Norah Owaraga

Africa Heralds Messiahs Who Aren’t – Part II

Reality checks among Ugandans began to truly sink in during the 2000s, as may be deduced from the fact that the media began to tell another single story for President Museveni – he was not the messiah after all. Nevertheless, in 2001 President Museveni again contested and won Uganda’s Presidential elections with the endorsement of…

Africa Heralds Messiahs Who Aren’t – Part I

Keeping it close to home, the son of Uganda’s former President, Idi Amin, on social media described President Magufuli’s ‘bulldozer-approach’ in Tanzania as being: “The exact hands-on approach that Amin used to ensure that government was providing expected services efficiently.” Hussein Lumumba Amin The opinion that President Amin was a better president than our current…

“#WhatWouldMagufuliDo?” The Jury is Still Out

Ugandans are euphoric with the single story “#WhatWouldMagufuliDo”, which is trending on social media. Ugandan politicians and ordinary citizens alike want to be seen to be operating or buying into or promising to operate within the logic of the current president of Tanzania – His Excellency John Pombe Magufuli. On social media, the trending single…

Culturally, my first name is Alinga

A week after I was born I was named in an Iteso naming ceremony. I was named after the mother of my father, my grandmother, the matriarch Ajakait Joyce Mary Alinga, may her soul continue to rest in power. I was born in the 1960s, after Christianity had taken root in Uganda. At the time,…