On October 14, Luket Ministries, an Oklahoma missionary group working in Eastern Uganda, released a music video that has caused quite a stir.
In the 5 minute, 13 second video, seven young white women are dressed in ‘gomesi’ — the traditional and esteemed long dresses of the Baganda, a central Uganda ethnic group. The women dance to Justin Timberlake’s “SexyBack” while a singer delivers a new set of lyrics. The theme is “I’m bringing missions back …. I’m out to serve God, it’s my pact.”
Describing life in Uganda, the singer says, “You best deworm or get your money back, put up your net, mosquitoes will attack, bring in your laundry on your back.” The seven women pretend to fetch water in yellow jerry cans and slash grass with machetes. They ride on motorbike taxis driven by Ugandan men.
The music video ends with a display of random statistics about poverty in Uganda — for example, 63 percent of the population lives on less than $2 a day — and a vague call to action: “Go. Get your missions on.”
Natasha Perryman, co-founder of Luket Missionaries, is credited for the lyrics. She appears in the video eating sukumawiki (collard greens), a staple Ugandan dish.
We are both from Uganda, and we were offended by the video. In our view, it’s outrageous to show seven white women offering an exaggerated depiction of the daily lives of Ugandans who are struggling to survive — even if the intent was to use humor to make people aware of issues in Uganda.
Luket Ministries has issued an apology on its Facebook page: “We respect and honor all cultures within our ministry and family. We apologize for promoting any view that would show otherwise.” But we are still deeply troubled by the video, which is part of an unfortunate tradition of what some call the “white savior complex” — perpetuating the idea that only a white foreigner has the solution to the challenges facing Africa.
To be sure, there are a myriad of American-led aid organizations doing incredible work in Uganda — and working with our communities with respect to help solve intractable challenges such as poverty, lack of food and lack of access to quality health care and education and clean water, to mention a few. We know that the Luket Ministries video doesn’t speak for such groups.
We hope that in the future, any group that claims to serve people “throughout the world” — that’s how Luket Ministries describes its work — will respect the dignity of the people they serve. But sadly, we will not be holding our breath.
By James Kassaga Arinaitwe and Viviane Rutabingwa | NPR
