Monday

Dreamsurfing (2020 Book by Aiko)

 

Sonny's Dream (in 2035 AD)...
Dreamsurfing is the exploration of dreams and visions. It's a journey through the Subconscious Mind, tour of Inner Space as oneironauts (dream astronauts) or trek in Dreamland and involves recording eg on paper, electronics, etc. Dreamvisions travel faster than sound and light. I wish I could be very creative like DALL•E 2 or draw my dreamvisions as fast as the robot Sonny in I, Robot (2004 film), my personal Best Will Smith movie. On Monday 10th May 2021, I saw a dream that told me that if Will wants to win an Oscar for Best Actor, he should act in a sports-related flick as a coach for high schoolers, perhaps training them basketball. Fast forward 10 months later, he received the award for acting as a coach for two American tennis geniuses whom someone actually imagined could flourish in basketball like the "next two" versions of Michael Jordan. At the time of dreaming, I didn't know Will was working on his Oscar-winning project, but drew him holding a basketball. Dreams are like Source Code! They can program waking reality. The word dream translated to my mother tongue Lugbara is "orobi", "biloto" in Luganda and "traum" in German. Do not ignore your orobi; find a way to catch them! They provide free wisdom, advice, ideas, forensic prudence, revelations, solutions, shortcuts, prophecy and alternative art or entertainment. That is the main reason why I pay attention to people who study dreams including Dr. Clare R. Johnson (www.DeepLucidDreaming.com; the first person on Earth to write a PhD on lucid dreaming as a creative tool at the University of Leeds); dreams are not pointless things! Justina Lasley, MA is the founder and Executive Director of the Institute of Dream Studies (IDS). She created DreamSynergy™, a comprehensive process with proven results for uncovering dream meaning leading to personal transformation plus authored "Wake Up to Your Dreams: Transform Your Relationships, Career and Health While You Sleep" as well as "Honoring the Dream: A Handbook for Dream Group Leaders". Dreams provide direct support to those searching for healing and wholenesss. Dream Research Institute (DRI) is a centre for dream studies. International Association for the Study of Dreams (IASD) offers online courses in the science and psychology of (lucid) dreaming. This foggy stuff helps us live above our problems similar to Doctor Strange (2016 Marvel film): There is an astral dimension where the soul exists outside the body. Open your eyes; study and practise dreaming! The scientific study of dreams is called oneirology. Oneirologists are scientists who study why we dream and they have discovered that the brain goes through synaptic efficacy refreshment, a process during REM sleep. We sleep for at least a quarter of each day (6 hours) for very busy people but at best a third (8 hours), so why not tap into that extra time? By the time you are 60 years old, you will have slept for a total sum of 20 years. Dreams are not hopeless sounds and visuals; they are hidden gems worth mining, reading and polishing. Interpretation is the final product more valuable than coins. After the Kingdom of Heaven, the 2nd Best Place is Dreamland; Earth is next like a parallel Dreamworld. I don't want to visit Hell.

There are five main types of dreams: Normal ones, daydreams, lucid dreams, false awakenings and nightmares.

The final third of the night (last four hours before sunrise or dawn) is a great time for dreaming.

I divide Dreamsurfing into seven parts: Dreams, Visions, Memories, Imaginations (or Fantasy), Wet dreams, Hallucinations (or Trances) and NDEs (Near Death Experiences).

Wikipedia defines a dream as a succession of images, ideas, emotions and sensations that usually occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. A friend of mine once told me that she doesn't see dreams in her sleep, but I think she either forgets them, sees faint things or has Charcot-Wilbrand Syndrome (clinical condition in which someone loses the ability to dream). King Nebuchadenezzar forgot his dream in Daniel 2 and no wise man, enchanter, magician nor diviner could explain the mystery except the GOD in Heaven through Belteshazzar (Daniel's other name). Everyone can dream because dreams are messages from GOD (Job 33:14-30), deceiving spirits (1st Kings 22:21-23) or your own spirit that sees a lot while the body rests. Life is spiritual! When you dream, you journey into the spiritual realm: What you see there either symbolises things happening in real life like someone sending you a social media message which you find immediately after you wake up or predicts what is about to happen later in the evening eg Portugal beating France 1-0 during the 2016 UEFA Euro Final held in France. I sent a Facebook message to Olivier Giroud (my Favourite Gunner at that time) telling him to alert his teammates not to get angry because the referee might unfairly blow for a contestable foul (which happened against Griezmann) that eventually results into a Portuguese winning goal on the left side of the pitch. Paul Pogba slapped the ground in frustration. Who knew that Les Bleus would get their consolation in World Cup Russia 2018? Some connections may seem too predictable but it doesn't remove the telepathic power of dreams.

Dreams are symbolic like metaphors and parables, but visions show you exactly what will happen. I have been recording dreams since 1999 after my Senior 3 Class Monitor Isaac Ssemakadde (aka Semaks, Zagallo) asked me to be the SMACK Timekeeper alongside Paulson Tumutegyereize; prayed to GOD to always wake me up early enough so that I ring the 5:30am opening bell; my eyes would suddenly open up at 2 or 5am sharp as if possessed by an inbuilt clock after seeing some remarkable visions that inspired me to start documenting my night travels in a Dreambank (started by using loose classwork exercise book pages before graduating to small B5 hardcover counter books). Semaks even reminded me several years after we left O-Level how I told him basing on a dream that he would be the Best in the whole of Uganda during our Senior 4 UCE Exams. Many times am awestruck by the connections between dreams and reality. It's like a parallel universe; when you keep a dream journal that you also fill with real-life diary entries, then you will see how the links and ripples occur. Memories from your past sometimes flow into the dreamscapes while imaginations or fantasies are like daydreams (day thoughts or images according to Lynette Teachout who wrote the dream interpretation novel Journey With Zeke) but meditation (prayer) trances, hallucinations from psychedelic substances like drugs, wet dreams considered unclean and Near Death Experiences (NDEs) can also happen. My O-Level classmates used to call me holy because I pretended to be in order to avoid conflicts but I know my sins; Friedah Faith Letacie at UCU called me "The Mentalist"; another OG imagined I was a shrink (psychoanalyst doctor) while an unknown dude on Pakwach Highway (in Arua) labelled me a prophet, but am just a Dreamsurfer. Do not put me in your Fantastic Four!

