Humanist

I remember, Wednesday, 8th June 2011, found me at my favourite hair salon in Bugolobi having my hair plaited.

It had slipped my mind that it was budget day, until one of the stylists started flipping television channels in search for a better program to watch other than the live broadcast of the nation’s budget.

She finally gave up in frustration as all the local television stations were broadcasting the budget speech.

The television stations had interrupted their regular programming of airing repeats of Latin American soaps, leaving viewers with no choice but to watch and listen to the budget speech.

The focus of conversation at the salon in relation to the budget turned to the aesthetic values of the minister who was reading the budget and those who were in the audience.

So, we discussed the minister’s hair style, the colorful dress that she wore and the extent to which these were fitting for such an occasion.

We critiqued the facial expressions of those in the audience, which we used to decipher the extent to which they understood what was being said by the minister, concluding that some were just us befuddled as we were.

Most of all, our attention to the budget speech was dominated by the blonde legal wig that the Speaker wore.

Its lack of aesthetic value aside, we wondered why the Speaker had to wear it.

As the minister went on and on about how things had grown by this percentage and that rate, we could not relate to what she was saying.

Then the minister gave the projections for the New Year and they were meaningless in the same way as the speaker’s blonde legal wig was to us.

Think about it. It is likely that majority of Ugandans, including ‘learned Ugandans’ who wear legal wigs as part of their official attire, do not know why the owners, British barristers, wear them.

The original reason why, is because blonde wigs were fashionable during the reign of King Charles II (1660-1685).

Read more in “Why do barristers wear wigs?”

According to Evess Helper, legal wigs range in cost from about 2 millions shillings to over 11.4 million shillings to buy. Not to mention the cost of maintenance!

Which begs the question: why is the Speaker of the Uganda Parliament required to wear such a costly item?

Sadly, it is not far fetched to surmise that until such a time as we address why our speaker continues to wear a blonde legal wig, an outsider’s symbol of authority, the wisdom for a budget that favours the majority of Ugandans, shall continue to elude us.