By

Meshack Owino

Whenever I read reports of Yoweri Museveni?s government officials harassing poor
fishermen on Migingo Island, Lake Victoria, I cannot help but remember a traditional
folktale about a man by the name of Nyamgondho wuod Ombare. The folktale is quite popular
among the Luo of East Africa. It is about a good deed that never goes unpunished.

According to my grandmother, who was the first person to narrate the story to me when I
was a little kid, Nyamgondho wuod Ombare was a very poor man who eked a living by fishing
on Lake Victoria. By all accounts, Nyamgondho?s life as a young man was very miserable.
He hardly had anything to eat. He had very little clothes to wear, and, every evening,
his deprived circumstances forced him to walk long distance looking for a place among
kind neighbors to rest his head during the night. The story goes on to say that one
morning, Nyamgondho woke up so hungry that he thought he was going to die of hunger that
day.

Summoning some energy, Nyamgondho stumbled out of a kind neighbor?s house where he had
taken shelter that night, and staggered to Lake Victoria wondering what he would do with
himself if the net he had left to trap fish in the lake that night did not catch anything
for him to eat.

When he reached the lake, and started inspecting the fishing net, his hopes momentarily
rose when he felt a heavy weight on the net. As he reeled in the net, praying that
whatever was weighing it down should be a big catch, Nyamgondho?s hopes collapsed when,
instead of a big, edible catch, the net had caught an old, ugly woman.

Nyamgondho turned away in disgust, and was about to throw the net away together with the
old woman when her voice stopped him in his tracks, and urged him that instead of
throwing her back into the lake, he should take her home, and make her his wife. The old
woman told him that if he married her, she would make him the wealthiest man in the land.
She promised him a lot of cows, goats, and sheep. She also promised him many wives,
children, and a big homestead.

Realizing that he had nothing to lose, Nyamgondho decided to hearken to the old woman?s
entreaties, took her home, and made her his wife. That act alone changed Nyamgondho?s
fortune. Within a short time, Nyamgondho?s fishing net started catching incalculable
amount of fish in Lake Victoria. It is almost as if his net became a magnet for fish
overnight. Every morning, Nyamgondho would trudge to the lake, and he would find his nets
bulging with a large number of delicious fish. He sold many of his catch, exchanging them
for grains here, cows there, and farming implements somewhere else.

With all this fortune, it was not surprising that Nyamgondho no longer found it difficult
to find willing hands in marriage. His homestead grew in size. He married many wives,
sired many children, raised many herds of cows, and grew huge quantities of crops. Name
it, Nyamgondho had it. He became arguably the richest man in the land.

The story goes on to say that as his wealth grew, Nyamgondho started acquiring certain
traits that he never had when he was growing up poor and miserable. He became very
arrogant, haughty, and proud. It was not unusual for him to come back home drunk, singing
his own praises, shouting loud insults at his neighbors, calling them poor nothings, and
it was equally not unusual for him to set on his wives and children with kiboko.

Nyamgondho even started beating up his first wife, his mikayi ? the old, ugly woman from
the lake who had promised, and given him many riches. One day Nyamgondho beat up the old
woman so badly that she warned him that if he did it again, she would leave him, and his
wealth would vanish. Nyamgondho did not listen.

Consumed by his wealth and a haughty sense of his own self-importance, Nyamgondho beat up
the old woman again, and this time, he had pushed her one time, too far. She decided to
leave him. Nyamgondho was shocked when, as the old woman packed up to leave, all the
wealth in the homestead also started packing up by themselves, and got ready to leave. He
watched tongue-tied as the cows, goats, sheep, and chickens stood up, and as grains of
sorghum and millet packed themselves up in baskets and pots, and marched behind the old
woman as she trudged back to the lake.

As his other wives and children followed the old woman back to the lake, Nyamgondho heard
a horrible sound ensuing from what he thought were his own bowels, crying to the old
woman not to leave the homestead, begging her to forgive him, promising never to
misbehave again. His pleas fell on deaf ears; the old woman left, and together with all
the property in Nyamgondho?s compound, they all went back into the lake. Nyamgondho was
back where he was when he first met the old, ugly woman in the lake ? miserable, poor,
and desperate.

As I said earlier, the story of Nyamgondho wuod Ombare reminds me of President Yoweri
Kaguta Museveni, the benevolent dictator of Uganda now terrorizing the poor fishermen of
Migingo Island, Lake Victoria. When you look at Museveni?s life, wasn?t he a miserable
refugee in Tanzania whose fortunes turned for the better through the generosity of his
neighbors in East Africa just the other day? When President Idi Amin Dada, the erstwhile
Conqueror of the British Empire, was terrorizing Ugandans during the 1970?s, where was
Museveni? Wasn?t he pursuing an education at the University of Dar es Salaam through the
kindness of President Julius Nyerere, and the people of Tanzania? Didn?t he live as a
refugee in Tanzania in the late 1970?s and early 1980?s?