I failed to make it back to SMACK with 15 points on 8 subjects (Passmark was changed from 17 to 14 yet extra cubicles had been built, felt betrayed by the Headmaster) and also failed to make it to Makerere University on Government sponsorship with 18 points (ADCC for HEL/D) after fasting during Ramadan for the first time and reading hard, slept for only two hours sometimes. So, when my sister (whom I follow by three years) applied for me to join her in Mukono, I prayed much harder and revised my books with a very ice-cold vengeance day and night in order to win a scholarship; no excuses this time even if I got a migraine during exam week! One early morning, I saw myself top the Mass Communication class in a dream; it broke a lot of mental chains since P7. When lecturer Okoku Obomba praised me during his lesson for scoring 45 out of 50 in his coursework, the smiles, congratulations and stares from my classmates whose eyes had lit up did not make me uncomfortable; I acted like I already knew it and even later received a Scholars and Friends USA bursary for West Nile Diocese in my final four semesters for the academic performance in 1st semester (my 3rd finest in 6); thanks be to the MOST HIGH! 

There were many other dreams I saw while on campus including those concerning a classmate who inspired me to keep on keeping on. She used to address me as "boyfi". My 5th semester was the best out of 6 probably because I started it with her as my "galfi" since the middle of the 4th semester which was my 2nd finest overall; brave friendship brings out the best in people and is very motivational when fresh before it starts rusting as it grows old. During holidays, I had also visited another female friend (Doro) whom I attributed my P7 focus to, just to say: Thank you! For two years attending the same lectures, I didn't even know the name of my new girlfriend's face because we weren't in the same league ("Dates only Galactikos") but she became my sunrise and remedy for a February 2005 heartwreck (All jokes aside)! She was supercalm, cute, radiant plus intelligent. When a Kenyan classmate at my hostel told me her firstname plus gave me her phone number without me asking for it, I remembered a dream I had seen and recorded in 1st Year: two of the only people (MS and Nakanwagi) near us at the back when she first called me "boyfriend" (jokingly) featured in it. This unfamiliar classmate was the only "Emily" I met at UCU: Ampaire was a superwoman; I even saw her leave Uganda and when it finally happened in 2009 (about three years after the dream), I accepted the situation though I had wanted her to stay.

Early in the morning they left for the Desert of Tekoa. As they set out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, "Listen to me, Judah and people of Jerusalem! Have faith in the LORD your GOD and you will be upheld; have faith in HIS prophets and you will be successful" (2nd Chronicles 20:20)...

Lucid dreaming is when you know that you are dreaming. I had a vivid blue and white lucid dream on Monday 4th October 2004 in Bugujju Suburb (Mukono) that advised me: If you have a problem, then just look up (oneway) to the sky (or Heaven). When I got up from the dream, I quickly sketched what I saw and the perfect measurements stunned my senses, felt like a personal Heaven: JESUS is the oneway to Heaven! The first person I showed my heavenly drawing five days later was a complete stranger named Josephine studying Architecture at Makerere University Kampala (MUK). The following week she returned, told me she did research on me (asking my Macos OGs Ruth plus Cissy) and added twice that she likes me; maybe I seemed absent-minded the first time she said she liked me.

Some dreams would be so prophetic that I was scared to sleep after saying the LORD's prayer twice just in case I saw more bad events about to happen like sad-erals (I prefer calling them that or simply burials instead of funerals), Felix Kaweesi's painful 2017 assassination or bomb attacks planned in 2020. The flip-side is that dreams prepare you for those shocks. Sometimes, we see clearly with our eyes closed, Kanye West and Pompi told us that. To map out your life in this crazy world of ours, look inside! DOGtonsinatas (Satan is not GOD); he's just a cherubim (four-winged) angel who desires your soul. I've met him on Buganda Road (Kampala) and more than once in my dreams like in 2020 (selling me drugs; had to choose between him and some lady who later contacted me during the day to give advice about my art career). Seraphims actually have an extra pair of wings more than the Prince of the Air. Facially, I doubt whether Lucifer is the Most Beautiful Angel though he surely looks like a responsible adult plus was created with various musical instruments and minerals within him, pale and red at the same time. You can say no human beats him in music, but Holy Spirit music is soulfully dope too: 'Tis so sweet to trust in JESUS! Hallelujah! What can wash away my sins... make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of JESUS! I keep a collection of MP3 songs that move my soul to remind me of GOD in my sleep. On Friday 17th February 2017, I saw a dream where the Devil (or Reaper) traps souls in a room and keeps consuming one by one. A girl in the outer room gets fed up and opens the door to the dark inner room; she's pulled or sucked in. The Devil's docile harvester opens the outside door of the white-walled house to find out what exactly happened... There were red blades (like sickleheads lying or spinning horizontally) which the Devil could put around everyone in the house and use to cut them up when they try to run away from the compound... The sun set without me witnessing anything devilish but when night came, I landed (as if guided) on the GOtv Events Channel showing Big Brother Naija 2. I did not even know BBN existed yet it was already in its 2nd season. I followed the first continental Big Brother Africa that took place in South Africa around 2003/4 because of my countrymate Gaetano Kaggwa and also watched the 2nd BBA won by Tanzanian Mwisho, but after that I stopped watching though I knew who represented Uganda in the other seasons, from Sharon O. to Denzel, Stella Nantumbwe (Ella, former Miss Uganda) and Kyle. Kemen got dismissed early from BBN2 when he became suspicious about the food, tasks and white powder substance spread all over the windows; those are clear red flags. Allan Kasirye, a converted Ugandan Devilworshipper disclosed without apologies in his testimony that Big Brother Entertainment is organised by his previous boss (The Devil). Although hard to believe simply because the immoral housemates mirror the rest of society, my unexpected 2017 dream gave me clues of Satan's involvement and one contestant - the beautiful Gifty Powers later confessed after being evicted that the show is actually "satanic". It keeps youth in unhealthy competition with one another. Debbie-Rise was my favourite Nigerian and I facebooked her my dreamvision since she knew firsthand what was in that Anti-Christ house, but she didn't reply. How come outsiders cannot see Biggie? When something supernatural happens to you, it means you have slipped into the 40 Hz Phase which occurs while falling asleep or waking up (Rapid Eye Movement [REM] Sleep); it is the pinnacle of spiritual development! Michael Raduga, founder of the OOBE Research Centre said, "Want to read about the Phase? Open the Bible! (We have been duped by religions and governments yet) we are hardwired for miracles... The Phase can make people happy, but they think it is nuts (nonsense)..."

