Mending fences is a good thing on a smaller scale or
large country wide basis.] Suntou.
I agree with you wholeheartedly Suntou but maybe you
don't understand what I was saying. Let me do it this way:
The sons of Amin and Nyerere, what type of mending
fences do they do that warrants a friggin BBC international coverage????
You tell me. The two have not done anything to each other as far as I can
tell and they were too young to have partaken in the affect of their
fathers' decisions. It is however OK for them to reflect on those actions
by calling each other on the phone or visiting with each other if their
particular families still harbour any significant animus toward each
other. I and the rest of Uganda and Tanzania are not interested in that
when the decisions led to the murder, maiming, and pillaging of whole
peoples (outside of their immediate families). I would have thought that
there current dispositions and acumen would have made them more sober in
"Mending Fences". So yes Suntou, I agree, mending fences is good, but
please don't embark on a journey to mend cockamayme fences.
[Who would be the peace maker post-Jammeh?]
Suntou.
Making what peace post Jammeh?? What is un-peaceful
about Sous-Jammeh that needs mending Post-Jammeh?? This is the problem
with Africans. They so convolute their problems to make an excuse for
not having the desire to solve them. So the problems fester and
mutate under cover of "mending friggin "phantom fences". You are
not acting as current deterrent for Yahya's prolific criminality. I ain't
worried about Post-Jammeh just yet. I am more worried about giving Yahya
good advice to train on sobriety and circumspect NOW.
[t may take individuals first forgiving each other and a
national reconcialition task force headed by Mathew K Jallow and Hon.
r
Mai Fatty.] Suntou.
Forgiving each other and reconciliation ought to take
place every minute of every hour of every day in a nation's (peoples')
life. You don't need to set up a task force for that after you let the
animus build and fester in cowardice. Uncle Mathew and Hon. Fatty have
more important considerations to attend to. If you are talking about a
task force to prosecute garden variety crimes and other ethnic bias, you
have the Judiciary for that, a task force already set up and
"functioning". Why hold the nation up for idiocy simplex?
[Remember Masoud, quiet a lot Darboe folks and the
occassional jallow kund enjoy bororo.] Suntou.
I think you mean boro-boro or Njarr Lambai. I know quite
many Tourays, Samatehs, Mboges, Johs, Jattas, Sanyangs, Sannehs, Jaitehs,
Jobes, Njies, Ndires, and Trawallays who enjoy an equal volume of the
concoction too you know. So why chide the Jammehs, Jallows, Bandehs, and
those Darbos??? See what I mean about you focusing on the wrong things for
the wrong reasons??
[What's up with Tiger any way.]
Suntou.
Tiger is wonderful and coming back to form
fantastically. Allah had weightier considerations for the Masters than
Tiger's winning it this time. Argentina was hurting for a desert of
unifying forces. You do see that Tiger is always in Allah's plans. If he
didn't serve as catalyst to slow Lefty down, Cabrera and Argentina would
have been engaged in tortured internal strife. I wonder if you see it that
way?? In my opinion, Tiger's honour and excellence is no longer to be
determined by how many more Masters he wins, but how many more winners he
enables. Get it? Good!
[Suntou, your real uncle.] Suntou.
I'm still doing my inbestigations on this. I will put
Evian in charge of it as I inbestigate his friggin self. Haruna. Could it
be that I AM YOUR UNCLE instead of the other way around and you are just
engaged in a PSYOPS? You might be interested to find out too. So you don't
go through life in an endless haze of mirages!!!! Ndasimma Anke Tooriya??
MQJGDT. Darbo. Like I told you, after your exams, I want you to write at
least 2 childrens' books. Taling Taling!! Suloo ning sannemu.
From:
[log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]> Subject: Re: Jaffer
Amin and Madaraka Nyerere reflect on their fathers. Courtesy BBC
N... To: [log in to unmask] Date: Monday, 13 April, 2009,
4:17 PM
Uncle,
You got the wrong friggin idea about the great Darbo Kunda. One of
these days, it'll hit you between the eyes. What is bororo and Katoo? I
want you to know if it cannot grow in our gardens, we Darbo's don't eat
or drink it. Are you sure you're my uncle? I want proof. And right
now.
