Critically evaluate the Uganda National Examination Boards UCE and UACE syllabus for literature in English with focus on plays in section B UCE and; a) What social, economic and political reasons, justifies the syllabus. b) If it were up to you, make a list of possible literary texts you would propose to be taught in Ugandan schools. Tashobya Brighton, Alowo Charity, Acheing Rehema and Kahunde Joseline

The Uganda National Examinations Board draws its syllabus from the NCDC, a body that designs and draws the curriculum. The body also lays down the aims of teaching literature in English at secondary school level. UNEB is another body, a stake holder in implementation of the curriculum. The Uganda National Curriculum Development Center gives the following socio-economic and political justifications for the teaching of the Literature Subject at both UCE and UACE. To instill and promote national unity and an understanding of social and civic responsibilities, strong love and care for others and respect for public property as well as an appreciation of international relations and beneficial international cooperation. Promote an appreciation and understanding of cultural heritage of Uganda including its languages. Impart and promote a sense of self-discipline, ethical and spiritual values and personal collective responsibility and initiative. Enable individuals to acquire and develop knowledge and an understanding of the emerging needs of society and economy. Enable individuals to develop personal skills of problem solving, information gathering and interpretation, independent reading and writing, self-improvement through learning and development of social, physical and leadership skills such as obtained through games, sports, societies and clubs. To lay a foundation for further education and careers for the learners. The plays on the syllabus, specific for section B, UCE are “The government Inspector”, by Nikolai Gogol and “Voice of the people” by Okiya Omatatah. Government Inspector satirizes the corrupt officials in a small Russian town. When news of an inspector travelling incognito reaches them, they struggle to change the town. The flurry of activity to cover up their considerable misdeeds is interrupted by the report that a suspicious person has arrived two weeks earlier and is staying at an Inn. This individual Hlestakov, is however not the inspector but a case of mistaken identity and he takes a lot of money and loans from the mayor. The play satirizes evils of corruption and bribery portrayed through the mayor who takes bribes from the village Jewish. The mayor bribes Hlestakov in order to keep his position. This teaches the learners the negative effects of corruption. Incompetence among leaders is also satirized where leaders in the town take bribes for personal gains rather than for the good of the whole town. The poor social services to the people described through the dirty and filthy look of the town, the court and homes. The evil of exploitation of the masses is also satirized. The mayor constantly demands for bribes from the merchants. This inculcates the need for better moral ethical and spiritual values to the learners, thus full filling the UNEB objectives of teaching literature. On the other hand, the play Voice of the people is a critical analysis of power and dynamics of politics and warfare. The poor leadership and the adverse effects of war are sharply connected to poverty among people. Okiya tackles the illusion of poverty alleviation and the development agenda, portraying poverty as a vibrant industry on its own in Third world countries. In conclusion, the plays Government Inspector and Voice of the people address social economic and political needs and values in society such as corruption, incompetence of leaders, exploitation of masses by the leaders etc. It fulfills some of UNEB objectives of teaching literature as analyzed above thus a justification for it being taught. If given the opportunity, we would propose the play “Black mamba” by John Ruganda to be included in section B of the O’level literature syllabus. The play Black Mamba is about a shrewd unpaid houseboy Berewa who lives and works for a university professor Coarx. As Berewa’s struggle for a survival under unsympathetic circumstances intensifies, he develops the idea of pimping out his wife to his employer professor Coarx. This culminates into scandal, a brush with the law and Berewa’s wife having second thoughts about who she would rather be with. This would not be an unusual story in modern day Kampala and it’s therefore relevant in addressing the socio-economic and political issues in Uganda. The pay is full of biting criticism about the collective consciousness of society, the exploitation of common people, the various hues of corruption, prostitution, hypocrisy and sexual immorality. John Ruganda in his play Black Mamba satirizes the social evil of sexual immorality which is portrayed through the characters professor Coarx, Berewa and Namuddu. Professor Coarx engages in extra marital affairs with a number of women while his wife is away. He assigns his houseboy Berewa the task of getting him women to have sex with in order to satisfy his sexual desires. In bid to get quick money and get rich, Berea hatches a plot in which he pimps out his wife to his boss and hides her true identity. Though Namuddu argues that its evil for her husband to lend her out to another man, Berewa is insistent and reminds her of past Namuddu is thus continuously used as a sex object by professor Coarx who gives her a hundred shillings each time they have sex. This satirizes social evils such as prostitution, sexual immorality and exploitation. This will fulfill the UNEB objective of teaching literature which is to inculcate moral, ethical and spiritual values in the individual and to develop self discipline, integrity, tolerance, human fellowship and respect for public property. This is because it teaches learners moral lessons. The play also satirizes the social evil of exploitation of the poor by the rich. Professor Coarx over works his houseboy Berewa yet he pays him only a hundred shillings per month. This leaves Berewa poor and desperate that he pimps the wife to his boss to get rich. Berewa is happy when his boss gives Namuddu a hundred shillings after having sex with her yet it takes him a whole month of work to get the same pay. He realizes that pimping out his wife to his boss is a quick way of earning money yet the two are being exploited by professor Coarx thus satirizing the exploitation of the common people by the rich. This will create awareness among the learners