What about Yoweri?s vice-president, Prof. Austin Bukenya? When Idi Amin Dada was
butchering hundreds of thousands of Ugandans, didn?t Prof. Bukenya flee to Kenya, where
he was hired as a lecturer at Kenyatta University? Wasn?t he given a means of survival by
Kenya? Weren?t Kenyans his colleagues, friends, and neighbors?

Have Ugandans forgotten just how much they were helped by East Africans during their time
of need as a military dictatorship, and a civil war raged in their country in the 1970?s,
and 1980?s? Wasn?t it Tanzania that helped Uganda to get rid of the dictator Idi Amin
Dada? Or was that just a fiction?

When Museveni was waging war to grab power in Uganda, wasn?t he helped by the ordinary
Rwandese, particularly the Tutsis, who composed much of the rank and file of his
guerrilla army? Yet these days we receive numerous reports about Museveni harassing
Rwandan citizens.

Wasn?t it President Moi who helped to organize numerous meetings between Museveni and the
Government of Uganda in Nairobi to end the civil war that Museveni was waging against the
Government of Uganda in the 1980?s? So, why is Museveni harassing President Moi?s fellow
Kenyan citizens who are just trying to eke a living on Migingo Island?

Museveni?s government has been terrorizing Kenyans over a pathetic, little rocky island
known as Migingo, Lake Victoria. Migingo Island is only 2 kms from Kenya proper, and a
whopping 250 kms from Uganda proper. Although evidence from various documents place
Migingo, an island rock that measures no more than 2 acres, within Kenyan territory, that
has not stopped Museveni from sending soldiers 250 kms away to plant a Ugandan flag on
the island, claiming it as Uganda?s. Kweli, ahsante ya punda ni mateke. No good deed goes
unpunished!

Disregarding how he and his fellow citizens survived through the generosity of his
neighbors when Uganda was in turmoil during the 1970?s and 1980?s, Museveni?s policemen
routinely arrest Kenyans on Migingo Island, and throw them in prison even though the
island is in Kenya. His soldiers patrol the island using helicopters and speedboats. His
customs officials impose hefty tax on poor Kenyan fishermen on the island.

Just the other day, Uganda was at it again harassing Kenyans when it tried to raise fees
for Kenyan students studying in Ugandan universities by claiming that Kenyan students
were foreigners who should pay more fees than Ugandan students for education. Although
this crazy proposal was nipped in the bud when President Yoweri Museveni remembered in
the nick of time that he and many Ugandans received subsidized education in Tanzania and
Kenya during the 1960?s, 1970?s, and 1980?s, when their county was in turmoil, it makes
you wonder how people forget so easily.

I seem to remember only too well that it was just the other day that I was going to
school in the Busia part of Kenya with children of many Ugandan refugees. And I am sure
that there are many other Kenyans who have stories to tell of enduring friendships,
long-term relationships, and even loving marriages forged with Ugandans who sought refuge
in Kenya during the 1970?s and 1980?s.

During those days we regarded those Ugandans, not as Ugandans, but as our brothers and
sisters, as people, as human beings who had the same needs and dreams like us. We did not
even see them as refugees. We simply saw them as people who had suffered the misfortune
of coming under the control of a mad man who was masquerading as president of their
country during the 1970?s. We provided them with succor. We lived with them, went to
school with them, laughed and cried with them as fellow East Africans.

But just look at how their government now treats us? Look at how their government
harasses people all over East Africa ? from Migingo Island in Kenya, through Rwanda,
Eastern Congo, the Central African Republic, all the way to Southern Sudan. There are
cries everywhere that Uganda?s Yoweri Museveni is harassing people, that he is stealing
resources, that his ruthless soldiers are killing people from neighboring countries. Even
the far-way Somalia is not far enough for Museveni to throw his weight around in. This
former refugee has forgotten where he and his country were just the other day.

Like Nyamgondho wuod Ombare, it seems that President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has forgotten
how he, his vice-president, Prof. Austin Bukenya, and the rest of his fellow citizens
were helped by East Africans during their time of need ? a time they suffered from
poverty, instability, deprivations, and wars. While we cannot tell whether Yoweri
Museveni?s life will come full circle like that of Nyamgondho wuod Ombare, it is getting
pretty close to mirroring it. Only time will tell.

Meshack Owino.
– – –
Date: Sat, 28 Mar 2009 20:38:58 -0700 [03/28/2009 10:38:58 PM CDT]
From: Meshack Owino
Subject: On the Disputed Migingo Island: Has Yoweri Museveni Become the Nyamgondho wuod Ombare of East Africa?