The Symbolism of Graduation

It is the first day of another graduation season at Makerere University. Lines of smartly dressed parents/ guardians and their graduating children are proudly streaming into the university through all the gates. Men in kanzus, men in suits and ties, men casually dressed ties, and of course the ladies are wearing all sorts of apparel. Graduation ceremonies remind me about my own first ceremony at this same old hill. Graduation is a rite of passage that marks the successful completion of one phase of life and the entry into formal employment, maturity, adulthood, paying income tax, contributing towards the bills at home, and eventual independence.

But heh as I think about graduation, my eye catches onto something odd, strange, weird... There is something off-beat about a man smartly dressed in a tie, whistling to a young hawker with trays of boiled eggs on his head. I watch this man-in-a-tie asking for the price of one boiled egg. And then he pulls out his old leather wallet. He digs into it for a crumpled note of 1,000/=, pays the boy and then proceeds to carefully choose one hard-boiled egg out of the tray. I think he chooses the biggest egg in the tray. This man-in-a-tie then cracks the hard-boiled egg against the other eggs remaining in the tray, removes the shells and takes a big bite of the egg-white. He reaches for the salt-shaker, sprinkles some salt onto his egg, and takes another bite. Getting his balance from the egg-hawker, the man-in-a-tie walks off as he continues to chew his boiled egg.

There is something enigmatic about a man in a tie buying a hard-boiled egg from a street-hawker on graduation day at the oldest university in Kampala. Surely graduation may still fail to deliver youths out of dependency on parents and guardians who dress smartly to celebrate the completion of university. What does graduation symbolise in Uganda today?

Stella Nyanzi

Start Over

When you've trusted God and walked his way,

When you've felt his hand lead you day by day,

But your steps now take you another way-

Start Over.

When you've made your plans and they've gone awry,

When you've tried your best and there's no more try,

When you've failed yourself and you don't know why-

Start Over.

When you've told your friends what you plan to do,

When you've trusted them and they didn't come through,

And now you are all alone and it's up to you-

Start Over.

When you've failed your kids and they're grown and gone,

When you've done your best but it's turned out wrong,

And now your grandchildren have come along-

Start Over.

When you've prayed to God so you'll know his will,

When you've prayed and prayed and you don't know still,

When you want to stop 'cause you've had your fill-

Start Over.

When you think you're finished and want to quit,

When you've bottomed out in life's deepest pit,

When you've tried and tried to get out of it-

Start Over.

When the year has been long and successes few,

When December comes and you're feling blue,

God gives a January just for you-

Start Over.

Starting Over means "victories won;"

Starting Over means "a race well run."

Starting Over means "God's will be done"-

So don't just sit there,...

Adapted