Uganda has five National Holidays; Liberation (NRM) Day, Janani Luwum Day, Martyrs’ Day, Heroes’ Day, and Independence Day. The rest are international and others religious days. Just like the Jewish Feasts seen in the Bible, these National Holidays represent our history and journey as a fairly young nation. The bloodshed, the sacrifices, individuals, tribes and groups, the turning points, and hope. The good, and the bad, and so much more. But of what significance is the commemoration of any of these days to our nation today, and to our future? What do you normally do with such days when the economy, education, and others stop for a whole day? As February ends, many of us will soon forget the NSSF and Iron Sheets sagas, or Ssegirinya and Ssewanyana … even the concert that went to war with rain. Personally, I can’t help but vividly remember a simple, but yet very important conversation with a boda-boda guy over the recently commemorated Janani Luwum Day on Thursday 16th February 2023.

Instead of driving kids to school as I would have done on any Thursday morning, even though their school actually worked, I used the day to have worthwhile drive to the farm with my friends. But because to me this is not just an ordinary day, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I looked forward to watching the Evening News and catching the highlights of the Day’s Commemorations in Mucwiinyi, Kitgum. Similar, and corroborative updates came in from the Church of Uganda Communications desk.

Normally, I have taken it upon myself to pen a Tribute, such as one for the February 2021 Commemoration, titled; “Dying Twice – Janani Luwum’s neck under Amin and Museveni’s Barrel!” The Late Abp. Janani Luwum is a personal Hero of the Faith. A huge part of me identifies with him, and I’m very certain that if I was even a Lay-reader in his day (perhaps the lowest rank amongst the Anglican Church Holy Orders), I would have had the same convictions and potentially been as vocal. Similarly, I also identify with John the Baptist in the Bible. Not because he too was murdered for Speaking truth to Authority of his day, but because he was willing to do it no matter the price it meant. This time round I had struggled to have the motivation to write such an article. However, the day continued to be on my mind because of its significance and importance. I long to see it commemorated differently and more meaningfully.

I wonder, did your boda-boda guy, or your rolex guy, or your market lady, celebrate the Public Holiday? Did they even know about it? What did they think of it, or do with it? Kampala traffic on Friday 17th February 2023 wasn’t as bad as it normally is on Fridays. So, my boda guy and I wondered why. I told him maybe because the previous day had been a Public Holiday, and some people weren’t returning to office till Monday the following week. He asked in shock, “Kyogaamba eggulo yabadde Pabuliki Holidde?! Yabadde yaki atte! Twakava mu ya NRM, eya Majje … Kati eyo yaki? Nze Nakoze. Era ekubo lyabadde bizze nga kati. Okujako mmanyi nti kulwokubiri nga kumi na nya yali Valentayini. Naye eyo teba Pabuliki Holidde. Eyo jogamba yabadde yaki?” Loosely translated, “You mean yesterday was a Public Holiday?! What for? We just finished the NRM day and the Army Day (Tarehe Sita) … What then, was this for? For me I worked yesterday, and the roads were busy like today. But I know that Tuesday 14th was Valentine’s, which isn’t Public Holiday! So, what was the one that you are talking about for?

I told him it was the Late Abp. Janani Luwum Day. He asked me, “Oyo y’ani?” (Who is
that?). I went on to explain that he was an Archbishop of the Church of Uganda and is believed
to have been murdered in Idi Amin’s regime, either on Amin’s orders or by Amin himself on 16th
February 1977, for rebuking him about the extrajudicial killings and disappearances of wanaci
that were rampant in his day. All he was asking for was the Head of State to do something about
it. Instead, he was labelled a traitor, siding with those against the regime. The rest is history.
Forty-six years later we have a Public Holiday to remember and celebrate him, and we have done
so since 2015.

My Boda guy has more Questions; “Kati ebyo bwemubijukira, nemutabako kyemukolawo
ku mbeera eliwo mu ggwanga, bituyamba kki ddala? Yye emikolo gyabadde wa, nga sagilabye?
Ffe aba boda ebyo tetwabitegedeko!” Again, literally, “So, if you celebrate and remember those
things, but do nothing about the situation of injustices in the country, how does that help us? By
the way, where were the celebrations, I did not see them. For us as boda-boda people we didn’t
even know anything about it.”

