African culture Archives – Page 4 of 5

Of grace, forgiveness and tears

4 Comments / Hamilton Spectator, Newspaper columns / March 30, 2013 / 2013, African culture, African university life, Christianity, Easter, global violence, Jesus Christ, Jesus' humanity, spirituality, suffering, violence in Africa / 4 minutes of reading

(The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, March 30, 2013)

KAMPALA, UGANDA ✦ I’m the odd man out in a loose circle in the campus home of the university president talking about God’s grace, an unsurprising discussion because, besides being a university and my own family’s home, this is a nearly century-old theological training centre.

The horrible news of late is the roadside murder of a young law student, John Otim, beaten dead with an iron bar for money that he didn’t even have.

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Will Barack Obama come to Africa?

Leave a Comment / Hamilton Spectator, Newspaper columns / February 16, 2013 / 2013, African culture, African politics, Barack Obama, Barack Obama and Africa, democracy in Africa, East-West relations, free elections, human rights, Kenya, Kenyan 2013 election, US President Barack Obama / 4 minutes of reading

(The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, February 16, 2013)

KAMPALA, UGANDA ✦ It was YouTube and it was Barack Obama talking to the neighbours in Kenya. You may have heard that they’re about to vote.

The last time the Kenyans did this, six years ago, 1,000 lay dead on the bloody streets. Another 600,000 were displaced, including here to Uganda where UN shelters near the airport are still up.

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Here is Africa. Don’t be afraid

Leave a Comment / Hamilton Spectator, Newspaper columns / January 25, 2013 / 2013, African culture, African politics, African university life, corruption, East-West relations, foreign aid, poverty, thievery / 4 minutes of reading

(The Hamilton Spectator – Friday, January 25, 2013)

ARUSHA, TANSANIA ✦ Edward should be fired. I can’t trust Alice. And our piano and laptop won’t resurface any more than anyone will know what happened to that $13 million.

This is how it’s going around here.

Not right here, actually. I’m on business one country over, just southeast from my home in Uganda. At the moment I’m drinking a cider of sorts, what the gentleman beside me called ‘rotten apples,’ a pretty good name, I think, for my recent experiences.

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New security plan is a good start; more now needed

Leave a Comment / Newspaper columns, The Standard / January 14, 2013 / 2013, African culture, African university life, thievery / 4 minutes of reading

(The UCU Standard – Tuesday, January 14, 2013)

MUKONO, UGANDA ✦ It was the children. “Daddy, daddy,” they said, unable to sleep. “What if the thieves are still out there?”

Yes, to add to the rotten tally of 2012, at year-end thieves stole our electric piano, the one my children loved. Six days later, thieves got my bride’s laptop plus valuables from her purse.

Two violations in six days from inside our campus home. It took our breath away. Six days.

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We’ll always pay for our actions

Leave a Comment / New Vision, Newspaper columns / January 14, 2013 / 2013, African culture, African university life, corruption, corruption in Africa, responsibility, security, thievery, Uganda / 3 minutes of reading

(The New Vision – Monday, January 14, 2013)

KAMPALA, UGANDA ✦ There are six of us around the table. We’re disturbed and talking about how to help. The place where we work and live and have friendships and worship with others is under attack.

Through 2012, this place, an educational institution, became, as one Ugandan said, “a den of thieves.” Then the new year had barely arrived when a campus home was broken into and robbed while its Ugandan family slept.

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Once, there was a poor, young girl …

2 Comments / Hamilton Spectator, Newspaper columns, Popular / December 15, 2012 / 2012, African culture, childhood, children, Christianity, Christmas, Froese biography, Jesus Christ, Mary, poverty, spirituality, suffering, Women's rights / 4 minutes of reading

KAMPALA, UGANDA ✦ Once there was a little Ugandan girl who loved school.

The girl, who had been an orphan when she was younger, loved learning new things and making new friends and pretty well everything about it, especially the stories.

Maybe she loved school all the more because of her years as an orphan, which started in a hospital in Mbarara, in western Uganda, where she was left abandoned when she was barely larger than a cat.

There she was given all she ever owned, her name, Hannah.

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Where words, mere words, mean trouble

Leave a Comment / Hamilton Spectator, Newspaper columns / November 3, 2012 / 2012, African culture, African politics, David Cecil, East-West relations, gay rights, homosexuality, human rights, suffering, Uganda, Ugandan art and politics, Ugandan politics / 4 minutes of reading

The official charge is ignoring orders of a public official. But the real problem is words. Just words.

You know, words can be enough. Too much, even, when they say this and that; when they’re relevant and lacerating; when they’re passed to others and speak more than anyone even realizes; when they speak truth that isn’t just truth to be understood, but that deeper truth that causes a lump in your throat because you know someone has experienced it with some amount of pain.

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About cults and this unforced rhythm of grace

1 Comment / New Vision, Newspaper columns / October 14, 2012 / 2012, African cults, African culture, Christianity, Christianity's global growth, grace, Jesus Christ, religiosity / 3 minutes of reading

There’s the guilt and fear. There’s the drama and emotion. There’s the conformity and the teaching of “Us versus Them.” Of course, there is also that feeling that you’re not good enough, that you have to somehow work your way into God’s love. These are hallmarks of cults, dangerous but strangely appealing religious groups like

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