Why Uganda Needs Cultural Reform to Deal with Deviance

If you have lived in Uganda for some time now, you must be very angry at how Ugandans of all levels tend to behave lately either on the road, in banks, neighborhoods, workplace, worship centers, supermarkets, roads and any other place you may find more than two people.  We have really changed from the caring lot that we were known to be, to being the deviants that the world is yet to see.

We no longer follow any written down rules, norms, cultural values, regulations or even laws of the country, we have all the sudden become unruly, unfriendly uncourteous, we care less about the neighbor, friend, relatives, spouses, customer, clients, citizens, other road users and banking hall comrades, throwing rubbish out of our car windows into the road, grabbing what doesn’t belong to us simply because we are powerful and well placed, steal from the orphans and widows,  destruction of public facilities, simply because in our ignorant mind they belong to government, we have become so defiant that, it’s almost becoming norm in our lives.

Deviance now defines everything we stand for and soon the country that was once described as the pearl of Africa may require a new name if we don’t engage a cultural/value reform to deal with this evil spirit that is posseting the whole nation.

It’s now fashionable for one official to steal all funds meant for a hospital, school, road, salaries, gratuity or pension and it’s ok, no one asks questions and the culprit doesn’t feel guilty for doing so, and he will be praised for working hard and changing his fortune. Or telling a blatant lie for political gain and it’s still ok, and we will clamp for them.

It’s very ok, for another road user to keep in the lane for hours respecting traffic laws and rights of people using the opposite lane but some Ugandans are not embarrassed to leave their lanes and drive in lanes meant for the incoming vehicles and making the traffic jam worse, simply because the spirit of deviance is possessing them and they see those keeping oi their lane as time wasters and people who are not serious at all.

How many times have you quarreled with people who can’t keep in queues in banking halls simply because they are more human than the rest, and they will not even apologize for doing so as if it`s their right not to queue!

Cultural values are the core principles and ideals upon which an entire community exists, it is ideas about what is good, right, fair, and just. It is the set of values and generic beliefs that individuals naturally learn through education and socialization and that are recognized and shared by the members of a society; this is made up of several parts: customs, which are traditions and rituals; values, which are beliefs; and culture, which is all of a group’s guiding values and violation of these we become deviants.

We have different theories put across by sociologist in an attempt to highlight the reasons why we become deviants and how we may deal with it and below are some few examples;
Deviance is any behavior that violates social norms and is usually of sufficient severity to warrant disapproval from the majority of society. Deviance can be criminal or non‐criminal.

Today, sociologist consider such activities as alcoholism, excessive gambling, being nude in public places, playing with fire, stealing, lying, refusing to bathe, what type of clothes are appropriate for different situations purchasing the services of prostitutes, and cross‐dressing—to name only a few—as deviant.

People who engage in deviant behavior are referred to as deviants and many theories have been put across in an attempt to highlight why people become deviants and it would be good for us here to benchmark on some of these explanations and see how we can deal with these deviant behaviors that are eating away our social fabrics.

John Hagen (1994) provides a typology to classify deviant acts in terms of their perceived harmfulness, the degree of consensus concerning the norms violated, and the severity of the response to them. The most serious acts of deviance are consensus crimes about which there is near-unanimous public agreement.

Acts like murder and sexual assault are generally regarded as morally intolerable, injurious, and subject to harsh penalties. Conflict crimes are acts like prostitution or smoking marijuana, which may be illegal but about which there is considerable public disagreement concerning their seriousness.

Social deviations are acts like abusing serving staff or behaviors arising from mental illness and addiction, which are not illegal in themselves but are widely regarded as serious or harmful. People agree that they call for institutional intervention.

Finally, there are social diversions like riding skateboards on sidewalks, overly tight leggings, or facial piercings that violate norms in a provocative way but are generally regarded as distasteful but harmless, or for some, cool.

The differential association theory applies to many types of deviant behavior. For example, juvenile gangs provide an environment in which young people learn to become criminals. These gangs define themselves as countercultural and glorify violence, retaliation, and crime as a means of achieving social status.

Gang members learn to be deviant as they embrace and conform to their gang’s norms. Differential‐association theory helps us understand that People learn deviance from the people with whom they associate.

So, looking at how we have suddenly become deviants and the most culpable group being the people below 40 years (B40s), tells a lot about this theory and how true it is regarding Ugandans situation, the elders are more inclined to keeping law and order, staying in their lanes on the road, keeping in queues in banking halls and being courteous to others in comparison to the B40.

Another theory is the Anomie theory; which refers to the confusion that arises when social norms conflict. The primary contribution of anomie theory is its ability to explain many forms of deviance. The theory is also sociological in its emphasis on the role of social forces in creating deviance.

In the 1960s, Robert Merton used the term to describe the differences between socially accepted goals and the availability of means to achieve those goals. Merton stressed, for instance, that attaining wealth is a major goal of many people, but not all of us possess the means to do this, especially members of minority and disadvantaged groups.

Those who find the “road to riches” closed to them experience anomie, because an obstacle has thwarted their pursuit of a socially approved goal. When this happens, these individuals may employ deviant behaviors to attain their goals, retaliate against society, or merely “make a point.”

And many of our people who have adopted this method have tended up  as embezzlers, thieves, robbers and deviants, since they are always looking for short cuts to their goals what Merton calls innovation, which is one of the 5 types of deviance in terms of the acceptance or rejection of social goals and the institutionalized means of achieving them; Innovation as one of these types is a response due to the strain generated by our culture’s emphasis on wealth and the lack of opportunities to get rich, which causes people to be “innovators” by engaging in stealing and or selling drugs to meet their set goals. And this has driven our people into corrupt tendencies and other deviant behaviors as we have seen.

According to Walter Reckless’s control theory, both inner and outer controls work against deviant tendencies. People may want—at least some of the time—to act in deviant ways, but most do not. They have various restraints: internal controls, such as conscience, values, integrity, morality, and the desire to be a “good person”; and outer controls, such as police, family, friends, and religious authorities. Travis Hirschi noted that these inner and outer restraints form a person’s self‐control, which prevents acting against social norms. The key to developing self‐control is proper socialization, especially early in childhood. Children who lack this self‐control, then, may grow up to commit crimes and other deviant behaviors.

This is a theory that can help or helps many would be deviants deal with it, so every time you are constrained to act defiantly just know it’s this reckless control theory that is in motion, and that is what our B40s are lacking.

It’s our job to properly socialize our new generation for self-control and preservation.

Its only after we undergo a value reform that we may deal with this evil, otherwise we are soon losing all the social fabrics that once made us a pearl of Africa, there is no one else to change things here but ourselves, we need to put in place values system that our children and their children will inherit and be proud of. We must create an image of a country that everyone is proud to belong to, otherwise, we are first losing that. As parents, teachers and leaders and citizens of this nation, we must undertake this as our cardinal assignment and make the pearl Great again.

For God and my country.