Museveni challenges religious leaders to promote acceptable cultural practices

Mayuge, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | President Yoweri Museveni has tasked religious leaders to liaise with their counterparts in the cultural institutions in the quest to promote acceptable traditional norms and practices.

While speaking to the congregation during the Bishop James Hannington day celebrations in Kyando village, Mayuge district on Saturday, Museveni said both institutions should conduct independent audits on how best they can adopt acceptable values aimed at sustaining society.

Museveni who prides in championing the restoration of cultural institutions said that some cultural practices like child marriage and male dominancy, as treasured in most African traditions underscore the basics of sustainability in modern societies.

He says that key players in both the religious and cultural sectors should jointly devise means of conducting extensive research studies on common acceptable practices, in the areas of marriage, general life, among others which will breed future generations of morally upright citizens.

He further challenged the religious leaders to take the lead role in sensitizing communities about their moral worth, adding that some elements within society have developed inferiority complex and they have gone ahead to bleach their skins because they want their skins to resemble like that of whites.

Museveni notes that much as some people view bleached skins as a form of beauty, such procedures contribute to people getting different illnesses like cancer.

The Archbishop of the church of Uganda, His Grace Kazimba Mugalu rallied politicians to avoid selfish tendencies and instead embrace forgiveness as a means of promoting continuity within their communities.

On her part, the first Deputy Premier, Rebecca Kadaga retaliated the call to have Bishop Hannington day gazetted as a public holiday, since he is the first martyr to be murdered in the country.

Kadaga adds that such a move will promote religious tourism, which will in turn create an income generation avenue for both the Anglican church and the entire country at large.

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