I do not have the financial papers nor luxury of visiting country after country (different places) like Drew Binsky, but am smitten by the spiritual mind's ability to jump anywhere including past civilisations like Virtual Reality or let us say: Oneiric Reality. It's really funny hahaha but very true, Google Earth-type of way. You suddenly find yourself walking in a downtown China market or the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque (Abu Dhabi); Dream Tourism is quite amazing! I once saw angels in a dream at the border between West Nile and Congo; Elisha's servant can attest to that phenomenon (2nd Kings 6:17). Open our eyes, LORD, so that we may see!

When Ali Zeidan, the Prime Minister of Libya was released by his kidnappers on Thursday 10th October 2013, I had seen a dream that very same morning about what he might have told them; the TV news story just felt like deja vu. However, the second time he was kidnapped (2017), I didn't see anything. Nassim Haramein, a Swiss physicist and Director of Research for Resonance Science Foundation says, "Look within and you will have all the information!" Theoretically, all things in the universe are "unified".

Four days before American soldiers withdrew from Afghanistan, I saw President Joe Biden in a dream; he was talking to me within a room. I woke up absolutely stunned because I doubt whether I can meet a US president face to face but just wrote down what I saw and heard. Dreams are symbols: When he made the public announcement that they could not risk any more lives, I believed him immediately. Some Afghans actually came to my homeland Uganda as special refugees; their accommodation and upkeep were paid for by the Biden administration.

Dreams heal too: Once upon a time in Arua (at Mt. Wati Road), I was facing constant headaches and couldn't find relief. I tried everything from painkiller tablets to drinking enough water, avoiding bright light, sleeping longer, etc in vain. Then I prayed to GOD to help and HE replied through a dream where my mother warned me about earphones just before I woke up and walked away. When I opened my eyes, I cleaned my ears and the headache which had bothered me for days left, just like that.

One dreamvision that ignites the Fear of GOD in my heart is the Arua Hill Stadium. I've never seen MUNGU nor YESU, but I would rather worship the GOD of the Hebrew Bible than other gods made of wood, stone or clay. African Chemistry is very potent but it is simply witchcraft masked as culture when it involves blood sacrifices to appease ancestors and other territorial spirits; the blood of JESUS is more than enough for me. Who in his or her right mind would have believed me during my 1st Year at Mukono Campus (2003-4) if I said that I had dreamt of a stadium located northwest of Arua Hill? It would become reality after 20 years, that is around 2023-4. To avoid being labelled a crazy Mulugwala, I kept quiet though wrote the idea in my journal because I had asked GOD to show me the future while a fresher: I saw a lot of things. Construction began in 2019 and finishing is expected anytime.

On Tuesday 12th February 2010, I saw a very heavy dreamvision of Idi Amin's architectural plans; immediately I woke up, I drew most of what I saw and titled it "1970s Arua" (like Retrofuturistic art). When I opened Facebook at sunrise, the very first photos I saw were the sepia-tinted architectural drawings of the three-storeyed KKT Plaza about to be built on Duka Road, posted by Amin's son (Ssalongo Jaffar Remo Amin). I told him about my dreamvision and he informed me that the original plan was a six-storeyed building. Some designs in my dream looked stunning including the Idi Amin Hotel, shaped like the Doha Tower in Qatar and located behind Office of the Prime Minister, just after the Arua Hill Roundabout. The tallest building in Arua was the "Secretary House" on Hospital Road but I did not count the floors clearly. I also saw four-storeyed apartments called "Angela's Lounge" that can be represented by either Arua Hospital or Desert Breeze Hotel. Whoa, this is amazing! Even if Amin was ousted before he could fulfill his plans in the 80s or 90s, his legacy remains.

One day, I dreamt that some schemers would come home in a car. Before noon, a group including a lady holding files arrived in an SUV to disconnect WENRECo power claiming we hadn't cleared the post-paid bill for that month and so they would take our fuse which cost about 30K to fix back. Electricity was paid diligently every month; they just wanted money. The last payment had been made less than 30 days behind. It's good pre-paid meters were introduced to reduce corruption...

