Sabbatical

It seems like I have been away for ages (and truthfully I have). I embarked on a new adventure which saw me go to Ethiopia, Turkey, Austria, now I find myself in the former Soviet Union(Ukraine). I’ve been either to busy to or not motivated enough to blog these past couple of months( o.k more than a couple) because I was away from my beloed motherland(and still am for the forseable future). I’ll try to become the pace and post about my new adentures, but as for now, a few pictures are in order to start us off…..

Hint: I am the black sheep. Took this photo while in Ukraine on a picnic with friends. With that I say доброе утро, желаю вам хорошего дня! (russian for good morning and wish you a good day!)

The struggle within the Ugandan Anglican Church

The local province of the Anglican church, Church of Uganda, and Anglicanism in Uganda, despite all pretenses is not a homogeneous entity.(nothing new here) Although the church seems to have gradually shifted into an “evangelical” posture as the mainstream. A look at their official website says it all. I am uneasy about using the term evangelical exclusively as descriptive for one group of Christians, just to be clear, all Christian denominations(as are all religions) are evangelist in calling. There’s always an element of spreading the gospel in the name of new converts.

Given the terms evangelical and evangelist have been either co-opted by or ascribed to a particular group, I will, for lack of better terms, refer to them as evangelicals. And no, we don’t have the liberal kind over here, or at least I haven’t come across one yet. So by evangelical, I mean………….. to paint a picture, refer to the conservative American televangelist, so substitute the pastor for a priest, and the message/sermon not hell bent on getting you to empty all your pockets, now there you have it.

The church is dominated by two brands of conservatives. The evangelical and the traditional Anglican. I don’t know of any parishes/priest that are Anglo-Catholic  in Uganda.

The evangelicals have been on the ascendancy ever since the ascension of the current Arch Bishop, The Most Rev. Dr. Luke Orombi .  The Church of Uganda, facing the challenge of the mushrooming  prosperity gospel pastors and churches and their ever increasing congregations predominantly at the expense of it’s own, decided to co-opt the style, zeal and fervor of the competition……..so as to speak. But I am yet to see any results of the new direction, pentecostal/evangelist churches are mushrooming everyday and their congregations are growing as well.

The Most Rev. Dr. Luke Orombi, Arch Bishop, Church of Uganda

The arrival of Episcopal conference schismatics from the U.S also accelerated this metamorphosis. The influence of the Dr. Knolls(Vice Chancellor of Mukono University, Church of Uganda owned), and Ms. Barfoot(Archbishop Luke Orombi’s assistant for International Relations) can not be overstated. But one thing’s for sure, the church has become more assertive in social issues and legislation. There’re good initiatives, for example in health service with mission hospitals, orphanages etc just to be clear. However the Church of Uganda and it’s primate as a result of their stance initially on the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, their disapproval of consecration of gay clergy in  TEC, has managed to define themselves at least internationally as gay hating, gay bashing, intolerant etc.

The traditional Anglicans and bishops were rather caught up in a storm not of their making. But the writing was on the wall, at least for the Anti-Homosexuality Bill(AHB), when some bishops retired and in service were to pen their names on petition to withdraw the AHB, that set the stage for the abrupt turn around in the Church of Uganda’s stance on the AHB. The church prides itself on broadcasting an image of episcopal unanimity on all major issues, public dissent was undesirable as the authority of the Arch Bishop’s office would diminish.

Where does that leave the traditional Anglican? Quietly grumbling, hoping steadfastly that the next Arch Bishop will come from their ranks.

Is the devil real?

Christians have a wide array of opinion about the character of the devil, his(sorry guys, he just had to be a guy) modus operandii, and even his existence or lack of. Lesley asks a relevant and poignant question on her blog .

It got me thinking about the African perspective, on the devil. For the most part many Africans do believe that the devil exists, not only that, but that he is very active in their lives. And I don’t know about the whole fork and red tan, that image characterization didn’t come from these parts.

Just to give some perspective to African traditional beliefs and their interaction with faiths imported(and in some cases imposed )by foreign missionaries, Christian or Islamic, one has to delve into history.

