In the duplicitous market of Iraq war industry, where reality is full of smoke and mirrors, a security services firm known as Watertight Security Services (WSS) has been training and sending thousands of Ugandans as mecenaries and security guards to Iraq since 2007.
So far, more than 10,000 Ugandans have gone to work in the country.
Young Ugandas are recurited and given military training in Uganda (by companies such as this outfit WSS) which entails weapon handling, shooting range drills and first aid.
Then they go to Iraq and work as security agents, guards, contractors providing the much need muscle and mental alertness necessary to re-stablize the chaotic country. Their work go a long way even if unaccounted to bolster up the American war effort in Iraq and to provide the much need order and security.
It is a dangerous job, but the pay is good.
“When I came back, I bought land and cows. All that money came from Iraq,” reported one of the veterans of this service.
Presently, applicants outnumber available places by more than 1,000. It has been reported that young Kenyans and perhaps Tanzanians are also lining up to seek “wealth and adventure” in Iraq.
The Zeng
The Ugandans are not new to Iraq. In pre-classical Islamic periods, there was a nation of the Zeng in Iraq around the in the southern provinces of Basra. It is said that those Zenjis came from the coastal and inland regions of the East coast of Africa such as Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya.
Many of these Zengis were free-booters seeking wealth, trade and adventure they had settled in Basra before the commencement of Islamic period, in the times when the Empire of Ethiopia ruled the land of Arabia. It must be recalled that the head waters of Ancient Ethiopia’s River Nile lie in the mystical mountains of Uganda.
After the expulsion of Ethiopian colonialism from Arabia around the year 570 A.D., a systematic oppression and degradation of those seen as formerly linked with the overthrown imperial power began.
In the new dispensation, even though there were still hundreds of thousands of free and privileged Zenjis, some other Zenjis, and Habbashis ended up with lowly social status such as workers, or slaves. Yet, Arabia was a land which traded in slaves from all nations and races across the face of the earth.
Eventually,around mid-800 AD free Zenjis, some black Arabs, and a few Iranian muslims traders, began a great revolt against the reigning Islamic power in Iraq. This alliance also made extensive use of Zenji soldiers, including rebels who had escape the slave mines.
The Zenji soldiers and sea men took over Basra following that insurrection. The Zenji then ruled Basra for about 15 years, until the Islamic caliph sent troops. Many of the rebels were massacred, and others were sold to the Arab tribes.
The fearsome reputation of these soldiers ensured that the rebellion would be memorialized in Arabian folk-stories as the Zenji revolt.
Work Standard
And we return to the 21st century to more mundane issues like the pay and work standard set for the 21st century adventure and fortune seekers of Uganda.
Stories appear intermittenly in the Ugandan media about disaffected workers with complaints about conditions and pay.
It appears that the government of Uganda is aware of this issue. Labour, Gender and Social Affairs Minister Gabriel Opiyo admits that there had been issues related to pay and work standard in Iraq but that the Uganda government was in the process of developing employment policies and protocols that will govern recuriting firms in East Africa.
Rasta Livewire Reports
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8341003.stm
http://www.africaresource.com/rasta/sesostris-the-great-the-egyptian-hercules/the-black-iraqis-%e2%80%93-afro-arabian-mesopotamia/
http://www.bogvaerker.dk/Elephant.html