By Monday Akol Amazima
To Christians the festive season is the time to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and to others, it is time for some long holiday away from work that ushers in the end of year. To many it is a time to take stock of what has or not been achieved by an individual or organisation as we look forward to the New Year. There is a common joke in Tanzania that the Wachaga of Mt Kilimanjaro region will always go home for a census around this time. It is time to showcase what has been achieved in a year as those working far from home trek to the villages to parade their latest achievements. This season always makes Moshi their main town a beehive of activities and because of this, the wachaga are hardworking and enterprising people.
Christmas comes once but a year and the festive season comes with a cocktail of activities. The pressure to prove you are living well and working is always high as women and children look forward to new attires and groceries. Relatives in the village equally look up to their kin in urban centres for a gift or two. However, the festive season also comes with a lot of crime and uncalled for behaviour that undermines humanity. And this brings us to the concept of Ubuntu
Nile Dialogue Platform (NDP) a Muyenga based organisation has always held weekly discussion on Ubuntu with the purpose of reshaping the materialistic mind-set to one that acknowledges empathy. According to the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, humanity which is referred to as Ubuntu in most Bantu languages of southern, central and eastern Africa is all about relationships and how we live for one another. The late Fettulah Gulen a Turkish scholar and humanitarian crowns it all by saying humanity which the bantu speakers of Africa call Ubuntu is having a seat in your heart for the other. This is not different from the golden rule and one of the teachings of Jesus Christ whose birthday is being celebrated that love your neighbour as you love yourself.
To those travelling, fares to rural areas from Kampala have more than doubled and those in the field of transport are not only overloading but trying to make as many routes as possible to maximise profits. This is being done at the expense of the lives of passengers. Some people think this is the season they should achieve what they did not achieve in the last 11 months. Where is our Ubuntu as Ugandans? The late Magufuli of TZ during his time as president of his country had banned transport operators from hiking fares during the festive season or the time students are going and coming from school.
The desire for quick gains and treasures is making our society a jungle with only the strong and canning to survive at the expense of known society values and norms. The shop attendants are calling it a season by hiking prices for goods and this leaves the ordinary person looking at the festive season more of a curse than a blessing
If we all embraced Ubuntu, the police force through their tembea pole and fika salam operations would have less work and there would be at least something reasonable every one. We live in a time where two families living together suffer from stomach pain with the defence being the cause – one suffering due to over eating and the other due to going on empty stomach. Why suffer from constipation when your neighbour is busy developing ulcers? Therefore can we use this season to rejuvenate Ubuntu by caring for the sick, helping the needy and supporting the common good?
The author is a teacher, journalist and Pan African