As a sophomore, I got a dream in which someone entered my hostelroom in Bugujju (Mukono) while I rested, told me he was going to kill me and walked out; seemed like the Devil. When I woke up, the door was still closed, so I asked my roommate Doi when he got up if he heard anyone come in or speak; he said No. I didn't know what the dream meant until around 4pm while returning from lectures. Suddenly a spirit attached itself to my chest in the Old Village (Seeta in campus slanguage). Witchcraft in Mukono District is rated as high grade; even some Christians are afraid of it. I became sick that week and classmates noticed. At the university clinic, I was surprisingly given medicine for gonorrhea and had to cope with the mouth wounds, chest pain and body itching. When Friday night came, I felt like the spirit that attached itself to my chest was now sitting on a bench in my heart, ready to flatline me. Good enough, my next door neighbour Jonathan Kyeyune hosted his KPC (later renamed Watoto Church) prayermates from Kampala in our commonroom and even though power went off (probably the Devil's plan), they still bought fuel so that the askari Richard (my tribemate) could let the generator run transnight. Up to this day, I still feel their loud overnight prayers cast the evil away; had to thank the ones I knew from secondary school like Mukiza for coming around after sunrise. In my two years at that hostel, nothing prayerfully noisy and all night long like that ever happened, maybe while I was away but that one was superspecial. My room was not far and actually faced the commonroom, so I agreed with their prayers while neshing on my bed.

In my 3rd Year at UCU Mukono Campus, I got a dream telling me that someone was accusing my parents in Arua falsely. When my mother called to greet me during that same Saturday, I asked (like never before) if they were really okay. She told me there were no problems. However, exactly one week later, I travelled to Kampala to meet my father who had come from Arua and heard him speak to my 3rd cousin Tom about a crafty public servant trying to spoil his name. I kept quiet, but knew that this was it. The person later cried after other people told him to back down; greed is not a good thing.

I dreamt a classmate named Pauline chasing me and after a lecture, she came and stopped where I was standing plus chatting with other classmates. We usually talked freely, so I cracked a joke that probably amused her and the chasing started, but she couldn't catch me because I had already seen it.

After seeing a new dfcu bank on Gaba Road in a dream, I woke up perplexed and wanted to ask my Macos OG Lynn who worked at the Jinja Road office if they really have another branch the other side. Having painted a mural at Shell Muyenga around 2007, I had trekked the streets near Kabalagala plus Nsambya and never seen a branch there; even the brochures I read from the other branches I went to like Acacia Avenue did not have one listed around there. Unexpectedly, my OB Arshad Ahmed Bholim (who revived my art career at Makerere College School between 2001-2) called me to Kansanga where he stayed and I boarded a taxi going towards Gaba before midday. While we approached the Kabalagala Junction in a traffic jam, I looked to my right as a truck entered a plot fenced with mabati iron sheets meaning a new construction was going on. Since the gate was now open, I could peep inside the compound and guess which client I saw on the architect's signpost! I just shook my head in the taxi with a super smile acknowledging the power of dreams. That exact moment, I felt like I was meant to go to Kansanga without excuses; GOD is great!

Before being posted by Electoral Commission of Uganda to work as a registration officer in Tara Subcounty (Maracha) during 2010, I saw a dream where there was a yellow construction vehicle in the foreground plus rock elevation in the background. Having been to Kasese two years before, I wondered if the dream was about Kasese but when I got to the Tara Subcounty headquarters in Kololo Village, there was a yellow construction vehicle parked outside the offices plus Ofude Hills behind.

Exactly one week prior to when new tenants (Allan and his housekeeping niece Stella) joined my parents in Arua around the start of 2018, I saw an Isuzu truck that resembled the one that brought them. The colour of the vehicle was bluish-green or greenish-blue, just like how I debated it as I recorded its appearance after seeing the vision; I didn't really know they were coming to our compound but helped them offload because the dream of the truck had felt very significant. I also dreamt the name of another tenant (Pamela) over one year before she finally arrived on Labour Day even though the revelation had first made me judge Big Brother Naija Season 2; helped her learn how to close the gate because there was one in that dream with her name as the title. How a dream pans out is up to the seer's interpretation.

Dreams can save you from danger (kabi, hatari, chandi). I've seen some things in my sleep that guided my steps and tongue during waking life like a built-in navigational system, from avoiding the temptation to cheat with other men's wives (one dream told me to use a condom while another told me the Devil refused to bow before GOD like other angels and would test me); facing off with street lions around Kampala-Jinja Road (JAH guide, roger that Black Uhuru and Bugle: Maybe you kno alota ting but yu will neva kno da truth until da dey wen yu know JAH... When I rise, I give JAH thanks fi di uprising); telling my first nephew to watch out for a snake where he was playing (Hours later, he ran into the house to tell me a snake had come and I walked out to stare it in the face from a distance before it disappeared into the thorn fence); avoiding a rabied dog oozing mucus from the mouth and harbouring maggots on its body in Arua to cancelling out (or unhealing) noise from disrespectful haters and condescenders, something I call Mental Antiphase because I already knew what they were going to say. Those moments just made me think: MUNGU mvuni i'di ku [Translated from Lugbara: GOD does not drink porridge]!

