Editor’s note: this article is part of the “Covid-19 Reset” project, where the LéO Africa Institute is asking its fellows and associates to imagine a new, progressive post-covid world for our respective communities and countries.
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Heavy is
The head that wears the presidency/ because even in a crisis/ misinformed criticism is ever present/ heavy is the head of the public servant/ police officer/ nurse and other poorly salaried essential worker/ who has to work when we can’t/for the same salary/ I am not sure whether we have public service or public slavery.
Heavy is
The head of a primary school student/ studying about communicable diseases in a pandemic/ even after the president communicated a total closure of schools/ Kabojja taught on/ teaching pupils for a certificate that won’t even matter/ teaches kids that obedience of rules is optional/ what options do day to day earners have/ except being imprisoned at home/ with poverty/ we have a poverty of means/ and a poverty of manners/ when bars stay open/ and openly expose us to the danger of infectious death/ there is a dying of empathy/ when the church insists on paying tithe and offertory by mobile money/ while offering no money or aid/ to those who are struggling/ except bible verses that say this is because of our sin/ why aren’t we sincere enough/ to condemn religion as nothing but organized crime/ Mbonye surrogates pay for prime time TV airtime/ to ask us to defy science/ defies logic that chicken thieves spend years on remand/ and such pastors spend years free/ demanding money for miracles.
Heavy is
The head of the COVID patient/have to patiently adhere to the doctors instructions for two to three weeks/two to three weeks of heavy breathing/ and heavy thoughts/ thinking about whether they will survive it/ if they will survive it/ if they will ever get to breathe in the cleansing air of home/ if home will not ostracize them/ at home I watched a news story about a COVID survivor/ who asked to be returned to the hospital because she didn’t have what to eat at home/ heavy is the head of the head of the home/ spending without earning/ struggling to earn the day’s bread/ while they give extra days of extensions/ to the lock down/ locked down in your house/ without anything to feed your children/ you feel the world close in on you/ close your eyes/ lets pray/ our father in heaven/forgive our sins/ and take away this plague/ we have caused it all/ by our transgression/ fornication/ prostitution/ corruption/ Africa has allowed homosexuality and lost itself to western civilization/ of alcohol consumption and mini-skirt fashion/today’s reading is taken from Ecclesiastes 11:6/ sow your seed in the morning and in the evening don’t let your hands be idle for you don’t which will succeed/ you don’t know which seed will succeed/ so plant both tithe/ and offertory/ and construction contribution/ and revival fee/ so that God can germinate financial prosperity for you in this lock down/ send your money to mobile money/ and watch God give you more money.
Heavy is
The head of the battered/ embattled house wife/ locked in the house with her tormentor/ taking heavy blows/ without any place to find refuge/ heavy is the head of a refugee/ crossing to find refuge/ only to be turned back/ we turned our back on medical workers and force them to work without PPEs/ while parliament turns itself into an appropriation committee for mass misappropriation/ and misinformation/ like with that Safraz Niaz cure/ while researchers try to find the cure for Corona/ another group of researchers should try to find a cure for greed/ huge supplementary budget allocations while the economy bleeds/ without enough ambulances to assist pregnant mothers in their time of need/ they breastfeed the baby they just gave birth on the side of the road and this is/ the reason we need to be serious about supporting scientists and not the usual political lip service/ serves as nothing except populist grandstanding/ I hope we understand that we will have more pandemics like this/ so this is the time to invest in preventing them/ who is to prevent employers from donating to the COVID fund/ and not pay their employers/ we use tear gas to prevent/ unpaid employees from striking/ you think the tear gas will cause a man more tears/ than the sight of his child swallowing water in the place of food/ which tears haven’t the people who were laid of cried/ and dried/ poverty is also a virus/ consuming its primary victim/ and spreading to cripple his dependants/ a lot of people depending on government for crisis food have not received it/ deepening the crisis/ the crisis of the economy is that no effort was put as supporting local industries/ instead of capitalizing UDB/ we capitalized patronage schemes/ to capitalize on the politics/ and so the impact of this virus/ on our import economy will be
Heavy.
