Hi Caleb, Thank you for sharing with us what transpired at the MASU function. It is exciting to hear that you have kept close touch with our students' organisations at Makerere. The students definitely need that kind of role-modelling from MASU ancestors like you who made significant controbutions to make the organisation what it is today. I also appreciate the challenge Dr Ezati Alidria, the Patron of MASU gave the students to see our senior citizens like Mr Etima, Dr Adriko, Tom Buruku, Mr Obitre gama, Mr Nyakuni etc as source of inspiration. They have indeed inspired many of us in life. Am also happy to learn that the students are becoming focussed and addressing issues of concern to the wider community. Otherwise, the students had run MASU down to a point where people had began losing interest in them because of their unbecoming behaviour in parties. They had made MASU functions to become a stage for blood letting and epitom of hooliganism and foolishness which no one would like to associate with. For a number of years MASU functions contintinued to be characterized by severe fighting, destruction of property and students being arrested and taken to police for crime etc. It is encouraging that some positive changes are being reported of MASU students. However on your proposal to change the name of MASU to Mugbara Students Union or Lugbara Makerere Students' Association i beg to differ for three or so reasons. First of all in my view Arua is a cosmopoplitant district and not entirely a Lugbara community. The Majority of the population in Arua may be Lugbara but a significan proportion of the population in Arua has historically comprised other communities like Alur, Kakwa, Nubians/Aringa, Madi etc. Thus naming of the Association after Lugbara ... may not be appropriate as some sections of the population from Arua might feel alienated. Secondly i feel we should not change the name of MASU into something else because of historical and cultural reasons. Historically MASU was the first cultural students' organisation known to have existed in the history of Makerere if what the founders told us by word of mouth is any thing to go by. Changing the name may delink the organisation from its historical identity from which it should continue to draw inspiration and strength. Thirdly am of the opinion that changing the name of MASU because other people's organisations have tribal or ethnic names such as TESDA, AMSA may be counter productive as no two communities share exactly the same sociocultural identities. Our situation are not exactly the same as the situations in those communities. I would like to humbly propose that the name of MASU remains as it is but MASU should make a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis of itself and realign its activities to take care of all the usbcommunities in Arua. This will necessitate a strong, vibrant, dynamic and committed leadership which MASU has not exhibited for a while. The students should stop electing leaders on the basis of ones capacity for offering "Malua" at Kikonyi or Makerere Kivuli. Forgive me those who love malua, i just wanted to make a point. I hope Mr .... will accept my apology. Thank you and let the conversation continue for it is through such open and frank discussuions that we might stumple on some thing useful. Sam Andema University of British Columbia Box 34 6335 Thunderbird Crescent Vancouver, BC V6T 2G9 Canada
--- On Mon, 6/4/09, Caleb Alaka <calebal...@yahoo.com> wrote: From: Caleb Alaka <calebal...@yahoo.com> Subject: [WestNileNet] MASU Finalist and Hand Over Party. To: "A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile" <westnilenet@kym.net> Date: Monday, 6 April, 2009, 12:26 AM Hi, Over the weekend, I and Eng. Okuni represented the rest of you at this years Makerere Arua Students Union Finalist and Hand Over party. The Chief Guest was non other than Uncle Tom Buruku. Before he took to the podium, Dr. Isaac Ezaati the Patron MASU unveiled uncle Tom in a manner that could make the Queen of England bow to the occasion. He told us to look at Tom Buruku, Obitre Gama, Joseph Etima, Dr. Eric Adriko, James Nyakuni as People who should inspire us and act as our role models.The Students seem to have gained actual focus. They addressed the issue of poor academic performance in West Nile, Land use and other factors. When I was given an opportunity to address them, I opined about the need to transform MASU to something similar to LUSU (Lugbara Students Union), LUMSA (Lubgara Makerere Students Association) or LUSDA (Lubgara Students Development Association. Why all this. MASU used to cover Arua which included Kobobo, Yumbe, Maracha, Terego, Ayivu, Madi Okollo, and Vura. Now we have Koboko District, Yumbe District, Maracha Terego District and Arua district which now has only Vura, Ayivu and Madi Okollo. So I thought we need to have a students association based on our cultural heritage. After all we have AMSA (Acholi Makerere Students Association), TESDA (Teso Students Development Association) Nkoba Zambogo (For Buganda) LASA (Lango Students Association) Basoga, and Banyakore etc students Association. This way we can salvage MASU since county based students Associations are being manipulated by selfish and egoistic Politicians who fear to meet a larger body of intellectuals and the students have almost bought the idea of being Vura, Ayivu, Terego, Madi Okollo, Maracha, Aringa e.t.c. Ya how do we conserve the Identity and Unity of our students? _______________________________________________ WestNileNet mailing list WestNileNet@kym.net http://orion.kym.net/mailman/listinfo/westnilenet % WestNileNet is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way.. _______________________________________________
_______________________________________________ WestNileNet mailing list WestNileNet@kym.net http://orion.kym.net/mailman/listinfo/westnilenet % WestNileNet is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. _______________________________________________