I could see people in my dreams at night and meet them during the same day or after three days (eg Maneno at IQ Associates on KKT Plaza; my 1st and Biggest West Nile Crush named Cynthia Letasi aka Rejoice in 2019; etc) like clockwork. One day I dreamt the name "Jada" but did not understand what it meant. In the evening I went for the UCU West Nile Students Fellowship and met a beautiful, neat, darkskinned South Sudanese shorty who gave me a very unexpected but acceptable heavenly hug. You can guess the stranger's name; that was my confirmation. Did Apostle Paul say we kiss or hug? Her hug was biblically divine. She was studying SWASA (Social Works and Social Administration). Nothing is completely accidental; just because you did not see something in a dream or vision before it happened does not mean it is not already spiritually written somewhere like the Akashic Records or Book of Remembrance. I used to pass by a residence on Naguru Hill that someone said belonged to General Moses Ali but never saw him there. To me, he is like the Best Example of a tactful Politician in UG. Forget the speech articulation and what not! He has served in various governments without fussing too much like Opposition. I didn't support multipartyism during the 2005 referendum, so am not into inter-party circus drama though I side with NRM, fancy the green in DP and respect UPC. If we had one Movement System like China's one-party Communist System, then maybe Bobi Wine would serve as the Minister of Tourism instead of being chased around by Police like a criminal. We are all Ugandans not wild animals; why should colour affiliations which can be changed anytime make us fight each other? One day, I saw Moses Ali in a dream for the first time. During the morning, I went to LDC and while walking out towards Gaddafi (Old Kampala) Road through the main gate, guess who I see arriving with his driver in a white SUV? LORD, have mercy! I have never visited the Law Development Centre unless someone sent or took me there; this day was the same: I was there on a mission.

The first time I went to the Rwenzori Wonderland was in the 2nd last week of October 2008 and on the morning of the day I travelled there on short notice, I felt the presence of the Holy Spirit in a very very very unusual way, like never before, not even how I felt it a short distance away within UCU's supercharged Baskerville Village at Bishop Isaiah Mbuga's fellowship while still an undergraduate. This one was different and had fewer people around. According to Jonathan Philip Timmons in his book entitled Mysterious Secrets of the Dark Kingdom: The Highest Form of Prosperity is to be in the presence of GOD. From Monday night, I stayed within Kasese District until Saturday courtesy of International Alert (UK) and returned to KLA. Then I saw a dreamvision of myself in Kyebando Kisalosalo viewing the Tooro Kingdom Palace with two women (five persons in total) but told nobody. In 2012, I was recommended for a WWF project in the Rwenzori Region by UCU Sports writer Enoch Kassenyi and I had no clue that the dream I had seen was about to come true until a lady who worked for WWF in Kasese and her driver picked me and my colleague Eshban Kwesiga from the town (Eshban, a Mukiga from Bushenyi actually started calling me Wabuchirey [Hello in Rukonzo] because I greeted people in Rukonzo language as we waited for transport from WWF by walking around Kasese Town up to the railway station). We were going to pick up another lady before Fort Portal and spend the night in Bundibugyo. Curiously, I asked if we would see King Oyo's Palace and I was told I would view it on top of a hill as we approach the town. I kept saying "GOD is great!" like a parrot when I finally saw the round and majestic structure. When we parked in Fort Portal, I stepped out onto the tarmac with the other two men to admire the Palace once again as the two ladies went shopping briefly before our final trip up the humongous ranges; wow! I just felt GOD at that moment. The height of the Rwenzori Mountains does not really knock me out because I have seen other mountains, rocks and hills before, but the unending horizontal length is something else; it's like GOD Engineering. Dreams do not lie.

Amazing things happen in dreams eg you can go drone fishing in Lake Victoria with M7, cruise with Messi (plus his three sons at the back) in his maroon 2022 Range Rover from Bombo Road to Mulago while telling him about UG, take a one day vacation to your dream destination, cook Karimojong food with the presenter in Omuntu W'abantu skits, meet famous people and celebrities like Bebe Cool or watch a basketball game starring MJ-23, augmented-reality-type-of-way. You don't pay any money to do these things. How do you drown the pain in this tough world? Some drink alcohol, smoke weed, play sports, travel, indulge in many activities or take drugs. Dreamsurfing is a free and easy option for escapism.

I was inspired to build a small antenna for my Short Wave and Medium Wave radio receivers after seeing one in a dream; it worked quite well amplifying for me so many channels absent on the clearer FM band.

55 Foundation came to me in a dream; a former workmate wanted me to do for her something but before she disclosed what exactly it was, I got clues on how to help in my sleep; shared with her what I saw.

I get logo design and Art ideas from dreams sometimes; write blog articles plus draw architecture based on dreams too.

Another friend (some sort of Ex since she married someone else though we never really separated on a very bad note) called me at night during the 2020 lockdown requesting me to meet her at 9am the next morning, but I saw during sleep time what might happen plus who else I would meet near her (over six different people). It was so unreal that I just let everything transpire the way it was programmed; stress free. I felt three layers of love in her presence similar to free Wi-Fi while "mending damaged hearts" as the title of the dream had briefed me. Dreams either lie or tell the truth depending on how you understand them: I couldn't believe the secrets she later told me to confirm what the dreamvision revealed to me.

Did JESUS the Christ dream? I'm very curious to find out what HE saw in HIS sleep; how about the Revelation HE showed to John at Patmos? Isn't that HIS prophecy? On his way to Damascus, Paul saw JESUS in a blinding vision. Guess HE visits people in dreams too. Maybe other books outside the Bible recorded HIS dreams like the three books of Enoch have outrageous visions of the past and future. There is also an Egyptian Book of Dreams. The Essenes (who originated from Egypt), a pious group JESUS associated with, used to record prophecies. Watch out for the Mark of the Beast (666), Anti-Christ, scorpion locusts, Armageddon and the Second Coming of the King! At least JESUS slept, that's for sure, even in the midst of a superstorm. I guess we should also not be afraid of our problems. Just rest, get up and speak to the winds, "Peace, be still! JESUS Christ is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords; Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End!"

