History is not made by a single man or woman. The story of it though can be. The story remains long after the actors are gone. To thrill us. To make us remember. But what do we actually remember? This is what 27 Guns is about.
One of the directors Natasha Museveni Karugire stated as much, “I believe it’s time to remove the clamps from our mouth and our spirit and speak and tell our own stories in our voices through music, literature, film and fashion. Our heritage, perspective and truth don’t need to be validated by strangers or foreigners. We have the authority as sons and daughters of God to speak forth, create and speak everything about who we are.”
First off, 27 Guns is worth watching. For many reasons. I don’t know that many films commissioned by an African first family. That alone makes 27 Guns a fascinating historic document for study. Years from now, this film will answer the, “What were they thinking?” question about the leaders of the National Resistance Movement/Army (NRM) at this particular phase in time when it was released in 2018.
27 Guns heralds the passing of a torch from one generation to the next that was then snidely nicknamed on Twitter (now X) as Descendants of the NRA. These descendants, like the princelings of the CCP big wigs in China after the death of Chairman Mao in 1976, were seen as being handed by their fathers and mothers certain roles and some power like those positions were theirs by right, like an inheritance.
Whether they were qualified or not. A development we have continued to witness in many public offices so often that it does not surprise us anymore that when a member of parliament dies, their child is expected to succeed them.
The film maybe about the bush war (1981-1986) that brought Uganda’s longest ruling government into power but the story is told by their children who have prominent parts in the film.
Another daughter Diana Museveni (formerly Kamuntu) plays their mother Janet Kataaha Museveni who is the current first lady and minister of education. She brings to the role of her mother a softness and vulnerability we never see in Janet’s iron lady public persona. In the film, Janet is a fearful mother terrified for the safety of her children, alarmed at her husband’s headlong dash towards the hail of bullets that always seem to be seeking him out.
But the performance that dominates 27 Guns is Arnold Mubangizi’s as Yoweri Museveni. Despite the convoluted story telling, the stilted dialogue, the sometimes-unimaginative camera work, Mubangizi commands attention as he tries to channel the charisma and vision Museveni is said to have possessed in those years. Charisma and vision that inspired Ugandans, high and low born, to put aside what they were doing at the time, and follow him into the bush, risking their lives for five years.
Many would not come back. More would not live to see the triumph of their dream march into bombed out Kampala on January 25, 1986. Some of those who did ended up wishing they had not. A few survivors of that harrowing bush war 38 years later still cannot believe they won and each June 9 demand new medals and contracts.
But that is not the story 27 Guns seems very interested in telling. There are several half hearted scenes to illustrate that the “people” were with the struggle. However, the “people” (wanainchi) are more background than lead actors in this historic struggle.
27 Guns is from beginning to end about one brave man (Museveni) leading the struggle to liberate his country from tyranny. The tyrants (Milton Obote and his government) are depicted as clownish incompetents who wanted to hold onto power for the sake of it, not to improve the lives of the population they led. This is a much-contested depiction today.
This is a film worth watching to argue with, a reminder that our history is not yet fully told. Not even close. Hardly at all.