Africa-Press – Cape verde. I want to write about the Benny Hinn crusade/conference that took place in Kampala the other week, but I do not want to be struck by lightning. I am admittedly a coward, so I will keep my unworthy wonderings to myself and instead write about 33-year-old Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic Party nominee for mayor of New York City.
You know how we like to ‘tie’ on people who even as much as indicate any form of relation or have any form of connection to Uganda. The young man’s parents are, again to use Ugandan speak, “our very own” Prof Mahmood Mamdani and Mira Nair. So like that distant uncle of yours who only shows up to scavenge on family members, often says, “Zohran is our son”.
Some of the other people we have owned include Ugandan-born German actress Florence Kasumba. You know her from movies such as Civil War and Black Panther; actor and producer Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, then of course, Daniel Kaluuya, Sheila Atim, and Michael Kiwanuka, it is a long list. We have loudly owned these people at one point in time. Of course, the collective ownership of a human is only referenced when the person of interest has done something good. I mean, think about it. No one took a look at the front page of the Daily Monitor on Wednesday, July 2, which had the photos of the young men who vandalised people the day President Museveni went to pick his nomination forms, and proudly said, those are our sons. We called them goons. When in fact they are our goon sons. The ones we like to hide in the sewers when we have visitors.
Reading about Zohran’s strides in the Big Apple, I could not help but think to myself what I would have achieved by now if I had an ounce of his drive and passion? Not just him, but many others among us who go out and do not stop until they get it. What if we all lived to our full potential? What if we never settled? What if we all did what is written in the stars for us? I acknowledge that for some, it is easier to reach higher heights than others because there is no level ground. We do not all grow up in the same kind of families, with the same kind of privilege, although when you think about it, even that does not stop drive, determination, or achievement. It might delay it, you might have to work harder than most, smile more, and pretend to enjoy more boring conversations with important people, but it still would not stop you.
So, what is it? Why do we settle? Who stole our ambition? What did us in and led us to shelve our dreams or reduce them to quarter scales? When did it become okay to use only 0.03 percent of what we are capable of? Dim our shine just so we can fit in because of the fear of standing out? Abraham Maslow must be wondering why we keep hovering at the bottom and never bother to climb further up the pyramid. In fact, by now, there should be about 20 more pyramids complete with three boys’ quarters. And yet here we are. Proud to be associated with those who are going all out but doing the bare minimum for ourselves and denying the Zohrans of this world a chance to tie on us too. Please note that the use of ‘us’ and ‘we’ is just a cover.
I am only trying to console myself by making my underachievement your problem, too. I know that for you, all is well. You have achieved all there is to achieve in life. In fact, you are lined up for a lifetime achievement award in your line of work, you are the creed that people in your industry recite every morning, and you have even written a book on how to conquer this life and the next. You have an X-space every Wednesday at 8 pm on how you conquered Mount Life. Zohran has nothing on you and the goons, well, those are not anywhere in your grand scheme of life because nobody should end up like that. If that is you, this article is not about you. It is about me, my underachievement, the goons in bright yellow T-shirts, and my fear of talking about the Benny Hinn gathering. But wait, I can talk about it in sign language. No? Okay.
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