Mary Karooro Okurut Tell Us!

It’s not the patriarch that shocks us.  It’s not his yielding subjects, who seem to enjoy being oppressed and never raise a voice. No. That has stopped shocking many of us. But what still eludes me are those who claim to be progressive, but continue to do the bidding of the dictatorial patriarch. Those who say they care, those who call themselves feminists, those who claim to know what is good but keep on doing what is oppressive.
In the spirit of criticizing the oppressors who are supposed to be our guardians, of questioning people from home who sell us to the war monger, I want to talk about you, Mary Karooro Okurut. I want to know if I’ve been lied to all along, or if you’re not above the lures of power and domination.
As a member of FEMRITE, which you founded, I always prided myself in believing I was part of a progressive organization, of a feminist society rooted in doing away with domination and taking the reins of all good things and female. But tell me, as you reached out and blessed our dictator with more power and more years of patriarchy, which part of you thought about FEMRITE and its ideals? What defense do you have for supporting life presidency? Isn’t it the least feminist thing to do for a woman in your position to vote for an old man to keep his hold on power? Isn’t that a betrayal of our sisterhood? Or has that word lost meaning?
What happened to all the good words that gave us such hope and dreams as we joined FEMRITE? Not forgetting the plusgood words used to get FEMRITE grants? What role are those stashes of feminist magazines at FEMRITE that I sometimes find myself lost in? What on earth is the point of being woke if you’re going to act like all the unwoke folks? Somebody tell me where the line is, and what shade of Grey we are in now. Because from where I stand, you all seem like traitors to humanity, to democracy, to equality, to liberation. But mostly, as a writer, you thwart our expectations more, Mary Karooro Okurut. It is bad for a human to aid dictatorship. But is a life threatening kind of terrible when an artist does it. And I think you need to tell us, what’s all this conflicting signals about what you are?

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