaching Mattuga township.
I have a problem of attending events other than those which influence policies and promote rational thinking. . Those who observe my life styles had recently criticised me for that, they not only pointed on my poor attending of events,. they went ahead even to mention how stupid I may be for not supporting any sports activity, not even foot, worse still, not sporting the premier league of United Kingdom. The previous week, I received two graduation parties of which I turned down even though the organiser are students I have known for so long and do been reminding me of the parties almost every week for now two months. You see, am not an outdoor person, I keep my inner self for me, so please do not blame me... if you invite me and I turn disappoint you.
Again in the same week, I received an invitation for a younger lady to attend the Youth MDD competition organized by the Catholic, there were many Catholic churches participating. This lady wanted me to see how she dances, how she do her own thing, how she can drive masses. I turned the invitation down for no clear reason but this lady was not giving up for on me until the last hour. She even called me at night to confirm if I will be attending. I was asleep but had to awake up to confirm if I had any clean clothes to put on. All my trousers were dirty and I told her I will not be attending. She told me that I must wash the trouser at night in that, by morning it will be ready for the event. I agreed to do so but I didn’t wash the trouser. I went ahead with my sleep.
In the morning at 6am, she texted me if I will be attending and to her surprise I said NO, she almost fainted and I could hear her on phone, its her voice on phone that made me get out of my bed at 7am and washed my trouser, the shirts were clean, thanks to the great hot sunshine of Africa/Uganda. Within few hours, my trousers was okay, I ironed it and when 1PM arrived, I was ready with hope that the even will start at least at 2pm. I got my boarder-boarder cyclist to Jinja Kaloli.
Having cruised through the dusty and open clouds of dusty, I eventually arrived at Jinja Kaloli at around 1:45 minutes. I was luck to arrive simply in the last minute of getting the events start. I always hate that area where organizers of the event start late than the actual hour announced. I got sat myself in front of the audience and everything was okay. Trying myself to absorb the message from the songs and drama. The message was not that suitable for our generation. It was expired. The same old wine but in new bottles.
The whole drama was about how to stick to God, Jesus and the Virgin Mary, how they can only be the answer to the problems affecting Family and society. Almost every 15 minutes, the MC was begging the audience to donate money to the dramatists. So money becomes the dominant issue.
When the church leaders of the youth came to talk….. (sometimes am very careful using the word youth, the law in Uganda stipulates that a youth is a person of any gender aged from 18 to 30 years of age, but because of the unemployment and the failure of embracing secular and rational thinking within our society, you find a forty year old person, taking whatever resource that belongs to youth). Youth are failing in almost everything because, even the little resources to empower them, at any level of society is managed by aging old men who are not ashamed of calling themselves youth. Youths are frustrated, lost and no one they can talk too, simply because of the people who never prepared their adulthood and every time they need to be pampered like babies by either religions or State.
Well, visible aging men who simply referred to themselves as youth, came to present, they talked on the tittles they have been occupying and from which year they did start. And then turned on how they should help the youth to stay in the Catholic churched without being lured by Pentecostals of other religions.
No one talked about rape and child ritual murder, unemployment, the rampant marital murder, over-populations, HIV/AIDS and other STDs which the youth desire to listen too. They long to learn more on what’s the cause of the hopelessness and misery which they live in. One speaker simply failed to comment on all the issues that affect our communities, instead called on them to demonstrate against the President’s remarks on the Anti-Homosexuality bill 2009. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8456624.stm
The message in drama portrayed the church and it’s God as the only solutions to today’s rampant domestic violence where lives are lost. He told the masses how a given school which he failed to mention its name admitted 4 gays in school and placed each of them in a class, that by the end of the year the school had 720 gays, none one challenged him.
When the Rt. Reveland came to speak, he spent many hours reminding the devotees how important it is to memorise the Uganda Martyrs names and locations where they were killed, how great it feels for someone to pay a pilgrimage to all ancient Catholic sites in Uganda an and This is a good way to distract people's attention from important issues of the day.
In one segment, the dramatists were supposed to mime several songs from various artists,one group chose a song by Late Paul Kafeero’s “Brandina” in which the singer disowns his daughter who was about to get married, the singer presents his wife as a fornicator and I failed to pick the inner message which the church wanted to pass to the audience of 5 to 30 years. Then also another group chose a song by Kiwanuka popularly known as “Fina” in which the singer shows how guys can date school going girls, impregnate them, try to run away from responsibility and later after much emotional suffering of a girl, Kiwa returns and accepts the responsibility and elopes with a girl. This is another area where I questioned the church/organizers, they do not saw us how the boy or parents helps the younger girl stay or return to school!. Neither do they show us how the boy will manage life having created problems of creating babies yet he is still a child himself. They presented a message that women are incubators of Men’s semen. They presented a girl child as un-useful!
The song only shows the supremacy of the father who strokes the girl and chases her away from the home, without even talking to her, it shows mum as the person without responsibility to cansel her daughter during the times of which she needs her most. These are the problems young people are facing but what was the intention of the church to present this to the audience?
I spent few hours and I called it a day. I have as always said confirmed that the Religions have failed, State have failed let Ugandans and Africa simply try to embrace rationality and critical thinking, It holds up water and you can
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