I dreamt that I would be given free lunch, but did not know where. When I went to the Baha'i Temple (biggest in Africa) on Kikaaya Hill to research the scriptures written by Baha' u' llah (the faith's main prophet) at their round conference hall, I was unceremoniously given lunch to eat without asking for it, had to receive with thanksgiving. A fool says in his heart that there is no GOD; so he toils day and night like there is no hope from Above. On 1st April 2018, I dreamt some of the things I would eat during the day plus the exact soda (Mirinda Fruity) served, as if at a Food Bank in Arua. If JEHOVAH can feed sparrows and other birds that do not dig nor sign contracts nor accumulate pension funds, then how about human beings made in HIS image? Do you worship food and the means of getting it or the Creator who can bring it to you from nowhere like ravens did for Elijah or the widow at Zarephath whose jar of flour and jug of oil did not run dry (1st Kings 17)? GOD provides, I don't! Give us today our daily food; amen! Everyday for 40 years in the wilderness, GOD fed the Israelites with mushroom wafer-like food from Heaven, but they complained because they wanted meat. So the Almighty sent enough quail bird meat to kill them with a plague (Exodus 16). The pile-up was about 90 centimeters deep and a day's walk all round away from their camp. Never anger the Creator of food! Be very careful what you wish for, you might receive it! Thank YOU, LORD!

Arranged marriages were common in Persia by the time the Bab was born in 1819. Before the Bab (forerunner of Baha' u' llah - He whom GOD shall make manifest) married Khadijih Bagum at age 23, she had a prophetic dream that she and her two sisters welcomed his mother with affection and courtesy. She sat down, looked at the three keenly, arose from her seat, came forward and kissed her forehead. In the world of dreams, Khadijih felt the visitor was much pleased with her appearance and also her favourite. Amazingly the next afternoon, the Bab's mother came to their home, "With my sisters we went to welcome her, and, to my surprise just as I had seen in my dream, she left her seat, came smilingly toward me, kissed my forehead and embraced me. After some general conversation she left. My eldest sister whispered into my ears that she had come to ask my hand for her son. I answered: How fortunate I am! Then I related my dream of the previous night saying that the realization of this dream had brought to my heart great happiness." When your eyes are open, you see the present, but during sleep, you see the future as well as past.

Waking up from movie-like dreams is hard for me to accept; there is no way in the world that my mind could independently imagine things like that without extra-terrestrial influence. I've predicted NBS TV's 3pm Amaaso Ku Lutimbe featured films with accuracy several times; I only did the guessing when I felt it in my spirit at dawn eg Apocalypto (jumping over waterfalls); Hard Target (1993 film, my Favourite Movie that probably portrays the Devil in the main antagonist); Deep Blue Sea (very clever man-eating seamonsters with pointed fronts, another of my Top 10 films); Suicide Squad (wickedest heart); 44 Ronin (witchy); etc. Justina Lasley, founder and director of the Institute of Dream Studies in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina says, "Every night I look forward to sleeping. It's like going to the movies... Dreams are GOD's answers to our prayers..."

So many movies highlight the phenomenon of dreamvisions eg 2:22, Vanilla Sky, Minority Report, Inception, etc. In Push (2009 film), actress Dakota Fanning plays Cassie Holmes (daughter of world-famous watcher Sarah Frank). Watchers are psychics or clairvoyants who have precognition (the ability to see the future). They aren't always 100 percent reliable but still rank between 95-98 percent; watchers have to be vigilant to see all the changes to the future. More skilled watchers develop their skills to a degree where they can see the necessary choices, actions and happenings in order to gain the desired future. Alcohol enhances a watcher's powers. Cassie postulates: The future can change just by talking about it, so I see glimpses and I draw about it in my book, but am not really good at it. I'm kind of a crappy artist, but am sure you already knew that... There are special people in this world. We don't ask to be special. We're just born this way... I'm what they call a Watcher. We can see the future, even if that's not always as simple as it sounds... The future is always changing, in the largest of ways, by the smallest of things. In The Black Phone (2021 supernatural horror film), Finney's spunky sister Gwen has clairvoyant abilities and by following up on dreams from JESUS leads the Police to the exact house where her brother is being held captive in the basement by a child killer...

Hunches can occur immediately you wake up or continuously during the day. On the Saturday when the 2016 presidential election results were to be announced, I spent a large part of daytime painting at Springs Primary School for Emmyways. In my mind, a thought kept ringing that M7 (whose campaign leaflets I had distributed though I didn't vote physically) would win by 61 percent while his biggest challenger would get 35. When I got back home before sunset, M7 had 60.5 which can be rounded off to 61 and Besigye had 35 percent votes; it was a sunny-yellow Sabbath for the Silent Majority! Some young girl repeatedly implored me to say "Abiriga oye!" while I branched off Weatherhead Park Lane to walk up to our hood; I peacefully gestured the NRM thumb sign and her older friends asked her to stop barking at me.

There were times I would wake up on a football matchday after watching parts of the evening game in the morning; it was totally unbelievable but interesting at the same time. They were like previews of what to expect; I could actually write a Minority Report of the game based on the dreams eg Arsenal 3, Man Utd 0 (They couldn't tell what hit them with three goals in the first 20 minutes), Fabianski in 2014, Neymar winning the 2015 UEFA Champions League, Arsenal beating Chelsea in the 2020 Coronavirus FA Cup Final (saw it on a Thursday night but refused to sleep on Friday by attending a vigil so that nothing changes by Saturday matchday), Onduparaka beating Soana 2-0 (heard Joana but didn't even know the fixture was hours away), etc. Before the 2015 FA Cup Final, I woke up with a hunch that Arsene Wenger's players would beat Aston Villa 4-0. The first goal would be scored by Theo (Walcott, who physically missed the preceding year's pitch party due to injury; Jenkinson facechatted with him on his phone after extratime) and the last would be by Olivier Giroud who sat on the bench at kickoff. I did not pick who scored the 2nd nor 3rd but Alexis Sanchez's goal was a beauty in real-life; hard luck Shay Given! In a separate dream, I saw Giroud score a penalty to clinch a trophy for Arsenal and that is exactly what happened during the 2017 Community Shield; Victory through Dream Harmony! On Saturday 18th March 2017, Arsene Wenger was smiling and happy in a dream because he knew he can win the FA Cup, which he did...

