Books that have had a huge impact on my life

Three books are on my mind. For decades, I have read them over and over again; and each time it benefits me a self-liberation. Okot pBitek’s Song of Lawino, a poem set in Uganda in the 1960s and remains relevant today as Uganda grapples with the interaction of legacies of colonialism and knowledge systems of its…

Three books are on my mind. For decades, I have read them over and over again; and each time it benefits me a self-liberation.

Okot pBitek’s Song of Lawino, a poem set in Uganda in the 1960s and remains relevant today as Uganda grapples with the interaction of legacies of colonialism and knowledge systems of its first nations.

Stan Burkey’s People First – A guide to self-reliant participatory rural development, set in Uganda – a detailed how to do development tool

Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed – conscious awakening philosophical aid on appreciating the nexus between education and power relations.

Song of Lawino

I truly appreciated Song of Lawino in the early 1990s, even though I had come across it during my school days in the 1980s.

The main character, Lawino, is my role model. I aspire to be like her. Critiquing and questioning exogenous cultures that we have adopted and don’t make sense.

For example, my advocacy: “Uganda get rid of the blonde wig.”

Many in our world today are mostly in defeatist mode. In disregard and disbelief of our governing systems and institutions.

Some are in sycophant mode. Totally oblivious and blind to the societal damage caused by the negatives of the leaders that they unquestioningly adore.

People First and the Pedagogy of the Oppressed

My work life began in 1992 and that is when I first came across Stan Burkey’s People First and Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. My life has never been the same since. It has been enhanced with:

Wealth of knowledge.
Consciousness.
Appreciation of the need to question – to ask the why and how questions of things that are considered the status quo.
Critical tools that I need to do my own analysis, to arrive at my own conclusions and to revise my conclusions when presented with new knowledge.
Confidence to know that the status quo is not permanent and that active citizens should not just accept a defeatist mentality of giving up and leaving it to divine intervention.

A solid basis from whence to launch fact-based discourse.