Without attempting to discuss how sex mediates power in Uganda, I want to use lovemaking to appreciate Museveni’s timeless leadership challenge. Part of my ambition is to put psychoanalytical context to the malaise of the African political elite. Framing leadership as lovemaking— in the traditional spiritual sense, not simply mounting — might perhaps help us see our condition in a different light.
Before the world got flooded with pornography and promiscuity, lovemaking used to be a sacred spiritual affair. It was one of deep psychological fulfilment, physical and emotional security.
Lovemaking was a memorable and nerve-calming experience. Sex scientists [and, yes, the Islamic tradition as well] tell us that for a man to have a deeply fulfilling sexual experience, they had to rise beyond their bodily tingling that is often defined by ejaculation — just a couple of fleeting seconds.
Pleasure for men wasn’t for the body, but the soul. A man’s sexual pleasure is derived from the spouse’s pleasure. This meant a lot of work executed with pride and patience. A man had to learn the difficult art of holding his breath, working slowly and diligently as his wife slowly went through the paces to the peak.
Gifted by nature with a penetrating rod and rougher hands—and an ability to quickly quench self—a man used these gifts generously to facilitate the softer gender (softness not as weakness; but, rather, a quality, a form of endowment) to experience life’s bodily pleasures. It meant realising that their pleasures were tied together, and this meant working together.
Indeed, once the wife reached the peak, a man would sit back and chest-thump, congratulate himself and savour the feeling — of victory and conquest — but most importantly reaching the final destination together.
BEAUTIFUL CONQUEST
On her part, she joined in and congratulated her lover for such beautiful pleasurable conquest. While the man did the most work in this affair, the woman having offered her natural beauties and other feminine resources [in addition to really getting soft and mellow to get this world rolling], they lived together, grew together, enjoyed together, and literary died together.
This is a man’s authentic pleasure. The practicality of it was that the authority-laden gender — the male gender — derived their enjoyment from their softer spouses. Thus, the lewd but practically accurate slogan, “I knocked the living daylights out of her.” This wasn’t violence but, rather, a story of mutual satisfaction. In fact, feminist Germaine Greer and Noam Wolf believe the women’s movement needs to focus on female orgasm as a more liberating line of activism.
I should not write anything about the women here since women somehow, across the generations, acknowledged this condition and know that their pleasure is contained in pumping the egos of their men — even when they were wantonly ignored.
Ever wondered why they even “fake it” as they continue to moan in feigned pleasure notwithstanding their spouses putting in a substandard performance? Yes, they believe their pleasure is in the pleasure of the other.
Nowadays, especially for men, lovemaking is like breaking wind in a public square. Once released from the system, the releasing fellow is relieved and the entire thing is quickly forgotten. There is no care about who is in their vicinity and whether they too enjoyed the experience.
This new mode of sexual engagement—selfish, small, one-minute pleasures — has come to define political elite in Africa especially after 1990 when structural adjustment actually started to take hold: small dreams, small pleasures. We might not characterise it as violent rape, but outright selfish pleasure.
SAM KUTESA
To vividly demonstrate my point, let me spotlight President Museveni’s bosom friend, comrade brother, Minister Sam Kutesa who is perhaps the richest, but also the untouchable politician of our time.
There is a mild, but quite comprehensive documentation of Kutesa’s sins —both convicted and alleged—that was assembled by NBS TV journalist Canary Mugume for their show, The Debrief. Mr Mugume was mad as he concludes every single incident with the refrain, “action taken, zero!”
Doing this story in 2018, Mugume sought to remind Ugandans that before being mentioned in the Manhattan Federal court as having been one of the recipients of a Shs 1.8 billion from a Hong Kong-based NGO leader, Patrick Chi Ping Ho — who would be jailed for this crime — comrade brother Sam Kutesa was no stranger to suspicion. Indeed, besides being censored in 1998 when he served as minister of State for Investment, more and more fingers were pointed at him.
In 1995, Minister Kutesa is mentioned in undervaluing Entebbe Handling Services (ENHAS), and later selling it to himself alongside comrade brother, Gen Salim Saleh.
In 2005, he was named in the privatisation of Uganda Dairy Corporation limited (UDCL), which his company, Smartmatic Inc., despite being disqualified by Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority (PPDA), used his influence to bypass PPDA and retain the deal. State minister for Agriculture Bright Rwamirama described the UDCL deal as “outright robbery.”
There are other honourable mentions including the vehicle procurement for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in 2007.
My contention is this: many persons like Sam Kutesa continue to enjoy this wealth. We see them driving big cars, living in big houses, and with long lines of hangerson. They have VIP appearances at functions, and make the biggest donations in church. But while these fellows are quietly acknowledged for wrong doing, they are, rather, victims of small dreams and small pleasures.
Poor love-makers believe they are doing a good job, even when their spouses openly chastise them.
Indeed, the even bigger problem is that because he is so invested in the time — of small dreams and small pleasures — he might never understand that the pleasure he gets from being rich alone, and often at the expense of others, is half pleasure.
THE BIGGER THIEVES
The bigger thieves include fellows in the IMF and WB, the United States of Amerca and EU, and now more recently, China. These bigger thieves realised quickly that if they enabled the African political elite to some small comforts and small pleasures [which these local elite view as major] such as a fat bank account—without working for it — which would then enable them a big mansion, an SUV, which in turn would also enable them to a string of concubines, the latter would look the other way as the former robbed their compatriots.
Additionally, find a power-hungry man like Mr Museveni and enable him means to a longer stay in power, and you will actually have the entire country.
Quite pornographically, Museveni and co. are happy to enjoy their little wealth (a mall, grabbed land, eucalyptus trees, a few hundred head of cattle, big cars) as their compatriots are robbed by Wazungu and Chinese. Once they compare their living conditions against their poorer compatriots, they pride in their luck and good fortune: small dreams, small pleasures.
yusufkajura@gmail.com
The author is a political theorist based at Makerere University.