The missionaries found societies that were very rich in culture and also very superstitious, and as a rule polytheistic. Into this setting they introduce a new set of beliefs. Either the missionaries made it an objective earlier on  to ensure easier and more converts, some tenets of African belief that correlated with the message they were preaching were encouraged while those that were in conflict were deemed satanic or demon inspired, or the Africans subconsciously integrated some of their beliefs to make sense of it all. Most African legends tell of stories of the heavens and the underworld. Of gods that give life, and gods that take life. Many legends are consistent in saying the founders of their respective tribes descended from heaven(the heavens). So there was a gradual meshing and integration of the new and the old with time.

For example, quite often an autistic child or epileptic is deemed to be under the influence of a demon, evil spirit, etc …………and in many instances, blame will be attributed to an enemy of the family bewitching them. Indeed many of these kids/individuals are hidden out of  sight, for example when visitors arrive to the homestead they are shuffled quickly into a bed room, not to embarrass the family.  And this belief is held by many irrespective of education, faith and social class.  In fact this is also at the heart of the matter in the current anti-homosexuality bill. Many Christians in Africa equate the gay dispensation to possession by the devil,demons or evil ghosts(spirits).  Everything culturally stigmatized in Africa = demon possession/influence. The African experience of life is shaped by this issue, for example, when construction began on my humble house, as soon as the foundation was completed, the builders demanded I buy a chicken. I asked what for? Not for a sumptuous feast to celebrate the landmark achievement of completing the foundation as I first thought, on buying the chicken, they  promptly cut it’s head off and sprinkled blood on the foundation. Apparently it’s a required practice to ward off bad luck and evil spirits, according to them if that is not done, accidents may happen during construction resulting in injury to the builders and/or damage to the house during and/or after completion of construction. Silly me,I thought I had contracted a one in a million superstitious bunch,  but on inquiry I found that even the skyscrapers in the capital all get a blood sprinkling too, this time from goats(bigger job, more blood!).

Many of those deemed to be possessed by the devil can be assured of extreme prejudice and in some cases violence. The individuals concerned are considered the devil personified, and seeing that Africans have a particularly rabid hate for the devil, the “possessed” persons can look forward to either being shunned or getting a beating on behalf of their possessor.  Which explains much of African hatred and antipathy to gays who as the missionaries were quick and clear to point out represented among the worst sins one could commit.

Africans are a very complicated and sometimes contradictory bunch, one who partakes of holy communion on Sunday, may be seen carrying a chicken with him as an offering to a witch doctor on Saturday.

Obviously this state of affairs has resulted in gross injustice to many a stigmatized individual and has made health care provision and public health information dissemination harder as a result.

Where does religion end and politics begin in Kenya?

Ugandans have always had an interest in what’s happening in neighbour states. Well that has come from a cumulative realisation that we are not an island, and what happens across the border affects us one way or another. You see, Uganda is a landlocked nation, and by far the largest proportion of our imports and exports transit through Mombasa port in Kenya and to a lesser extent Dar-es-salaam port in Tanzania.

Intertwined for better or worse

Any unrest in either bodes ill for the economy and wellbeing of Ugandans. For example, the recent post election ethnic violence in Kenya basically put Uganda under siege. No goods in, None out. Prices of commodities shot through the roof. I remember fuel prices tripled and that was if you could get your hands on any. The resolution of the strife in Kenya was met with relief in Uganda. The aptly named “elders”: Former UN secretary general -Kofi Anan, Former Tanzanian President-Benjamin Mkapa, Wife of Nelson Mandela-Graca Machel, managed to negotiate a compromise deal that ended the blood shed. That deal  demanded a formation of a government of national unity, an independent inquiry to determine those culpable for incitement to violence, a new constitution after consultations with all stakeholders including the public! The government of national unity is relatively stable despite wrangles here and there, the ICC chief prosecutor Ocampo seems to have began the preliminary stages of instituting an inquiry, what is left is the constitution. After exhaustive public consultations, haggling between the protagonist politicians, one was finally agreed to be put up for ratification. As far as the public was concerned they were more interested in the centre of power in the government,  all powerful executive president versus a  ceremonial role for the president and a powerful prime minister. As always unfortunately, where one stood generally correlated with ethnicity. Those from the PM Raila Odinga’s ethnicity wanted a strong PM, those from the President’s tribe want a strong president. But somehow they have come up with a compromise not only on this but whole range of issues.

Now after all that time and energy invested in the constitution, the major Christian churches come out now and then say they object to the new constitution. They do give many reasons but their major points of contention were “unsatisfactory” provisions in the draft on the Bill of Rights, kadhis’ courts and abortion.

