BOOK REVIEW
BOOK; TEARS & TRIUMPH
AUTHOR: ONAPITO EKOMOLOIT
433 PAGES
available in all major bookshops
Onapito Ekomoloit, Ona as he is popularly known, has lived a checkered life, the essence of which his book “Tears & Triumph” goes some way to capturing.
For a child, whose survival at birth was put in doubt by a difficult delivery, Ona’s life has taken a convoluted course that has seen him grow up in the Teso heartland, studied in Gulu, Kampala and Washington DC, start and close a newspaper, become an MP, appointed presidential press secretary before falling back into the private sector at Nile Breweries.
The colourful description of his childhood, which included getting up to mischief, eating all sorts of birds, his almost dropping out of school, though brief makes for good reading and sets the tone of the book early own. It is also useful record of how the typical rural child grew up and experience ath is lost to many with the advancements in technology and general development.
"The early loss of his mother almost derails his life until the forceful intervention of his older brother sees him back in school, setting the stage for a career that has far exceeded his expectations...
Born in 1966, he was witness to a sliver of Uganda at its best, before it descended into political instability and economic ruin. Born into the Iteso of eastern Uganda he remembers that their cattle were the bedrock of the economy, a foundation that was swept away with the massive Karimojong rustling of the 1980s, triggered by the coming to power of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) with far reaching implications for the Iteso and himself in particular.
The change in the fortunes of the Iteso was a major factor in taking him away from home to seek his fortunes elsewhere, which evidently widened his perspectives and broadened his horizons.
Despite a tumultuous childhood dotted with loss and tragedy, Ona had the brains to make it to Makerere on a government scholarship, no mean feat given that in those day’s intake to the only university was barely 2000 students. There were no private students.
Makerere at the time was the last hold out against the NRM, which had coopted all political forces onto itself. Uganda in an attempt to jump start the economy had come under the wing of the World Bank and IMF, among whose prescriptions was a rationalization of government. Makerere’s student stipends – “Boom” were not spared, setting the stage for a volatile relationship between student body and government.
Ona’s political bone was revitalized at Makerere, where he served as information minister in Emmanuel Dombo’s guild administration.
Was it that we were enjoying the book too much, but one feels that from his university days he kind of rushed through the book, skimming over his journalistic and political careers. His relationship with President Yoweri Museveni was more notable for how he escaped death at the hands of Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) than for his impressions and relationship with the president. He explains though that the president is a bit aloof from his staff, making it nearly impossible to attain any rapport. It may also be asking for too much by the reader that we get a deep psychoanalysis of the president given that he is still in power....
Nevertheless, his narration of his time serving as the press secretary adds useful details in understanding the Museveni administration, coupled with other accounts will with time give us a fuller picture.
Ona promises another book where he will dive into deeper detail about his life at Nile Breweries where he has now been elevated to the position of chairman.
Ona is relatively young and one has to think there is still a lot for him to achieve in the second half of his life. A second book therefore will be a useful addition to this his first effort.
It is an easy-to-read book with a lot humour and interesting anecdotes about and surrounding his life. On the whole he has told his story well and must be lauded for putting pen to paper as a record of the Uganda he has lived in, as one of pioneering group of journalists during the NRM era.
