Crazy Kennar did cook in his viral skit on the series of events that happen once one declares their intention to run for presidency in Uganda. Here, running for president is literal running; like the Cheptegei kind. Ugandans did not get angry. Of course not. Our national trauma response is laughter. We make fun of everything; power cuts, fuel prices, elections, even ourselves. So the skit landed not as an insult, but as a mirror.
On the TL, people laughed the way you laugh at a joke that hurts because it is accurate. Running for president against the regime, is not a campaign, it is more like free cardio. From his video, looks like in Uganda, opposition politics comes with a fitness tracker. The jokes kept coming. Someone reminded Kennar that he forgot we have picked leaders from Kenya before, because history must always be invited to the roast. We leaned into our unofficial global brand; a country so unserious that even our political repression comes with memes. Mbu Uganda is a documentary pretending to be a joke, mujooga banaye! while another declared the skit visa-free comedy for the whole world.
And yes, we noticed the details. Especially the accent. Ugandans appreciated the effort, but the timeline could not let it slide. The use of banange caused national concern. Right word, wrong pronunciation. You can joke about our politics, but please respect our vowels. As many were quick to point out, we speak better English than Kenyans, banange, which is the kind of completely unnecessary side war Ugandans will start even during a constitutional crisis.
That is the thing about us. We are deeply traumatised, but highly comedic. We do not protest first , we quote-tweet. We do not process pain quietly, we turn it into content because content is king . Is it not ? Being a global joke is not new; we have simply learnt to laugh louder before someone else laughs for us. Crazy Kennar did not offend Uganda. He joined the group chat. His skit worked because it was not exaggeration, it was familiarity, only wrongly represented on the accent.
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