ReginaNakitto
While browsing the Muwado Community website, a writers’ hub newly introduced to me, I noticed their 2024 top stories, and the article “Why Muzungu Boda Should Be Stopped” caught my attention. In part because it aligned with the public sentiment surrounding the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ deportation of Reid Samuel James (“Muzungu Boda”) in late 2024.
In Uganda, “Muzungu” commonly refers to a white person (primarily denoting skin color rather than race). A “boda-boda” is a two-wheeled motorcycle used for public transportation. While I can’t explain Reid’s choice of alias- “Muzungu Boda,” it’s understood that he rode a boda-boda, performed speed stunts with cars and motorcycles, engaged with Uganda’s gigs like roadside meat selling, recruited a kids football club extended as a charitable organization and tried to speak Luganda- all caught on camera and shared online. While the official reason for removal was the illegal operation of a charitable organization in the country, this article, like many other posts online, had open submissions clamoring for his removal from Uganda.
The article makes a quick introduction of the giddy white man from New Zealand who proudly navigated life in Uganda, performed dangerous stunts made with children nearby, disrespected local traditions, and mocked Uganda and all the content encased as ‘tourism promotion’. The author, without making specific references to any cultures that were slighted, calls out the moral erosion that comes off as amusement or direct participation by Ugandans in some of the derogatory skits with the ‘Muzungu’. But most confusing is the surprising and abrupt connection drawn from road safety violations right up to neo-colonialism.
This is not an editorial to summon clarity, tone, and structure from the author in critique. This is an inquiry into the problematic use of sensitive terms in a manner that leaves them redundant but without consequence. With any form of communication, the paradox is that a slight can be perceived even where none was intended. The sustained exploration of that imagination can compound into the careless use of terms like “neo-colonialism” and the subsequent language about it that the author briefly indulges. You just have to be looking with a certain perspective on black-white relations and relationships, as affected by colonialism and the underlying tensions.
There is that colonial hangover about this kind of thinking that subjugation and propagation are fundamentally at the heart of any Western world relations with “lesser” societies, especially black people. The author acknowledging Muzungu’s tourism promotion efforts in the beginning then dismissing them as “a total menace and a depiction of a starving land in need of saving” is contradictory.
The article is not entirely a reason why Muzungu should be removed. I appreciate a particular line- “The tendency to laugh at things that should irritate us sustains the structures that fashion our misery”. This resonates with my frustration about the lack of national pride among Ugandans, our tendency to make little of and humorise our struggles, and our reluctance to celebrate our own achievements and people. However, who draws the line between acceptable behavior and sentiment? Am I just sensitive to the casual deployment of powerful concepts like neocolonialism, terms that carry significant weight and should be used with careful consideration?
Writers are storytellers in the same craft just as video content creators. And while storyteller must critique storyteller about form and content, outright dismissal comes off as lacking especially when intent remains unconfirmed and where prejudicial contexts like neo-colonialism and cultural appropriation continue to socially increment others. It is with a certain irony that I pen out this particular article- aware of my own assumed perspective of the writer in my critique- cognitive dissonance? Maybe.
We ought to acknowledge and appreciate the positive contributions while forgiving the contextual mishaps one might make when communicating. It’s worth noting that the Muzungu with catchy bouts of energy, happily engaged and established a football club in Uganda which for many young boys in the country is a precious sense of belonging in society and career.
Another common conclusion about this particular Muzungu was that “he was a spy”. However, I have omitted an elaborate writing spree about this common adage of labeling individuals we don’t understand as spies and will be avoiding the discussion due to its political sensitivity- me and my timid hand, choosing to let the matter rest at that.
In a world where ‘the whole story’ is rarely handed to us, carefully choosing language that can be used to accuse or condemn someone within a social context is essential.
Read my earlier article about political correctness.
By Regina Nakitto.
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