By Archibald Agaba
Uganda’s political past and groups that have taken turns at offering leadership in Uganda, it is interesting to see how they have chosen colours t and how regimes have played out.
Many people like to believe that leaders were offering themselves to the people but the statement “A society gets the leaders it deserves” is as true today as it ever was.
In the esoteric traditions of the erudite communities, Kundalini is the energy the body generates when its chakra points are activated. The word chakra is the Sanskrit word for wheel and refers to the vortices of energy that are activated when the melanin clusters along the vertebral column are activated. For the readers unfamiliar with these traditions, just know that this is the ultimate aspiration of meditation.
The unblocking is done when a balance of focused thought leads to emotional healing and the individual develops a thought-emotion balance that harmonises the mind. There are seven chakras and each is associated with a colour of the rainbow depending on the frequency at which light vibrates to form that colour. So red it the lowest vibration at the root chakra and violet is the highest at the crown chakra.
What I find interesting is that each colour is associated with a mental state, combination of thoughts and emotions that affect the individual, and when investigated and healed, causes the activation of that chakra. During meditation one focuses on the relevant aspect of their life depending on the chakra that needs activation but the healing does not happen in a predictable order. The area of life that is easiest for the person to deal with will heal faster than that which is more obscure to the person.
The colours of the rainbow in their order are; Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet. The chakra these colours are associated with are; Root at the base of the spine; Navel just above the sacral vertebra in alignment with the umbilical cord; Solar plexus in alignment with the bottom of the sternum; Heart in alignment the heart; Throat in the neck just bellow the base of the scull; Head on the bridge of the nose between the eyes and Crown the top of the head.
All this is interesting but what is compelling is the thought/emotion balance attached to each; Survival/Fear; Relations/Guilt; Identity/Shame; Togetherness/Love; Truth Communication/Dilution; Insight/Illusion; and Awareness/Detachment respectively. I’ll not go into the details of these matters at this time but rather I’ll try to show the connections with Uganda and how all this comes together –in my head anyway. The astute readers may have already ‘read my mind’ as it were, so here goes…
DP comes to power as the first organised group with green as its colour. This was a time when the togetherness of the society was being challenged and the issue of the day was how every identity and its interests would be represented in the new dispensation. The era was characterised by beep love/hate relationships between and among the key players of the time, but the final decision was made that we must stay together as one no matters what the fates were that may have brought us together. When this matter was resolved the leader the society deserved changed.
In came the UPC and its sea of red. The hallmark of this period was matters of survival. From promoting co-operatives to the common man’s chatter, the matters on the minds of the leader(s) where those of survival; there was also a new reality that Ugandans had to confront, that of fear. Fear of the big man, fear for one’s place the fear of the uncertainty that lay ahead of this young new country looking into an uncertain future in turbulent times. As the efficiency of the leaders resolved these matters, the confidence that it could be done was quickly replaced with the urge to move on.
The non descript times. Every so often Uganda has had periods that have no particular character except to offer a kind of breather and reality check for the society to re-examine itself and determine a new issue to deal with; a kind of exhaling from the deep meditative state that is nation building. The period of the conqueror, of the umbrella, the three wise men, and the military commission are some such times. During these times, the society took the time to consider the past and the future and to find the issue of the day. It should be noted that once an issue has been dealt with, it cannot be unhealed, only neglected.
The next colour to come on the scene turned out to be yellow, the issues of the day have been identity and the shame of choices made in the past. A lot of the members of the group that promoted the issues of identity have expressed shame and regret and have attempted to undo the damage. The 30 year persistence of this state of mind lies in the unwillingness to face up to matters that deal with identify and the interests it implies. In the minds of many, the issues of oneness promoted under the black banner –another interesting choice of colour, have resulted in an effective shift in mindset. To this group the leader has already changed, and as the ranks increase we are witnessing the society transitioning into another shift that will inevitably bring in the leader the society deserves.
Will it be Blue? This colour is associated with communication and dispelling the delusion; at no time in history has truth telling been as prevalent as it has under the emergence of blue. From being banned off media outlets to causing live all inclusive debates on the same media outlets they have held up a mirror to the society’s scitzofrania relationship with communication and matters dealing with the truth and truth telling. As this group has grown and come to terms with its true nature, ability and the challenge it has set for itself it has helped the society slowly wakes up from its delusion –the lies one tells oneself about who or what they are; we see a growing desire for the truth and a more resolute attempt to seek for it, receive it and accept it. If the emperor has no cloths the people will no longer pretend its a beautiful invisible rob.
Or will it be Orange? It is probably fitting that the first action the group that would pick the colour orange would do was to destroy the TDA. Not to get too much into the details, but the TDA was not as much a representative group as a platform. The more representative group was the one that met behind closed doors in London. Undesirable as that maybe, it underpins the nature of the orange colour and the chakra it governs, that of relationships, specifically relationships among family, relatives, friends and associates. This group came out heavily as a promoter of and dependant on such relationships. It comes as no surprise that the strength and weakness of the group’s activates was affected as the relationships changed. Heavily pledged by issues of guilt in the early days one would expect that going forward (pun not intended) this group will define itself by its ability to go beyond past mistakes and show the society the value of developing and effecting relationships.
It is fascinating to me that both issues of communication, truth and delusion or relationships and guilt are being dealt with simultaneously by the society. It remains to be seen which matter will immerge as the question of the day and thus shift the society to determine the leader it deserves, for it is the leader it will get.
Then there is the “silent majority”, the steadily growing number of individuals that have some to the realisation that –this thing does not work for us. I’ll call these the indigo children. The indigo colour deals with the head chakra, sometimes called the third eye. There is a valid scientific reason for this name. There is a small organ that hands at the base of the brain, just above the pituitary gland, this organ is made of the exact same tissue as the two eyes we are more familiar with. Since it’s inside the head and does not have access to direct sunlight (white light), it has been suggested that it could be picking up light waves beyond the visible spectrum and generates the images we see when we are in states of trans. Not the subject of this article, but suffice it to say, this chakra also deals with deep insight and illusions. Illusions are the things that seem real but are not, like a mirage or government legitimacy. Insight is the knowledge of the inner workings of things their associations and interconnections.
The indigo children are a steadily increasing number of Ugandans who have built up the courage to start questioning not just authority but the very edifies some call the establishment. They are the ones asking the big questions about the education system, the authority of scripture and doctrines of infallibility, questions about the administrative system and what the ancestors would say about our current state. Most interesting to me are those challenge the idea that TIA (This Is Africa), a phrase spouted by all those who have run out of excuses yet still want to justify or excuse their bad behaviour or that of the people their ilk. This group is the one am watching with the keenest interest because they are the ones that will bring in the future. A state that will be completely unrecognisable by the luminaries of today, their society will be based on value systems and not economic imperatives.
The crowning glory is the colour violet and governs the chakra that deals with awareness, or like Neil deGrasse Tyson of Cosmos fame likes to call it –the cosmic perspective. The issue to overcome is attachment and that is as far as I’m willing to go with that one. I doubt there will ever be a party with this issue as its platform, or one with the previous issue for that matter. However this is of little since by this time a society has graduated to these levels, things like political parties would have lost all relevance.
