Pork, Puritanism and Populism: Religious hubris as a danger to constitutionally guaranteed freedom

Last week, violent clashes broke out in Yumbe district over, of all things, pork.

It is a poorly kept national secret that many Ugandans treat this as a delicacy. Indeed, many lifelong friendships (not to mention marriages) and other abiding ties have been forged, and strengthened over the years, by a shared love for pork (and alcohol).

The Yumbe ‘disturbances’ were, therefore, inevitably designed to capture national attention. It transpired that the skirmishes were informed by an edict issued by a particular Muslim Sheikh – Kassim Abdallah – who had taken it upon himself to determine what meat could be consumed in that area.

It seems that he was particularly emboldened by the fact that many, if not most, people in that district are Muslims. In a video clip circulating on social media, Sheikh Abdallah says quite menacingly: ‘I sound it as a warning… there is no pork joint which will ever be here. We do not like it. This is our district. And it is a Muslim district. That is why you see … any leader coming here, he salams.

Even though he is not a Muslim. Because they know there is Islam here. Why do you roast pork here? … We do not want pork here … And we shall still knock them to death. No pork joint in Yumbe. This is a Muslim district … In our worship there is no pork joint.’

Fighting words, and deadly serious ones. Sheikh Abdallah lays claim to an entire district, based on demographic factors, and proceeds to lay down ‘law’ derived from religious dictates.

Now imagine if somehow this Sheikh had control of serious State power in Uganda. Would he not declare Uganda a Muslim country and proceed to generalize the ‘Yumbe declaration’ to all parts of the country?

The public response to Sheikh Abdallah’s pronouncements has been as might be expected – with broad condemnation across the board. Many people begun re-circulating an old video clip (which first surfaced a couple of years ago), in which President Museveni says: ‘If somebody has eaten pork, has he put it in your mouth? No, he has put it in his mouth. He has put it in his mouth. And you are rioting … disturbing peace. That somebody has put pork in his mouth? We shall teach you a lesson.’

Although an older statement, it is certainly a most fitting response to the ‘Yumbe incident’. Unfortunately, President Museveni has in the past himself been guilty of adopting more or less the same stance as that of Sheikh Kassim Abdallah.

Not too long ago, when Hon. Asuman Basalirwa and a broad coalition of persons and entities (many acting out of religious fervour) introduced a law penalizing sexual minorities in Uganda, Museveni offered his full support to that law on the basis that the behavior of the targeted groups was ‘disgusting’.

On another occasion, the President again expressed disgust at the sexual preferences of some Ugandans, arguing that ‘the mouth is for eating’. At yet another time, the Head of State (perhaps half-jokingly) case aspersions of a group he described as ‘those Banyankore who eat pork’.

Evidently, the President shares at a certain visceral level, the prejudice, animus – and hubris – exhibited by Sheikh Kassim Abdallah with regard to persons who do not share certain beliefs or choices of his.

And tragically, the President went along with the religious and populist mob which conspired, through law, to use criminal sanctions to humiliate and oppress an entire section of Ugandans who happen to express themselves sexually in a form the majority finds distasteful.

It was exactly this danger – of groups weaponizing religion and religiosity to transform their beliefs into public law and policy – that Article 7 was included in the 1995 Constitution.

This deceptively simple provision reads: ‘Uganda shall not adopt a State religion’. It is one of the shortest, if not the shortest provisions of the Constitution.