Boundaries and Restraint

..like having tea in Mummy's cup or taking her seat at the family eating 'table'. These silent rules drew invisible boundaries and planted the first seeds of restraint.

Community property was shared custody. The survival and social benefits of a village well were upheld in preservation of the livelihood of the community.

Now things have changed:

The ring-fence on Kapere's new acquisition beholds the village well. The envious eyes on a stolen treasure and thirsty tongues craning over the fence longing for sweet freedom, have turned Kapere into a semi god.

When we draw boundaries, we are practising restraint: putting the common good before our individual gain. This is one of the values that has fostered amicable relations and upheld communities for generations.

It starts at home, in the heart: you can not restrain in public what you have not restrained in your heart. We restrain under authority and within limits set by rules that govern us.

Out of home and the village,

Like re-known lawyer Daudi Mpanga once questioned: What then do you have to say about someone, who thinks they can change the long Buganda tradition of members of the same clan not getting married to each other, because the girl they love belongs to their clan?