COME GOOD RAIN BY GEORGE SEREMBA DRAMATURGICAL PORTFOLIO
Form and Context
Form
Come Good Rain is a play that was originally performed by the playwright George Seremba as a one-man show. The play is told by Seremba as he recounts the details of how Uganda’s political unrest has affected his life. It involves an assasination attempt against Seremba, who was saved by rain.
Context
George Seremba
George Paul Bwanika Seremba was born in Kampala, Uganda and fled Uganda in the 1980s because Milton Obote’s military intelligence were trying to kill him (Brown) (King, 1). Seremba describes his childhood as being violent and traumatic (Koehler).Seremba also mentions the protests that he contributed in against Idi Amin, who held power from 1971 to 1979 (Koehler) (Olaogun, 430). Seremba first fled to Kenya, then Canada in 1984 before settling in Dublin, Ireland (Brown) (King, 1). Seremba completed his degree in English literature and has a PhD from Trinity College and has enjoyed a career as both a playwright and an actor (Brown) (King, 1). His notable works as a playwright include The Grave Will Decide, Come Good Rain, and Napoleon of the Nile (Brown).
George Seremba details how his failed execution played out in the play. Seremba says “what they lacked in technologically sophisticated torture, they made up for in psychological torture” (Koehler). They would have Seremba bark, poked him with their rifles and burn him with their cigarettes (Koehler). They planned to execute Seremba in the jungle. They pelted him with bullets and grenades then left him for dead (Koehler). Seremba would have bled to death if it had not been raining that night (Koehler). The rain helped his body to clot his wounds until a boy found him the next morning (Koehler). Seremba managed to escape, with the help of family and friends, to Canada, where Come Good Rain was written (Koehler).
Milton Obote
Milton Obote was an Ugandan politician born on December 28, 1924 and died October 10, 2005 at the age of 80 (Marshall, 1). He was the prime minister and president of Uganda twice and was overthrown forcefully both times (Marshall, 1). It is estimated that “more than 500 000 people died during Obote’s second presidency as a result of him trying to make people move from rural areas into cities” (Marshall, 1).
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Obote was born in northern Uganda in the village called Akokoro to a “farmer and minor chieftain of the Lango tribe” (Marshall, 1). He was born the third out of nine children. He was educated in Lira at a Protestant missionary school and went to Makerere University College in 1948, but dropped out two years later (Marshall, 1). Obote worked various jobs in Buganda before landing a political apprenticeship in Kenya working in an engineering firm (Marshall, 1). After returning home in 1955, Obote created the Uganda National Congress and later joined the Uganda legislative council as a proper politician (Marshall, 1). Obote became the prime minister in 1962. After allegations of Obote’s involvement in a gold smuggling scheme, Obote suspended the constitution and positioned himself as the executive president (Marshall, 1). Obote drove Sir Edward Mutesa II, the king, into exile for challenging his government (Marshall, 1).
Idi Amin
Idi Amin ruled Uganda for a devastating eight years. It is believed that his body count went up to 300,000, many of whom were ordinary people like farmers and students (Kaufman). Amin recruited people from his home region to make up his Public Safety Unit and the State Research Bureau (Kaufman). Their job was to pick people to humiliate or kill (Kaufman). The reasons vary from the fact that they wanted their women, house, money or a certain person was a part of a group that was marked for humiliation (Kaufman). These people were either shot or were forced to fight each other to the death (Kaufman). There were also more prominent people that were chosen to be made an example out of and created public terror, like surgeons, judges, churchmen and educators (Kaufman). A notable killing included an elderly woman named Dora Bloch who was taken from the hospital and killed after an Israeli rescue mission (Kaufman). Amin also made public comments that mocked the people he had killed or other foreign rulers, like Queen Elizabeth II who he said would “send him her ‘25 year-old knickers’ in celebration of the silver anniversary of her coronation” (Kaufman). He also offered to be the king of Scotland to overthrow the British as well as have many white residents of Uganda to carry him on a throne and bow before him (Kaufman). His comments about Europe gained him many supporters, but his erratic behavior caused some to dismiss him as crazy (Kaufman). Christopher Munnion, who was a journalist for the Daily Telegraph and also spent in Makindye military barracks. Munnion also saw 4 of his cell mates, all of whom were police officers, killed with sledgehammers (Kaufman). Munnion comments that the dismissal of Amin as simply being crazy, masked his shrewdness and calculated acts of violence (Kaufman).
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Amin was also on good terms with Obote (Kaufman). Obote promoted Amin to major. After Obote suspended the constitution, Amin was put in charge of the military and the police (Kaufman). On January 25 1971, while Obote was flying back to Uganda from Singapore, Amin seized power, forcing Obote into exile (Kaufman). On August 5th 1972, Amin announced that all Ugandans of Asian descent that held British passports would be expelled from the country. 40,000 people were given only 90 days to flee and could only take what they could carry with them (Kaufman). In April of 1979, during an attempt to annex the Kagera salient, Tasmanian forces and Ugandan exiles fought back and Amin, along with his Libyan allies, were forced to retreat (Kaufman). After a failed attempt to regain power, Amin spent the rest of his life exiled in Saudi Arabia. He converted to Islam and lived there with his 4 wives and more than 30 children (Kaufman). He died in 2003 at the age of either 78 or 80 (Kaufman).
Inspirations
Seremba has stated that the play is dedicated to his Auntie Gladys who he states “brought [him] back to health, not the doctors, some of whom would have been happy to let me die on the operating table because of my politics” (Koehler). Milton Obote had many supporters, even ones that did not directly work for him. This included some doctors, according to Seremba (Koehler). At a performance of Come Good Rain in Ottawa, according to the director Isabelle Fox, there were Obote supporters that proceeded to make a ruckus (Koehler).