They object to the part, which empowers doctors to end a pregnancy if it endangers the woman’s life or she needs emergency treatment. To them, that exception is an authority for anybody who wants to terminate a pregnancy to do so. By the way any law barring abortions in this subregion is redundant de facto as abortions are performed legally or otherwise anyway. In fact, it would be better to regularize them so that professional Obs & Gyns can offer the procedure, than the numerous quacks and con-artists currently doing it, and to the expense of the life of the mothers all too often. And many of those happen to be teens, teen pregnancies in East Africa generally and in Uganda particularly is at pandemic levels. One in three teenage girls gets pregnant in Uganda, and many by defilement. And many a time, they abort just to continue their studies. Pregnant girls are summarily dismissed from schools on discovery, and the school administrators are religious in carrying out urine tests for pregnancy. Apparently they prefer punitive deterrent than disseminating preventive sex education(now that would be immoral)

Unfortunately this proposed constitution is the only thing standing in the way to a return to the communal bloodshed that was witnessed post-election. The church has clearly calculated that the bloodshed is more acceptable. A sad state of affairs indeed, if one factors in that they had all the time to share their input. And indeed some of the retired clergy are for the bill, which adds to the intrigue. The church leaders should think about the flock first, otherwise if bloodshed follows after this, whose fault shall that be?

How does it help?

It just occurred to me, what the local province of the Anglican Church in Uganda and much of the global south or is it more correctly GAFCON by being openly hostile and unwilling to listen and talk to the LGBT community is an implication that they have abdicated their responsibility to reach out to all and spread the gospel, the good news, as demanded by the great commission.

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Mathew 28:18-20

Instead of evangelizing and baptizing new converts they propose to disenfrachise, incarcerate (and even kill the LGBT individuals in the case of Uganda). So it begs the question, how does this posture help in executing the great commission, Jesus the universal saviour, left us?

And there seems to be a perception that it’s the “conservative” Christians who are the victims. A message that has come up all too often. That somehow we Christians are entitled to special treatment in exclusivity. That may be because of the special and privileged status Christians held in many localities, so that the apparent awarding of this status to none-Christians may be perceived by some as a relative discrimination, or stripping of their rights. In Uganda for instance, the issue of LGBT rights is as much , if not more so, a sovereignty issue than one on doctrine……………standing up to the west, resisting “imposition” of their values.

We've managed even to delude ourselves that the LGBT orientation is a western import, further more that there exist an army of recruiters, whose sole mission is to convert/recruit as many heteros.

If we only concentrate on things that matter, and on those things, people will find to some surprise that there’s agreement.

because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Romans 10:9

What more can one add to that?

A story in a local daily today

It just won’t go away,will it?

Daily Monitor: Cultural leaders request legislators to pass gays Bill

Cultural leaders in the country have, for the first time, spoken out on the contentious Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009, urging the MPs to pass it in order to safeguard the country’s values and traditions.

Under their umbrella body, ‘Forum for Kings and Cultural Leaders in Uganda,’ the custodians of culture expressed anger with the way western countries have put the government on pressure to throw out the Bill.

They said the MPs must be left to make laws consistent with Uganda’s cultures and collective aspirations. They also asked the government to resist such ‘outside’ pressures and strive to protect the traditions of the country.

In a press statement issued yesterday, the leaders said: “We note with alarm how western governments and their agencies are aggressively pushing for the legitimisation of homosexuality which to us is not a human right, but a human vice.”

Some foreign governments criticised Uganda over the proposed law among them the US President Barrack Obama who called it ‘odious.’ Sweden too threatened to cut aid to Uganda.

And in a recent UK publication, British authorities were reported to be in a process of banning the initiator of the Bill, Ndorwa East MP David Bahati, from visiting the UK if the Bill became law.

But in the statement signed by the Omukama Rukirabasaija Solomon Gafabusa of Bunyoro, the kings say homosexuality breaks the laws of nature, faith, the Constitution and the laws of culture and traditions.

“We call on the government to stand strong in the face of external forces of homosexual aggression and faith leaders should preach against it as musicians use their talents to protect children from the vice.”

The kings’ move, which comes amid debate on whether the government should own or disown the private member’s Bill, currently before the parliamentary Legal Affairs Committee, will give Mr Bahati more morale for his fight against homosexuality.