I understand you're busy with exams and circumstance. You still
find time to mess about with the Darbos. You better ax Jammeh Kunda and
Bandeh Kunda about Bororo and whatever.
On the sons Amin/Nyerere summit, I have no opinion on it one way or
the other. In fact it has very little significance. There are more
Ugandans and Tanzanians who were affected by their fathers' decisions,
and they were too young to have materially affected events. If
their meeting soothes over acrimony between their two particular
families, why well and good. The important thing is for the two of them
to recognize the untold general suffering Idi Amin's cluelessness
brought on the larger public and to train themselves and their young
families toward sobriety. If I were Jaffer, I would be considering
a foundation to positively enhance the lives of as many folk as
possible such as an orphaned childrens' home or a home for the
disabled. And you go away. I don't believe in feel good cockamayme
summits for singular individuals or families when there are weightier
considerations to attend to. Don't humbug me. Darbo. MQJGDT. Al Mu'Umin.
Good luck in your exams "uncle".
In a message dated 4/13/2009 7:34:14 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
Thanks Masoud for this piece. Very interesting and mature.
This is what we ought be doing, sit, enjoy tea and talk. not
bororo or katoo (a favourite Darbo kunda drink) by the
way.
From:
[log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]> Subject:
Jaffer Amin and Madaraka Nyerere reflect on their fathers.
Courtesy BBC News. To: [log in to unmask] Date:
Monday, 13 April, 2009, 3:40 AM
Head to head: Toppling Idi Amin |
The sons of Uganda's former dictator Idi Amin
and Tanzania's ex-President Julius Nyerere have met for
the first time, three decades after the two countries
fought a war.
The BBC's Swahili Service brought the two together
to reflect on the five-month conflict, which left half a
million people dead and culminated with Tanzania troops
ousting Amin from Kampala on 10 April 1979.
JAFFAR AMIN
The two families - President Mwalimu Julius Nyerere
and President Idi Amin - ought to have met because they
were the two protagonists.
Jaffar Amin says it is important to
reconcile historical animosities
|
So, after carefully considering BBC's request, I
agreed to travel more than 1,000km to Tanzania to meet
Madaraka Nyerere in Butiama [his home town in northern
Tanzania].
Both of us were young when the war broke out.
Madaraka was 16 and I was only 12.
Madaraka Nyerere comes from a family of somebody
who's revered as a father of the nation and a great
symbol of African socialism.
Idi Amin represents African proactive nationalism
and sought to instil a sense confidence within the
common people.
But today I find my immediate family in an
undefined state that feels like we are deliberately
being ostracised at a political level.
There are those who condemned my father as a tyrant
who killed or ordered the killing of those he perceived
to be opposed to his rule.
Yet there are those who knew Idi Amin Dada as a man
who loved his country, family and culture as an African.
|
The purpose of his [Idi
Amin's] leadership was to make Africans proud of
themselves
| My
father is somebody who came from a poor background and
always reminded us of his poor origins.
He had a stint in the 1940s as a share cropper in
the Mehta sugar plantations in Lugazi, Buganda District,
but rose through the military to become a leader of a
country.
Some dismissed him as a stooge of the colonialists.
Suddenly this "stooge" became very independent,
populist and very nationalistic.
He propagated African pride for Africans and went
ahead to implement the common man's charter, which was
prepared by his predecessor.
Bizarre homage
The purpose of his leadership was to make Africans
proud of themselves.
It's self-evident that as Ugandans, we exude a
level of self-confidence you rarely find anywhere else
on the continent.
Idi Amin died in exile in Saudi
Arabia in 2003, but still casts a long
shadow |
His downfall can be traced to some of the
controversial decisions he made during his seven-year
rule.
For example, when he expelled Asians from the
country, international opinion ran against him.
However, he claims he compensated them to the tune
of $1bn through the assistance of the OIC [Organisation
of the Islamic Conference] countries during the Opec
heydays.
Also, when fellow Muslims convinced him to move
away from the loyal relationship he enjoyed with Israel,
he soon found the tide going against him.
