OPINION: “Self First” A Trend Describing and Destroying our Society – Part One

By Absolom Lubwama

Self First has made us desert”For God and my country” and turned to ” For God and My Stomach” . People have decided to go for the self first : a trend describing and destroying our society .

You can only give what you have” so the saying goes. “When you love yourself, you can love others .” We owe our presence to the people that were here before us and we must protect and save what is here for those that will come after us.

The above statements have in most cases been misinterpreted and misused to promote “ a self “ to the level of selfishness. We treat any kind gesture with suspicion because the “how do i benefit” attitude has eaten up society were corruption and theft have been sugar coated with a baptised name “nfunilamu wa” meaning” how do I benefit? “.

While we enjoy a clean green environment, and tree shades in the city, we do not feel the need to plant trees. Someone else has to do it. It’s common for us to seek forgiveness and expect instant forgiveness and for life to go on like before without thinking about the hearts and feelings of the people we hurt or offended.

If they do not respond as we wanted, we brand them cold-hearted and unforgiving quoting all Bible Scriptures to that effect.

Self First believes we are so righteous

We are self-righteous to the level of hypocrisy. We believe that our religion is the only one on the right path, the rest are going to hell, that justifies our choice of loud worship.

We do not care whether it disturbs other people’s sleep. We are worshiping our God and everyone “must” join in at our convenience. We have a right to preach to you at any time, anywhere, and anyhow. Anyone with a different view from our own is either wrong or stupid. It is either “ our way or no way at all”

For our birthdays, introductions, kwanjula/wedding showers, gender reveal, first tooth parties, we expect everyone in our phone book to join the WhatsApp group, contribute and attend the party. We except you to support our hustle, which includes the lousy music, expensive online lingerie , our political candidature after all i am from your tribe unless you are the ill-wisher.

With our whatsapp status reflecting our feelings, in sorrow we expect you to cry with us and in moments of Joy we expect congs. Short of this, you are cold hearted , evil and envious. The politicians from both, government and the opposition are seeing this as a God-sent opportunity to manipulate the masses.

There is no middle ground, you either blindly follow the government to the level of a sycophant as long as you are “eating on the buttered side of bread or have hopes of doing so shortly., or oppose the government to the level of defiance, never appreciating any government project whether good or bad. Sometimes to the level of insults and vulgar language to appeal to the disgruntled population. Any use of intellectual wit or approach will grant you “ a government sell-out” badge.

To be continued…..

About the Author..

Absolom Lubwama does printing write ups, language translation and events planning. He began writing his debut novel during the first covid out break and world lockdown in 2020 with the use of a mobile phone. He is the author of Behind the storm and Marriage an African man’s perspective When he’s not writing, he offers a free hand at counselling, plays a saxophone , takes nature walks , travels taking photographs or does journaling at a coffee shop.