Mr Bahati, in a phone interview yesterday, welcomed efforts of the traditional

leaders, saying “because at the end of the day, homosexuality is a danger to the culture that they are charged with protecting.”

The Bill proposes punitive action against same sex marriages and life imprisonment for homosexuals.

Just a thought…………..

While Arizona is passing controversial immigration laws to keep illegal immigrants out(read “Mexicans”) the bigger problem is the slackers at home. If Americans(especially the poorer average African American) were willing to do the back breaking and manual labour jobs the immigrants are providing, they would be no immigration. The Mexicans and the Hispanics in general will pick fruit and work on farms in the searing heat for hours for meagre pay. And on that meagre wage still find spare change to send back home to their families accounting for huge capital inflows to their home nations. Businesses can’t help but prefer to hire them than the average American Joe the plumber, some would say it’s an exercise in exploitation. It’s ironic that G.W. was the president who was most sympathetic to overhauling immigration and granting immigrants especially the Hispanics more rights, but then again, not so ironic, businesses would have benefited from the cheap labour, despite for lack of a better term, the“reservations” of the old style conservatives who are generally anti-immigration, some would even say racist. McCain was also for immigration reform, but that was ages ago when he didn’t have to compete for the increasingly conservative republican base of the tea baggers for re-election. While the average African American despite having far more federal funds directed at him than the average white American is happy to stand at the corner, and keep it real in the hood,buying bling and metal dental protheses(“grills”), gang banging and selling drugs, while the females are impressed by men with purple shoes, fur coats, diamond encrusted chalices unashamedly called pimps(as they would say P,I,M,P’s) than finding a real job like the rest of his countrymen and content to be on welfare too, the Mexicans will work the till at a supermarket, clean toilets, harvest and tend to farms, for a few pesos to send back home……..oh and religiously attend church while at it. It’s no suprise that Cardinal Mahoney and company of the Catholic church are the biggest critics of the Arizona immigration law, faith may be part of the reason, but a closer look at the demographics of the American catholic church reveals the church knows which side of their toast is buttered. The Hispanics now make a significant proportion of catholics in the US, and are the most religious at attending church and by extension contributing to church coffers while attendances of other Americans are on a precipitous decline. It’s even began to reflect on the church hierachy, where more and more clergy are drawn from the Hispanics or American priests have had to learn Hispanic languages to minister to the increasingly Hispanic congregations. Even Cardinal Mahoney will be succeeded by a hispanic, Arch Bishop Jose Gomez of Opus Dei in his arch diocese of Los Angeles, with a shift to conservatism on the cards.
I confess I really have no sympathy with the perennial and apparently inherent argument by African-Americans that they face institutional bottlenecks and road blocks to their path to economic emancipation even today, I think that any bottlenecks are self inflicted by themselves. While the Reverends Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are quick to organise marches now and then to highlight alleged injustices against African Americans, I never hear them offering criticism to their fellow black Americans about the shackles and chains that they themselves have tied to themselves. Case in point, there was a hate crime some years ago where a black college student murdered a Caucasian suspected of hanging a noose on a tree on the college campus. Sharpton whipped up a storm when the boy was charged with murder, while ignoring the fact that the Caucasians were arrested for hate crimes. He apparently found it racist that the police would arrest the black student for murder like everyone else. It’s that bigotry that defines African Americans of today, even MLK junior would cringe at the status quo of the black civil rights movement. No one is more hypersensitive to anything remortely racist than the average African American, but as anyone who watches black entertainment knows, ironically it’s the blacks who objectify women, are rabidly homophobic, regularly racially diss whites, chinese etc……..things which no white American would get away with. A white man would never get away with most of the rap lyrics, blacks are “entitled” to. They refer to themselves as NIGGERS and BITCHES too. (excuse my French ,their French)
Which leads me to the question, do you or anyone else know of any majority black country or black community that has got it together? Even the South Africans, who inherited the economy from their white overlords by the way, are beginning to mess it up. Going by the ANC youth league leaders comments, another Zimbabwe is on the offing! Everywhere from Congo to Haiti to Harlem, blacks are in a mess. All countries were colonised but how comes it’s we blacks who are perenially blaming our problems on colonial overlords. How can a country like Uganda which at independence was better off than Malaysia and Singapore look at ourselves and blame colonialism for our current situation, without shame? How can Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe which was the bread basket of the Southern African region at independence blame the UK for it’s quagmire?
And no…………………I am not a black white supremacist!