Some dreams apparently do not come true even when very vivid in your sleepsight; they might be your own personal "pizza dream" wishes projected through the 3rd Eye like dreaming PSG exactly one week before kickoff knocking out Real Madrid 1-2 at the Bernabeu courtesy of a Messi goal during 2022 after winning 1-0 in France though it was probably a hangover from the thoughts of that unforgettable 2-3 Messi winner in La Liga (Karim Benzema stole the show instead with a hattrick before continuing Real's fairytale road to the Paris final); Juventus beating RM in an extra-time-needing UCL final (saw it after sleeping while game went on, but woke up to other news) or the Devil's plans thwarted through prayer like snake attacks you sidestep or insults (abuses plus rebukes) you unheal. It doesn't matter what prophecy was given against you; like the Scorpion King (film character), you can create your own future. Not every prediction comes to pass; that is why prophets must not be pestered to churn out words of knowledge every week like machines. Some biblical prophecies are even yet to happen; it doesn't mean they are false but many people die before witnessing them eg JESUS will return to Earth one day as the KING of Kings and LORD of Lords. 

A dream comes when there are many cares (Ecclesiastes 5:3)... Bedwetting is when someone pees on their bed; occasionally it happens while you ease yourself in a dream. Relief in sleep turns into waking grief. Why me, LORD? The best remedy is to cover your mattress with a waterproof material like macintosh. Sometimes, the pool of liquid does not even smell like urine and you wonder where it came from. Nocturnal emissions can happen to any normal human; I started having wet dreams at 17 years of age (in Senior 5): Toni Braxton in a lime green mini-summerdress was the first subject like Parachalice Pictures (probably because I adored her hit song "Unbreak My Heart" which was originally written for a different diva)! Other wet dreams involved some of the babes I honestly fancied at school like the real and beautiful (Queen-like) Hellen who I nicknamed Halo - the first girl to accept my (rhetorical) marriage proposal though she gave me a respectful excuse why she flinched but still introduced me to her buddies as a "Very Important Person"; friends eg a Muslim babe who told me she was going to marry me one day, took it as a joke nonetheless because she later addressed me as Ex-Boyfriend; in the neighbourhood eg some shorty I would meet mysteriously after sunset, usually told me she was returning from fellowship prayers or during daytime if not at her father's place when I visited her brothers: This babe's curvy hips arrested me like Police despite the fact that I resisted: Oh my, oh my, oh my!) and in media (especially American female musicians like Kelly Rowland, etc), only married one of them in a dream on my Twenty21 birthday (It seems impossible in real-life though she already has my last name), but hurriedly woke myself out of it coz am not even sure of her religious beliefs though she sings about GOD. What if she is a Buddhist and wants her own statue like a goddess? The dream marriage could have been my wish fulfilment or simply metaphysical illusions, but she is already married plus divorced and a baby mama for two different dudes, the 2nd of whom I believe fits her; I used the couple as the facial concept model for my Kubaku comic which I started writing around the time they first met. Although we are miles, timezones and oceans apart, we'll always share the same artist name. In 2008, a friend to Mahmood Mamdani attending his wife's Maisha Day in Buziga Hill (KLA) said I would marry a "Nigerian actress" but I hope he was just postulating; I've never wished for that: a Ugandan wife is good enough. What the wet dreams reveal to me is my attraction to specific women; I cannot deny that I fancied all of them. Imagine an OG you enjoy chatting with sees you in a dream and wakes up pregnant yet you were not physically with her; she then asks you to be her 1st daughter's godfather. It is believed that wicked marine spirits (sirens) and bodytemple-defiling demons (succubus for men, incubus for women) or other beasts that leave scratch marks on your skin (once saw a strong, dark-black one with three breasts like in the Total Recall films) are involved, but these sexual dreams might also be the body's natural way of getting rid of excess love juice. If one of you becomes unclean because of a nocturnal emission, then he shall go outside the war camp... When evening comes, he shall wash himself with water, and when the sun has set, he may come back into the camp (Deuteronomy 23:10-11). Everything made of cloth or of skin on which the semen falls shall be washed with water, and be unclean until the evening (Leviticus 15:16-18). Women also experience wet dreams. Any type of sex or genital stimulation outside holy matrimony is forbidden. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion (1st Corinthians 7:9). JESUS warns in Matthew 5:28 that "anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." Outside the box, adultery is the 7th Commandment and humans need to cover their bodies well not like Jezebel nor Babylon the Great Whore; Muslims and  some cultures do it effortlessly. Lust generates pornographic wet dreams that make one ritually unclean; GOD forgive!

"All dreams, even sex dreams, can be easily connected to things going on in your life. And every character in your dream represents a small snippet of your own personality," says Ian Wallace, the author of "The Top 100 Dreams: The Dreams That We All Have and What They Really Mean". The psychologist Gillian Holloway, PhD, author of "5 Steps to Decode Your Dreams: A Fast Effective Way to Discover the Meaning of Your Dreams" agrees. On her dream interpretation website, she explains that while some sex dreams may simply be "wish fulfilment" (you probably won't be able to score with this person in real life, so you resort to your dreams), sex dreams are usually more complex, reflecting your personal desires and fears.

The Word of the LORD came to me: Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who... prophesy out of their imagination: ... woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing... Their visions are false and their divinations a lie. Even though the LORD has not sent them, they say, "The LORD declares", and expect HIM to fulfil their words (Ezekiel 13: 1-6).

Facing upwards in my bed, I saw a bright white circle open up in the sky to my right in a dawn vision as though Heaven was angry with what a thick mermaid-scaled creature was trying to do on top of me; it slid off downwards to my right and I awoke. During the day, I got a surprise art gig that got me some money I really needed. Maybe the marine spirit was trying to steal my heavensent blessing through a wet dream: Not today, Satan!

