Ralph Kangwagye
4 July 2009
opinion
Kampala — A few days ago I read an interview in a newspaper that said what I have known all my life but never dared mention because I did not want to called tribalist.
I was reading an interview by former politician and father to equally fiery politician Winnie Byanyima, Mzee Nathan Byanyima. The old man was saying truths we know but fear to speak out loud because they will cost us a great deal in the near future.
It was not the thundering confident declarations that shook me. I can get any of those any day of the week on the innumerable radio ebimeeza where callers embolden by the false anonymity of mobile phones yell threats and doomsday predictions all the time.
It was something Mzee Byanyima said about northerners that caught fire in my mind because I knew what he was saying was so true.
"People from the north are strong people; they are not like people from the south and, therefore, cannot easily be bribed," he said and I was inwardly cheering, yes, yes, how true!
I have known this all my life and until I read that interview and had reason to think about it, I had never realised that many of my best friends have had some sort of northern connection.
Perhaps this explained why I always suffered a sudden lack of humour when it came to jokes that made fun of the 'nordern connexion' accents.
The best friends I ever had all seemed to be northerners. I had never met people who were straighter talking or valued the promises they made to you or made to them.
They say Bakiga are supposed to be brutally honest, but I don't think they can compare to the honesty of some of the friends I have had who come from Apac, Pakwach, Arua, Lira, Nebbi, Pader, Adjumani or Kotido.
I had never heard an employee call his employer a fool until a friend of mine called Atandu called our boss who was reluctant to pay us a fool saying: "You think you're fooling us around, but you are the fool."
Many times they were the only friend who would speak up when I was going wrong and no one else would speak up. Speak up in moments when it was very possible that they would lose my friendship forever because what I seemed to need in those moments were either sycophantic comments or 'gentle lies' that end up costing you a lot.
Somehow, and sometimes it seemed against their will, they could not help but see things for what they were and call a shovel a shovel and not a big spoon. Charm would not sway them or blind them.
Like in this taxi I was in, the taxi conductor squeezed in one more passenger and tried to mollify any potential complaints by exclaiming: "After all Mzee (meaning President Museveni) said we all need to kupanga (rough translation hustle anyway we can to make an extra shilling).
Nearly all the passengers in the taxi were laughing but for one man from Lira, who noted: "Yes, we should kupanga, but you might be kupangaring us negatively."
When it came to loyalty, there have been few who compare. But it is not a blind loyalty. It is a loyalty that is earned. With that loyalty though comes the democracy of criticising you without fear.
But once that loyalty is given, you can be sure that you will not be left in the lurch as often happens when money becomes a factor in the equation. In a way this is about a northern friend who told me: "Ralph, you must stop being a man who wears skirts if you want to take this job offer!" It hit home.
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