Wokeness Vs
Feelings
By Byagaba Roland.
W oke is a political term of African American
origin that refers to a perceived awareness
of issues concerning social justice and
racial justice. It is derived from the African
American Vernacular English expression “stay
woke“, whose grammatical aspect refers to a
continuing awareness of these issues.
Johnson considered himself a woke man. He
was not burdened by the circus of capitalism
because he’d read widely about it and
other things. He figured he could sense it’s
agents from a mile away and engage swerve
protocols.
When he found a girl that extracted the feels
from his heart, his hope was that she was
as capitalism-woke as he was. They’d be
unstoppable. If she was lacking in wokeness,
he was confident he was convincing enough
to get her to embrace his perspective.
Along came Martha. With the kind of hotness
wet dreams are made of. With eyes that
hypnotized. With a heart that held the secrets
to world peace. With an intellect that easily
marched his, most likely exceeded even.
Johnson just allowed. I mean. Even you
wouldn’t you allow with the way I’ve described
her?
“
Henewe, Johnson still feels a hard guy.
Martha agreed with certain bits of capitalist
arguments but that was on the logical level.
On the emotional level, she was a full-blown
slave to capitalism, romantic capitalism to be
specific.
‘Never mind, it was
just an idle thought’
she responded and
hit him with the full
power of her juju eyes.
Johnson had work to do suppressing this
emotional level and this was a battle he was
determined to win.
On one of the dates, she remarked ‘Johnson,
nga you’ve never bought me flowers?’
Johnson’s fork paused mid-air. ‘Pardo’, said
he.
‘Never mind, it was just an idle thought’ she
responded and hit him with the full power of
her juju eyes.
But Johnson was wise enough to realize this
wasn’t just an idle thought. This needed to be
dealt with before it grew into a proper thought,
a legit idea and then a full full movement.
That’s probably how people power grew and
he wasn’t going to take any chances.
‘My ffene, I thought we talked about this.
Flowers as a romantic gesture are an illusion
that has been sold to us by bees to keep them
relevant in humanities eyes and maintain
our animosity towards their arch-rivals, the
wasps. My juicy ffene, you can’t let yourself
succumb to the clutches of….’
‘My sweet kikajjo…’, she interrupted my TED
talk as she reached out across the table and
held my hands in her soft and depression
curing hands. ‘It’s OK. How is your food? Let’s
talk about other things.’
Johnson listened to her switch topics and
whereas he’d expected relief that the situation
had been dealt with, instead he felt a strange
mix of elation and dread. Dread because
he knew he was going to be buying for her
flowers. The bees and wasps be damned.
And then elation because he knew the act of
buying Martha flowers would make her happy.
And she’d bless with him with a miracle-
performing smile. And he’d be so happy. And
he was woke enough to know that was better
than logic.
ROTAMIRROR Holiday Issue 2018
18
BE GRATEFUL FOR WHAT
YOU HAVE.
The plan to spend some time
with children at the Bless a Child
Foundation was on, this is a home for
children diagnosed with.
On a beautiful Saturday morning
blessed with falls of rain all roads
leading to Kikoni Sir Apolo Kagwa
road we teamed up with the Bless a
Child Foundation family to prepare a
delicious meal for all that would go
down after a long day filled with lots
of fun.
Later in the day we managed to have
a one on one with the staff as well as
the children and we were amazed by
their unique stories shared by each
one of them.
It is amazing how they played so happily with
us despite the so much pain they were going
through. So much leant, this opened my eyes to
reality I am now more grateful than ever before
because I have every reason to be. knowing
that some someone at bless a child foundation
has their ear almost falling off but still playing,
laughing and dancing along to good music.
I now walk for kilometers without complaining
because someone at bless a child foundation
wished they were me for just a day so they can
feel the fresh morning breeze, move around
the city, jump up high and praise God but that
is not possible due to the fact that they where
diagnosed with cancer of the spine.
Thanks to the Rotary family for it would have
never crossed my mind to visit this organization.
By Shamsa Namatovu
ROTAMIRROR Holiday Issue 2018
19