OUR HISTORICAL SITES SHOULD NOT GO UNATTENDED TO

Recently I was at Makerere University to attend a wedding ceremony. I hadn’t been on the university’s grounds in a while. I was shocked at how run down Mary Stuart and Lumumba Halls were. They are in need of serious work.

These thoughts were reawakened with the recent launch of the coffee table book “Beyond the Reeds and Bricks” promoted by the tourism ministry, the cross cultural foundation of Uganda and the European Union Delegation.

The book which is aimed at the protection of historical sites and buildings in Kampala, Entebbe and Jinja, is a moving collection of pictures of buildings and sites we know, but probably take for granted when we pass them as we go about our business.

"Entebe za Mugula in Entebbe, Mackay’s Cave, the post office in Entebbe, the Stanbic Bank Branch in Jinja, Hamu Mukasa’s house in Mengo, the main building at Makerere , the Bahai Temple, Kibuli mosque and many other sites have pride of place among the 60 pictures in this book, which is a good start in bringing to light these and many other sites around the country.

Unfortunately, we are losing these sites to neglect, population expansion and the accompanying modernization of our towns, cities and country.

We all want progress but there is a value to maintaining these sites and buildings, which hold much cherished memories for many of us and serve the useful purpose of reminding us where we came from and the aspirations we held as a country in those far off years.

They say that the thing we learn from history is that we do not learn from history. The neglect or destruction of these sites is testament to this old saying.

But it need not be the case.

We shouldn’t wait for foreigners to come and tell us what we should preserve and what we shouldn’t. Many of these sites are not much to look at, until one is told the history that surrounds them and their roles in the formation of this country.

Great ideas were conceived in these buildings, great drama was played out in the fields and waters around us, great people launched their ambitions and many great people lie dead and buried around us.

The great dramas and events that surround these circumstances are what forged our nation and continue to inform our cultures and traditions.

"To let these sites, go to waste is to take away from our great history and to lose the lessons of the time...

This book as I said earlier, is only a start. Many of us have memories to go with certain building and sites wherever we grew up.

It would be great if a fund was set up to identify, protect and preserve these various sites. Contributions They would serve as great tourist attractions, but even beyond that it would better ground us and our children in our shared past.

Which is important in this time of fast changes, where we are being assaulted from all sides by cultures and traditions that are not only alien to us, but even in direct conflict with our own customs, traditions and way of life and not necessarily helpful towards achieving our national aspirations.

It is these symbols of our history which can lend force to a pride in our nation and elicit a sense of patriotism that a thousand classes will not be able to do.

At the Private Sector Foundation of Uganda, we would be glad to support any initiative that seeks to protect and preserve such sites and buildings for posterity and for the enjoyment of current and future generations.