ACTIVISM and True ACTIVISTS

Of late l have been thinking activism and the role we all play to advance what we greatly believe in, to nurture a community of intelligence and astound disagreements. To proclaim and attach a nobility to a cause that many afar have fought and won.  In my mind it was never going to be easy, it was to require courage and sacrifice, a will to loose some to gain all. What comes to our mind in the real world of activism. Who is an activist and whats their role in the fight? It draws me way back, during the feminism movement. This was a movement that was spearheaded by women of class, status and professionals.The likes of Prof. Tamale and Salome Kimbugwe. It was not a fight for the faint hearted and right from the onset it was one that many irrespective of their status and gender, jumped on board, men of masculinity and affluence. Look at Prof. Oloka Onyango, Men like Kabumba Busingye. It was a bandwagon that if you had a sober mind, you knew you didn't want to be caught on the opponents lane, because it was a battle you were never going to win. This was a group of professionals with a well worked out agenda. The time was ripe and the place was then. They talked, they screamed, they mobilized and sensitized, they fought; so many things happened; bonds were created, some were broken, marriages were attacked and some did not survive but the cause was a noble one and people knew it was a matter of time. When you look now, it was a good fight and l can easily say its one that has gone along way and created a new breed of today's woman and man. It is a class that many men of courage have jumped on board and l can proudly say that l am a feminist. You don't need to be female to advocate for the good cause. It has strengthened today's woman. but also has created better men.

 Years down the road a new battle line was drawn. the fight for commercial sex work. this was also a war that was spearheaded by feminists. Many said that they had lost the plot. Then l didn't understand until in my course of study, l realized that Human Rights encompass all. you can not choose what rights to protect and which to shun. A woman's body is her business as is a man's and she can do whatever she likes with it. No one  should decide how she manages it or how she treats it. if she is paid for it, that's her business. Well with time many of us jumped on board, society through in the tag of morality to go against it. Hell was broken loose, saying a woman  should not sell her body and act that all is ok.This was unacceptable, some have embraced it but pure traditionalists will have non of it.

 Then, l said the problem is not that their are engaged in prostitution, the problem was that they were telling everyone about it. You see in Africa sex was sacred. you were never supposed to share it in public, neither were you ever to talk about what you do , how it feels and the way you like it. A man was never supposed to be approached by a woman with sexual advances, whenever this happened this implied that the lady was a loose one. it was always the man to initiate sex and the woman's job was to ensure that her man was satisfied. the Somalis went further to cut of the sensitive clitoris from the woman's party to kill the sensitivity so as not to enjoy sex.Recently l took cover in my course of work when in a certain conversation l had a colleague raised the point that we should stop calling them Commercial Sex Workers, but simply Sex Workers, reason being that we never regard ourselves as Commercial Lawyers, Commercial Doctors or Commercial Teachers at that. I said it was wrong to equate sex work to a skillful profession that we  spend a lot of time and money in training for. Lawyers acquire skills, so do doctors and teachers, l went on to say that sex work doesn't require any form of skill that's why it is regarded as commercial sex work. AT that point one colleague jumped up to tell me to try it if l think there were no skills involved. This shut me up.

 Now the mother of all evils; the GAY Rights movement. If the whole of Uganda and Africa at that kept quiet with Feminism and Sex work movements, they were not going to do that in this same sex uprising. There seemed to be  no problem at the beginning because l believe gay persons have been existent in Uganda far as long as Uganda has existed. and l don't believe in that mediocrity analysis that it is a western concept, the reality is homophobia is a western concept. during colonialism, when the white man came and so tendencies of same sex relations, then they introduced the so called laws that talked about "unnatural canal knowledge". we still have these laws on our books just by virtue of fact that we were a British colony and too bad by the time the same laws were repealed in British, we had already gotten our independence so that meant we remain stuck with this barbaric law.

 My biggest concern is how we have failed to appreciate the little activism that colleagues like Frank Mugisha and the Kasha's are doing in this fight. These are guys that have put their lives on the line to fight a good cause. they have literally stripped off their lives and taken on the whole dynasty to advocate for a cause that we well know that many people here still don't get. They think, its abnormal, immoral and that gay people are sick and need help. The most difficult job in this world is changing attitudes. people have a mind set that they have attained over a long period of time and to change it, it also needs time. It needs patience and it needs understanding..

 I have been greatly perturbed by the numerous attacks levied to these activists for what ever reasons, which mostly   are financial related. People do not want to join the fight and maybe show them how better they could do, if they re doing something wrong. You cant sit in your home or office and start complaining when you don't have the guts to stand face and offer a solution or advocate for what you believe. It would be a lie if l said  don't real give a damn as what or how activists run their course. But again l cant be for those that don't want to come out and help, but again they have all these ideas about how things should be done, what policies to fight and which areas need better attention. They have the audacity to cry foul on misappropriation of funds, whichever way. Having no slightest clue how those funds came into place. My dear "you cant eat your cake and have it too". We have all made our priorities, lets live with them. Instead of attacking those that have tried to do something, however much they also have their shortcomings, lets acknowledge and be thankful that at-least they are doing a job which many of us can not even in our wildest dreams think about doing. For whatever reasons.Activism especially when it comes to Gay Rights, its a full time job.

So For this part, let me offer my congratulations to FRANK MUGISHA for receiving the 2011 ROBERT F. KENNEDY HUMAN RIGHTS AWARD: He said something profound “For me, it is about standing out and speaking in an environment where you are not sure if you will survive the next day; it is this fear that makes me strong, to work hard and fight on to see a better life for LGBTI persons in Uganda,” said Mr. Mugisha. “The Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award gives me courage and hope that my work, which may not be accepted and recognized in my own country, is making a change with this international visibility.”

Thank you Frank. Keep up the good work.

I will end this ranting with one of my most interesting quotes from Martin Luther King Jr "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter".