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What you need to know about the comments of Ben Misagga?
KAMPALA — In Uganda, we have perfected the art of writing glowing eulogies. We wait until a giant breathes his last, and only then do we scramble to print commemorative booklets, give fiery funeral speeches, and scratch memories into history books. We clap while our elders are alive, move on with our daily routines, and then weep when their priceless vaults of wisdom are buried beneath seven feet of soil.
Prominent sports leader, commentator, and former SC Villa President Joseph Mbazzi Muguluma (popularly known as Immanuel Ben Misagga) has issued a stinging public wake-up call to Buganda and Uganda at large. In a fiery reflection titled “Write While They Breathe: The Gospel According to Muzei Magala,” Misagga argues that Uganda is committing cultural suicide by allowing its greatest living minds to pass away without transcribing their knowledge into enduring books.
Why are Ugandans failing to document living legends while they are still alive?
According to Ben Misagga, Ugandan society suffers from an acute habit of short-term appreciation. We celebrate living icons in fleeting moments—clapping today and forgetting tomorrow—without capturing the intellectual and spiritual foundations that built their success.
Misagga points to national treasures like Emmanuel Cardinal Wamala, who stands at 96 years of age. Why aren’t scholars sitting with him daily to document his secrets of discipline, faith, and institutional service? Why did the technical wisdom of pioneers like Eng. Zikusoka and Arc. Ssentoogo fade away without exhaustive biographical documentation?
While musical bards like Herman Basudde, Paul Job Kafero, Ssebaduka, and Dan Mugula left behind immortalized lyrics that preserve their philosophy, oral historians and traditional scholars do not sing. If nobody sits down to write their thoughts while their hearts are still beating, their knowledge perishes completely.
Who is Muzei Magala and why is his wisdom critical to Buganda’s history?
At the center of Misagga’s rallying cry is Muzei Magala, a renowned Buganda traditionist, orator, and cultural philosopher whom Misagga has closely studied for over two years.
Though Magala never sat inside elite university lecture halls or climbed academic ladders, he possesses an extraordinary, almost supernatural command of Buganda’s ancient history, traditional governance structures, and spiritual mysteries. He is a master talker, but not a writer.
Misagga warns that Magala’s vast mental archive represents a “real-time gospel” of Buganda heritage. Leaving such a man to simply wander through casual conversations without a dedicated scribe means robbing future generations of their rightful identity.
How does relying on TV talk shows and social media threaten African history?
A major flaw in modern Ugandan culture is the belief that hosting an elder on a one-hour television talk show or recording a WhatsApp voice note is enough to preserve history. Misagga roundly rejects this digital complacency.
Talk shows feed only the present moment, giving audiences a brief hour of inspiration before the broadcast ends. In the digital age, knowledge stored purely on electronic devices remains dangerously fragile—one deleted YouTube video, one corrupted hard drive, or one lost smartphone can wipe out decades of historical record in a single second.
Passing knowledge across generations requires the permanent medium of the written word. Misagga notes that global powers understood this centuries ago:
- Greece preserved Socrates because Plato sat down and wrote every word he spoke.
- Rome recorded Cicero, whose speeches continue to teach political leaders today.
- Italy, England, and China still shape world thought through Machiavelli (500 years later), Shakespeare (400 years later), and Confucius (2,500 years later).
- Africa and the World still draw power from Chinua Achebe, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Wole Soyinka, Maya Angelou, Mahatma Gandhi, and Nelson Mandela because scribes documented their walks, fasts, and speeches while they were alive.
What can Makerere University and Vice-Chancellor Barnabas Nawangwe learn from this challenge?
Misagga directly challenges Uganda’s academic institutions, specifically Makerere University and its Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe, to step outside ivory towers and seek out unlettered polymaths like Muzei Magala.
Rather than limiting academic research to standard textbook theories, universities ought to deploy researchers and historians to sit with living archives, transcribe their oral accounts, and publish authoritative books. Tapping into raw, unscripted indigenous knowledge is the ultimate card for academic leadership in Africa.
What does the Buganda proverb ‘Amagezi g’omukulu galinga eggi’ teach us?
Drawing from traditional Baganda elders in Kifuuta, Kyotera, and Buddu, Misagga invokes a profound ancestral warning:
“Amagezi g’omukulu galinga eggi; togaleka kugwa. Amagezi galinga mukooka nga ogawandise.”
(The wisdom of an elder is like an egg; do not let it fall and break. Wisdom is like a raging flash flood unless you capture it in writing.)
The message to Buganda and Uganda is crystal clear: let us stop waiting for funerals to recognize greatness. Let us stop letting priceless wisdom dissolve into thin air, broadcast waves, or temporary social media clips. It is time to sit down with our elders and write while the fire is still burning.
