Dissident Spotlight: Kakwenza Rukirabashaija
Kakwenza Rukirabashaija's arrests and detentions came after satirical novels about the government. His recent book details the torture he faced for writing his previous book.
In 2020, Ugandan author Kakwenza Rukirabashaija published his first book. It was a satirical novel called The Greedy Barbarian. The book was as flattering a portrait of Uganda’s dictator as it sounds.
Rukirabashaija was arrested and tortured. Then he wrote his second book, Banana Republic: Where Writing is Treasonous, a satirical novel about his torture and detention. Once again, Rukirabashaija was arrested and tortured.
Today, he lives in exile in Germany. He has also written a third book: The Savage Avenger. It’s a recounting of the torture he suffered under his censors in Uganda.
One of the most remarkable things about his story isn’t his survival — although surviving multiple stints in Ugandan prison is a marvel. It’s how funny all three of his books are.
Humor’s Stubborn Resilience
A dissident’s words aren’t the only affronts to a dictator’s worldview. Reinterpreting the words a dictator speaks is just as offensive.
It’s no wonder that irony, the reinterpreting of words, is so often the target of authoritarians. The details of public corruption can be dry, but laughter is contagious. Laughter directed at the dictator undermines his authority, and the ease with which laughter spreads makes satire and irony some of the most potent weapons dissidents possess.
Funny dissidents abound. Alexei Navalny was notoriously funny. Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, is a former comedian and one of the most effective of Russia’s antagonists. The second movement of Dmitri Shostakovich’s 13th symphony is about how rulers cannot contain humor in prisons or through force.
Rukirabashaija is part of a proud tradition of dissidents whose sense of humor is central to their resistance. In a Nov. 26, 2024 tweet, Rukirabashaija called for a public day of vulgarity to appropriately describe Uganda’s officials:
“Ugandan public officials only listen when you use vulgar to describe them. Before that, you will call out their incompetence and they’ll never listen. You will cry of poor service delivery, corruption and human rights violations and they’ll never listen. Then call one a pair of buttocks or half-bleached bums or mabaati thieves and you’ll see how enraged they can be! Pure idiots masquerading as leaders.
I hereby announce a national vulgar day where we shall insult, abuse, describe and terrorise our leaders verbally. Will they arrest everyone?
I’ll announce the day towards the beginning of election year. Some will die of heart attacks.”
When it’s announced, be sure to mark Uganda’s National Vulgar Day on your calendar. There’s probably someone you feel deserves a coarse description.