Hide your thumbs, part II: Antidote for a violent funeral

A few nights ago, I went to my first Ugandan party, which was the perfect antidote for a violent and chaotic funeral the previous day. Voices were hushed. No one drank to excess. Most people spent the party, talking quietly, drinking a beer, having a food. Many watched DVDs on television.

I was invited to sit next to the brother-in-law of the host. It did not occur to me until I sat next to him that he and most everyone else at the party were Loa, Acholi speakers from the north. (People from the north and south usually look quite different.) I greeting him in Luganda, and he answered back, then told me he was Loa, with great emphasis on the word.

I told him that I planned to go to Gulu soon, and we began to discuss the civil war. He repeatedly said that, "There is no Kony." I asked him what he meant. Clearly the rebel leader was waging a civil war in the north. I told him that many of our children had been abducted by Kony's men. Some had been shot, burned, forced to kill, and raped.

"Yes," he said. "This is true. It is very dangerous. Many children get abducted. When I go back to my village outside Gulu, I always use a military escort. But, Kony doesn't matter. It's not him whose doing this. It's Museveni."

Again, I didn't understand. "Isn't Museveni, fighting Kony and his Lord's Reistance Army?"

He insisted that Museveni wanted the war. He told me that when Bush had met with Museveni, he offered to have American troops kill Kony. And, Museveni insisted that Museveni's men do it. He insisted that as soon as Museveni disappeared, so too would Kony.

Although I didn't share his optimism about Kony, I was struck by how vehemently he and everyone I have met here oppose Museveni.

To be fair, Museveni, rising to power after the overthrow of Idi Amin, has been a vast improvement over Uganda's previous leadership. And while, Uganda has very serious economic and socio-political problems that Museveni has failed to counter, anyone else is a wild card. And, Besigye, who rose to power as Museveni's personal doctor, would unlikely offer real unity to Uganda.

But there is one thing almost all Ugandans seem to agree on: Museveni will win an unfair election after which, tension and civil war will again flare. Whether or not Besigye could offer better solutions to Uganda's problems will unlikely ever be known, but after twenty years of Museveni's leadership, all Ugandans I have discussed politics with are willing to gamble on any kind of change.