Now of course, he is not a self-appointed spokesperson for the boda-boda fraternity, and
surely there should be some other boda guys who knew about the day, but this one represents a
good majority in his sentiments. I didn’t have satisfying answers, but I told him that the
Celebrations were held in Mucwiinyi Kitgum, Northern Uganda, which was his homeland. And
there are plans by the state and church to build a Memorial Site in the place where Abp. Janan
Luwum was buried. It most likely will become a Pilgrimage site. “Eiieeii kale wulira
okwonoona ensiimbi y’omuwi w’omusolo!” Responded my boda guy, “Ezo bazikozese okusasula
abalamuzi, basobole okwanguya emisango gya banaYuganda abangi abali mu makomera
abatalina musango, naye nga tebawozesebwa!” Literally lamenting, “Why waste taxpayers’
money. At least let them use that money to pay Judicial officers to handle the pending cases of
many Ugandans in prisons but won’t access Justices because their trials/cases are delayed!”

Right there, it dawned on me that a boda guy who missed the Public Holiday because of
ignorance about it, had in one short conversation grasped the essence of remembering and
celebrating a man like Janani Luwum. It shouldn’t be in building monuments and memorials, but
in building and strengthening justice systems that enhance fair and timely access to justice for
anyone in our society. He might be biased because he knows friends, family, or even colleagues
who are victims of delayed justice and corruption in our systems, but he thinks we could make
better use of the Janani Luwum Platform – the Day and related funds.

But how come the Church and State don’t think like this Boda-boda man? Maybe they
don’t have friends, family, or colleagues affected by the inefficiency of the justice system. Or, as
represented on NBS TV by regime Spokespersons, they don’t deem the situation in the country
as bad as was in Amin’s time, and hence no need for alarm. What if they actually prefer things
this way? Because if they did think like this boda man, they would not be stooping low to his socio-economic status, but rather risking becoming more Ugandan and human. They will be risking facing our North, that guiding National Principle – “For God and my Country.” Right now, they are probably facing West, South and some Central … some possibly East of it.

The Luwum Memorial Site Project, Wealth Creation, and Homosexuality dominated the day. It’s more socially appropriate and politically charged to talk about that than anything else. Church and state patting each other on the backs for taking a firm stand. They say they have had boardroom meetings to discuss what needs to be done about the justice situation in the country. If privacy is their approach, why don’t they have similar boardroom meeting to discuss what to do about Homosexuality! They say they want the Government to bring back Anti Homosexuality Bill that was once signed into Law but was later challenged and trashed. How come they can’t publicly ask the same Government to revisit the Public Order Management Bill that was signed into Law, and now used to abuse the rights of the wananci, especially those who oppose the regime. They can’t freely mobilize or gather but are expected to participate. Morality can’t be a public/national discussion while Justice is rendered private and peripheral.

Talk on the vice of Homosexuality and LGBTQIA+ Agenda is good and important, but it is seemingly becoming more Political and weaponized. It cannot substitute the urgently needed conversation on Justice and injustices in this country. And I must at this point categorically clarify, that I am not in any way sympathetic to the vice. However, the timing of this hyped talk, in my humble opinion, says a lot about how far the church, especially the Church of Uganda has availed itself to be used as tool for what some call “the deep state.” This is not the only moral issue eating up our society that the church ought to be loudly and consistently vocal and firm about. But at the time when African leaders, especially the senior ones, are sounding the drums of Pan-Africanism louder, they need an ally whose drum-sound goes to the whole nation – the Church. But that comes with a price. The state has to pay for it. In fact, the state has already done a bit of its part in the past 3-4 years, including, and especially intervening in the now infamous Church House Debt Saga with Equity Bank. When was the last time you heard about the “Love Gift”? But didn’t you hear about land purchases and compensations between church and state that involved Billions of Taxpayers’ money being allocated without due process! Except, of course, because of calls from above – both from church and state.

