Sunrise with Seamonsters Read Online Free PDF Page A

reopen for a week or more. I only looked over a few papers.

    This morning I was determined. I sat down at my desk. The weather is beautiful in Kampala, the rains have just stopped after about six weeks of downpours, and everything is emerald in the sun; the herons in the large tree outside on the lawn are flapping around and tending to their fledglings. But no distractions this morning! I must get those papers graded.
    The first paper, the first question.
What is a Nation
? "A nation," runs the quite elegant handwriting, "is a group of people of common consciousness and like-mindedness." I check it right. He has understood the lesson.
    And then I hear a small pop. Then another. I look across to the Kabaka's palace on one of the hills opposite and see nothing. I can see a few open streets from my window. There is no traffic. I hear the pop-pop-pop of an automatic rifle. Are they gunshots? I ask the secretary—she lives near the palace. She tells me that she had trouble getting through the army lines when she came to work in the morning. She saw five truckloads of government troops. Some were battling with the people of Buganda. I turn back to the paper. "The difference between Government and State is that the Government is not permanent while the State never changes..."
    The people of Buganda are proud. They love their king, they are polite and wise and seldom get ruffled. It is undignified, they might say. It was one of their kings, the first Kabaka Mutesa, who welcomed the first white men, Speke and Grant, into Uganda in 1862. The wide avenue leading to the palace is still called the We-Love-The-Kabaka road in the vernacular. This is the road where most of the fighting is taking place this morning. Back to the papers.
    The question was,
What are the advantages and disadvantages of decentralization of power in a state?
I check some of the answers: "When many people exercise responsibility many of them will be interested in the government..." I look up again. I have just heard more rifleshots, this time a long volley, some louder than others.
    The fighting seems much heavier today. It is hard to concentrate on the marking; and now students who are enrolled in evening classes are dropping in to say that, because of the curfew, they won't be in class tonight. Will I pass their names along to the teacher?

    A few weeks ago Uganda was a Federal State with each king acting as lawgiver and tax-collector for his particular kingdom. More recently the federal constitution was suspended and Uganda made a Republic. The Kabaka and the other monarchs, people said, would be angry; no longer would they have any power. But they have loyal subjects, as loyal as any medieval farmers standing in the rain on a muddy road to watch their lord pass in a gilded carriage. But I have it all before me in one of the papers: "Federal government is that in which a number of states join together, each state keeping control of some matters, but allowing the Central Government to control national defense and foreign affairs."
    Uganda is no longer a Federal State. I hear some objection to it, out the window, across the valley where there is shooting.
    The Kabaka has issued what amounts to an ultimatum: he will give Obote's government until May 30 to leave his kingdom and change his mind about the constitution. We can assume that the state of emergency
will last until then. I may even be grading papers until that date, perhaps these same papers.
    Grading papers is not hard work and, after all, some students seemed to have grasped the principles pretty well; they are teachers and they do all their studying by mail. The last question has provided some very good answers:
Why We Should Study Political Science—a short essay.
I can let one of my students speak: "As we live by the government we have to know our place and the part we have to play in political matters. This will also enable us to sort out current affairs and understand them when we read the