We are a society of contradictions

Mzee Ambilikile Mwaisapile aka Babu wa Loliondo passed on at a respectable age of eighty six. Chances are that, if media reports of his passing had used only that name few would have paid attention or read to the end. However, it is a different story when the headlines were about ‘Babu wa Loliondo’, one of his several nicknames given to him by media or society because with that alias he is readily recognizable than many cabinet miniters, past and present.

A decade ago, he rose to prominence within the Great Lakes countries by claiming that an herbal concoction offered in a cup by himself no less possessed magical healing powers to several deadly diseases with some of them still without prevention or cure in modern medicine. The whole country heard of a village called Samunge where he lived.

This village which at the time had reliable mobile telephone communication or a decent road, witnessed hundreds of thousands of caravans of people to and from Samunge, all going to get their cup for a very minimal price. Media reports at the time reported of sick people being taken out of hospitals to Samunge, others who were on various medicines per their physicians abandoned all that for kikombe cha Babu. It was surreal how he took the East Africa by storm.

People from all walks of life, who would have otherwise never crossed paths, from high flying cabinet members to the very poor in society all headed to Samunge. Some government authorities tested the contents of the ‘cup’ and only said that they were safe for human consumption but said nothing of their medicinal properties, if any. People were undeterred. They had been going to Samunge way before government authorities showed up.

They had their faith in some herbal concoction by some unknown old man in a remote village they had never heard of before.

Fast forward a decade later, and in the midst of an ongoing pandemic, the same society has doubts about the safety of Covid-19 vaccines in the long term. There is a raging debate with some who are passionately pro-vaccines and others who are passionately anti-vaccines with another good number of those who have their doubts but will not make up their minds about the jab just yet.

Vaccine hesitancy is nothing new and it is not limited to this country. The issues raised have ranged from the high powered to downright ludicrous by those opposed to vaccines. However, proponents of the vaccines have failed to better comprehend this issue. The same society goes for a ‘miracle cup’ or some ‘anointed water’ provided by some religious preachers claiming that they possess some magical properties to help them with whatever they are going through with in life.

The answers for those urging the rest of the country to embrace vaccines have been general and more or less from the same script. There has been no efforts made to better understand the groups which are anti-vaccines. Are they from the rural areas or urban dwellers? What of their education? Do they know of their age groups?

Bottom line it is a question of trust. Where do these people get their information? Where do they get their news? Which sources are more trusted than others? These people are not a single group of people even though they converge on the same issue. Do they trust what they hear from the government and their leaders? In this pandemic the focus has been on the endgame but the journey to make it there which is more important has not received the same amount of attention. As such real or imaginary doubts persist fuelling misinformation in this day of instant messaging and social media.

We are a society of contradictions. These contradictions are everywhere in our daily lives. There are those who went to Samunge a decade ago and those who did not go there back then who find themselves sharing nearly the same arguments for and against Covid-19 vaccines today.

As they say, the lighthouse does not stay in the same place for long. Our contradictions are not going anywhere but the issues will be something different with the passage of time.

After all, we rarely pay too much attention to detail.