Does it then surprise you that on the day when we claim to remember and celebrate a man who risked and indeed lost his life sounding the drum against injustices and for access to justice for the wananci (Ordinary people, Citizens, like my Boda-boda guy) that we instead evade that whole conversation. But rather spend time patting each other’s back for the job well done in standing up to the Europeans, the Neo-Colonialists of the West, who by the way, still have to contribute significantly to the deficits in our National Budget! Shouldn’t such a day be venerated as given to social-political accountability, access to justice and human rights; and renewal of stakeholders and duty-bearers’ commitment to enhance access and preservation of the same for the many voiceless wananci? Why then, is this made peripheral, only to have a day without any contemporary truth-telling, but continued condemnation of past regimes. What makes us so comfortable with such hypocrisy? I remember a Bishop from Gahini, Rwanda, sharing at a Pastors’ gathering in Kampala some years ago, that one Good Friday while preparing a Sermon on the “Power of the Cross of Jesus to Bring all Sinners Home to God”, the Holy Spirit couldn’t allow him to give that message without applying it to the 5 clergy he had dismissed over sexual and financial compromise. He listened and heeded the voice of Revival. What voice(s) do our leaders listen and heed to?

While Janan Luwum didn’t speak truth to authority so that we may remember him and build memorials to him, we do well to remember and celebrate him. That’s what we ought to do. But how much justice will a Memorial Site in Mucwiinyi deliver in this wounded and continually bleeding nation? Jesus instructed His disciples while instituting what has come to be known as “The Lord’s or Last Supper”, “The Eucharist”, or “Holy Communion”, strictly charging them to eat and drink, and do it as often, in remembrance of Him. Why would they have to remember Him? Paul says in 1 Cor. 11:26 that “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.” Who was Jesus to them? And what did his death represent? That is what they needed to be clear about and remember. They would then have to live the rest of their lives reflecting the very pattern that Jesus demonstrated and proclaiming Him till He returns. Even if it meant dying doing so. Janani Luwum died daring to be Christlike in standing up, to be a voice for rights and dignity of ordinary wananci. Christians, therefore, do not have the luxury to just “do it” ⎯ the Eucharist, as a ritual or memorial, but for what it truly represents. Their salvation and life eternal by Christ.

Honestly speaking, Janani Luwum’s death, and in particular being murdered by Idi Amin (the dictator), is not sufficient for us to have National Holiday. There must tangible reason why our nation, our socio-economic lives pause for a whole day. Why did church and state deem this particular death/murder as one to be gazetted and remembered by our nation for all generations onwards? Revisiting the answers to these questions might help in guiding future commemorations, and even participation for ignorant wananci like my boda-boda guy. I tend to think that the Luwums, Mandelas, Martin Luther Kings … of humanity are generational gifts from God to their respective nations, who willingly, risk their own lives and jeopardize that of their loved ones in the pursuit to challenge the status quo. To them, life is not worth it, it is not Shalom, if the wananci, created in God’s image, have their fundamental rights and dignity trampled upon, and justice is dangled at them as a commodity or favor from the state.

Is there a National Holiday in Uganda that we commemorate with its real honor, essence and significance? Martyrs’ Day; Heroes’ Day; Liberation (NRM) Day; Independence Day? Perhaps lessons can be picked from those. Public Holidays are economically expensive, they ought to be used to add tangible value to our nation that no amount money can give us. Maybe then, the sacrifices involved, past, present, and future, will have paid off. What then would it mean, and take, to remember and celebrate the Late Archbishop Janani Luwum with real honor and significance? Is the Memorial Site the most urgent of the things that we can do? How about emulating him? Or continually using this day and period to hold each other accountable in regard to justice and human rights; or sensitizing the public about what such rare legacies represent ⎯ picking up Janani’s drum, dusting it, and sounding it even louder? What makes us think that somehow, someone else will do it? Well, if the Church Leaders can’t, or like some Politicians don’t think that there is reason enough for it today, I know a boda-boda man who thinks there is sufficient reason, and he likely knows how to sound a drum. O how I dream of that Janani Luwum Day Commemoration led by the wananci, our boda-boda friends.
*For God and My Country*