about the existence of social classes and their effects on society. They will also be able to learn about exploitation of the poor thus fulfilling UNEB objective of teaching literature which is t promote the understanding and appreciation if the value of national unity, patriotism and cultural heritage. The social evil of hypocrisy is also sharply criticized in the play. Berewa's hypocritical nature is portrayed when Berewa lies to Odiambo that Namuddu is just a woman looking for a job and he also hides her true identity from his boss at the beginning of the book. Berewa's father was also a hypocrite because he pretended that he hated women yet he had ten wives. Professor Coarx advocates for morality and pretends to be a morally upright man before the society yet in reality he is a very promiscuous man. This is highlighted when he tells Namuddu to keep away because His students will be visiting him. At the end of the play we realize that professor Coarx has been a living lie, he has been wearing a social mask. However this mask drops when his private life comes out in the open. This will teach the learners the fact that one cannot keep in denial which fulfills the UNEB objective of teaching literature as a moral, ethical and spiritual tool. Corruption and bribery are too satirized in the play making it relevant in addressing the political issues. Through Coarx who tries to bribe Namuddu so as to avert the situation and his rotten private life is not exposed. He writes her a cheque but she rejects it. The police arrest him for promoting low-grade pleasure. This teaches the learners to be patriotic and not engaging in corruption. Conclusively, the play "Black Mamba" sharply satirizes social evils such as corruption, hypocrisy, exploitation of the common people, and bribery among others thus addressing the socioeconomic and political values in society and fulfilling the UNEB aims of teaching literature. Another play that we would suggest is “The bride” by Austin Bukenya. It focuses on the generation gaps and acceptance of foreigners into the norms of the society. Lekindo and Namvua love each other but Namvua being a foreigner; the elders led by Shundu, Lekindo's father are not ready to allow their marriage. Alongside members of the Rika, Lekindo wins them over after his refusal to lead the age group into killing foreigners. They unite towards peace, "this is our season, of peace not bloodshed, we too should be allowed to speak for our children and grand children". Such a play would promote the need for unity thus would instill the essence of unity, an objective of UNEB. Hypocrisy is also satirized in the play, Lerema wishes to marry Namvua as the high priest but he uses the dead son "skull" as the man, he claims that being priests of Wanga, they cannot die, however he is the actual person marrying Namvua, when Lekindo finds out, he exposes it and saves Namvua. This shows unity and care for on other among the rika of Albinos. This promotes self discipline, integrity as seen from the rika, tolerance and human fellowship, a UNEB objective. We would also propose the play “I will marry when I want” by Ngugi Wa thiongo which explores the evils of corruption and exploitation of the poor. Kigunda is continuously exploited by the kiyoyi’s. Through a simple loan they cannot pay back, they lose their land title, a possession they own. Ngugi crafts a class struggle and shows the extreme poverty in post colonial Africa, inadequacy of basic needs that the Kigunda even have to get salt from the neighbors, this biting poverty forces them to leave beyond their means and through impossibilities and depend on loans that throw them into further turmoil. Their daughter who is impregnated by the son to the kiyoyi’s is also dumped and this shows exploitation of the richer class. It further showcases the inability of the African governments to provide services to their people. Corruption and religious hypocrisy, the Kigunda bribe the judge to throw away the case, all these elements and vices I such communities are present in our Ugandan society, thus teaching this book will justify the objective of instilling morals, ethic values and spiritual values, Instilling unity into the students through mocking the vices in the play thus making it a more didactic to the learners. We would further propose the play, “A raisin in the sun” by Lorrain Hansberry which describes the hardships an African-American goes through, racism and segregation are further raised by Lorrain. The African-American family lives in poverty in south Chicago and they share the two rooms. The place is infested with roaches and even food is hard to come by, a lot of dreams are hanging in the family. The family all waits for a cheque left by the grandfather and each draws a plan for it, Mama wants to buy a house, Walter wants a liquor store and Benethea wants to finish her medical course. Ruth works tooth and nail order to provide for son and we learn that she “wipes other people’s children’s bottoms” in order to raise money, Walter is a driver to the white but his pay is meager and sometimes delays. When Mama buys a house in the white’s residence, the leader of the whites community, on finding out that they are black, he tells them to resell it. There is no just reason for forcing them out, the idea of tolerance and unity is stressed here. However at the end, the family decides through Walter not to sell the house but rather create an environment for the young generation. This becomes a turning point as the family heads into a bright future; such a play teaches tolerance satirizing racism, and the need for hard work and struggle. This fits the UNEB objectives of instilling unity, and to Impart and promote a sense of self-discipline, ethical and spiritual values and personal collective responsibility and initiative portrayed through Walters decision of keeping the house which is the main idea that defeats racial segregation. In conclusion, the plays proposed satirize and mock vices like corruption, exploitation, segregation etc which the UNEB objectives seek to rectify by encouraging unity, self-discipline, tolerance among others as analyzed above. References: 1. A raisin in the sun, Hansberry. L, Oxford press, 1987. 2. I Will Marry When I Want, Ngugi wa Thiongo and Ngugi wa Miri, East African publishers, 1998. 3. National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC) Project and designs 2015. 4. The Burdens, Ruganda. J. Heinemann publishers, 1997. 5. The Government Inspector, Gogol. N. penguin classics, Oxford press, 1993. 6. Voice of the people, Nairobi press, Omatatah. O. Nsemia publishers 2000.