There are those who will find it bizarre that I can
decide to pay homage to a man who kicked my own father
out of power and sent us into exile.
Wrong side of history
But considering the great efforts towards
patriotism and a united identity that Tanzania enjoys I
would wish for this virtue to become an example to
Ugandans.
The rusting hulks of tanks from the
war still litter Uganda's
countryside |
I also take a leaf out of [US] President [Barack]
Obama's message to the Muslim world to unclench our
fists when offered an extended hand.
But there is a common ground between Mwalimu
[Julius] Nyerere's son and myself to reconcile
historical animosities that have lingered for a long
time.
It's been 30 years during which no-one from both
families ever dreamed of meeting.
Madaraka and I are taking that tough yet historical
step. We do not want to be on the wrong side of
history.
MADARAKA NYERERE
When the Kagera war - Tanzania versus Uganda
conflict - began I was a student in Shinyanga.
|
I remember how we tuned in
to the radio to hear my father declaring war on
Uganda, his voice was rich with anger
| Shinyanga,
in north-western Tanzania, is the main route from the
commercial capital, Dar es Salaam to Kagera - scene of
the war.
I used to see a lot of military equipment and
soldiers passing through, soldiers going towards Kagera.
My father had been at loggerheads with Idi Amin for
nearly seven years before their differences boiled down
into war.
By then, the Tanzanian public had been fully
sensitised about why their countrymen were being sent to
war.
I sometimes wondered whether our troops would
emerge victorious dislodging Idi Amin who had presented
himself as a very tough man.
Incidentally I met the Ugandan leader in very
bizarre circumstances.
Back in 1972 just after he had taken over power
through a military coup, he landed unannounced in the
Tanzanian lakeside town of Mwanza.
He went straight to the state lodge where my father
was meeting Zambia's former President Kenneth Kaunda.
Tanzania's army counter-attacked
after Ugandan troops
invaded |
I'd been given a room at the state lodge in Mwanza.
I had gone out in the morning and while away, Idi Amin
was given the same room without my knowledge.
When I returned, I walked straight to my room,
opened the door and who do I see? It was Idi Amin.
He seemed busy working on something, which I
couldn't quickly discern.
So I greeted him in Kiswahili: "Shikamoo" (greeting
for elders), and he responded: "Marahaba" (I am
fine).
There was no more conversation. I left the room and
that's the only time I ever came into close contact with
him. Luckily he stayed in the room for only a few hours
and left for Uganda.
I never found out what my dad made of Idi Amin's
sudden appearance at the meeting. Typical of dad, he
never spoke about and it never seemed to bother him.
Come 1979, around lunch time, together with college
mates, we tuned in to the radio to hear my father
declaring war on Uganda.
Most people who listened to that speech recall that
they had never seen Mwalimu Nyerere so angry.
His tone of voice was rich with anger as he
explained in a live broadcast reasons and the
preparedness of attacking Uganda.
Peace-loving man
Amin's troops had launched several air raids on
Tanzania, invaded it and occupied the north-western
region of Kagera.
I had never heard or seen my father so angry
because he wasn't this type of person who brought home
his daily stresses as the president.
Julius Nyerere is still revered in
much of Africa | He
made sure there was a clear and strict demarcation of
his roles as president and head of the family. He never
brought his work at home.
That seemed to dictate how we related with him, we
would hardly ask him anything to do with work.
Even at dinner time, he would talk about anything
else but not his work.
He kept his family insulated from work-related
issues.
When the war broke out two of my brothers, Andrew
and John, were in the air force.
And even after the war ended, my other brother
Makongoro couldn't resist the allure of joining the
army. He spent nearly two years in Uganda doing military
work.
When the BBC asked me whether I could meet Jaffar
Amin, all sorts of things rushed through my mind.
It took time to agree.
What convinced me is that both of our fathers are
now dead.
Also, my father was a peace-loving man.
Even after the war, he would have agreed to meet
Idi Amin and even invited him to his home Butiama.
Whatever bitterness there was in the past, all we
can do now is to learn the lessons and open a new
chapter for the future.
| | |