Everything is already written in the spirit realm and nothing can be hidden forever especially when dreams and visions fishout that info; my Best Friend at Macos named Innocent Ikinyang (an Itesot) once told me that he had the ability to look into his Hydra Files (automatic writings on foolscaps) and tell me the girls I fancied. I dared him to try but he stunningly got all my three secrets correct (Rebecca his deskmate, Joy in the Geography class and Lydia who was my moral support - actually sat right in front of me during the whole of Senior 6). Inno had amazing talent in Literature, claimed to be an Atheist though knew the Bible quite well, talked about his goal of becoming a fisherman cruising the latest canoes (which sounded quite hilarious like a joke) and sometimes called me a Pharisee. It's intuitive to keep files of your dreamvisions, you will be amazed by what you discover.

My personal worst dreams are the ones I see when I have Typhoid, Malaria, back fever or a painful stomach upset: You start seeing infinite, confusing equations plus witchy mind-bending images like in The Conjuring (or Insidious) films; a Valak-esque demon hides in your dreams as the symbol for a pathogen; dark demons pour acidic soapy water from the ceiling board and cause it to erode; etc. You wrestle to free yourself but only feel relieved after waking up to outside reality, not the inner biological world of Osmosis Jones. Nightmares can be a "business asset" according to James Cameron who created The Terminator from a dream he had while sick with a fever in a cheap pensione within Rome (1981). "It was the image of a chrome skeleton emerging from a fire. When I woke up, I began sketching on the hotel stationery..."

One July evening, I ate jackfruit with fragments of the poisonous vinyl silk emulsion paint still on my hands and got a dream where I almost entered an empty coffin. When I woke up, I vomited the paint out before it could kill me. Ignorance is very dangerous.

As a kid, I was only afraid of three things: drakonya AIDS drama masks, giant spiders that can eat a human and Shaka Zulu's sangoma. Once upon a time in Arua, I dreamt that a South African sangoma wanted to kill me but I escaped by jumping onto a white pickup heading for a wedding function in Jinja. The whole day, nothing devilish happened until the cold sunset when I walked to the latrine; a black snake was lingering on the left of the door frame and I almost stepped on it. The neighbour's hardworking niece named Stela came nearby and I asked her to help me pin the reptile to the wall using a sorghum stem [Lugbara Translate: ondu paraka] while I looked for a stronger stick to hit it. The sundried stem broke in her hand and the snake fell into the latrine hole. I reasoned that the snake was probably sent through witchcraft.

One Uhuru morning in October, I woke up after seeing myself fall off the bed like a snake. Nothing eventful happened until after we prayed as a family at night; I opened the North face entrance door and a black snake fell on my foot. I didn't panic nor kill it as I normally did for other snakes, just announced without fear that there was a snake around, then my dad hit it with a broom.

On Friday 19th May 2017, I saw a dog bite my left leg twice and it bled, those were like four cuts on the left behind side. Witchcraft or diabetes? I wondered. Later in the afternoon, I got a burn from a cement-delivering bodaman's motorcycle on the same spot as the dream wound. It took over one painful week to heal.

Some people think am depressed simply because am quiet, silent, reserved, unexcited about things that used to charm me and self-isolated from the public. Truth be told, I suffer patiently (my favourite lesson from Sniper School), share my views on blogs, think about escaping Hell through JESUS and have never really contemplated suicide. Everyone has problems, you have to deal with whatever is meant for you! Life is hard, but GOD is harder! Nevertheless, one night in 2018, I dreamt that I killed myself. When I woke up, I discovered that my South Sudanese namesake at Bugema University Arua less than a 10-minute walk away had hanged himself the preceding day. Two days later, Arsene Wenger (The Invincible One) announced that he would be leaving Arsenal at the end of the season and it felt like a suicide. I have watched soccer since the 80s but there is no football club am obsessed about more than The Gunners since Saturday 16th May 1998. I've liked John Barnes at Liverpool, Bayern Munich since the 90s, Germany, Express FC (oldest in UG), Nigeria, Brazil, France, Real Madrid (Meringues), Barcelona, AC Milan, PSG (because of Messi), etc but the North Londoners conquered my heart most. Arsene guided his team to Top 4 for two decades and toxically-noisy plastic fans thought it was easy; you do not know who you've got until he's gone. The dream somehow prepared me for the unwanted announcement; happy I stayed alive. I cannot kill myself.

Sleepwalking is a phenomenon where you walk upright or do things while sleeping and dreaming (as if possessed). It happened to me during one Valentine's Night while I waited for my parents in the sitting room. We lived in some type of haunted house; I do not know how I found myself on my bed but the wick in the oil lamp had been turned up to maximum. The glass had soot at the top; it's like some spirit wanted the house to burn or fill up with dangerous fumes.

Sleep paralysis is when your body is unable to move as you dream. You can sense it while trying to flee from danger in your dream especially during the moment of waking up; your spirit decides to run away but your body remains immobile. Guess nerves need rest too, but when you mumble the name JESUS through closed vocals or think about it when attacked by unfriendly entities, the paralysing spirits flee.

One morning in KLA before waking up, I saw a figure hover above me as if he had no legs (just the upper body like an astral projection) and whispered: Two women took your name to a witchdoctor. When I woke up, the left half of my body was paralysed; I felt half dead: My left eye felt cut on the lids like I had been sucker-punched, left brain couldn't think, my left tongue was paining as if bitten and left arm couldn't move. I wonder wish two ladies wished death upon me. Had to say a prayer to revive my entire self before going out.

Food can trigger dreamvisions. One night, I ate a big fish in Lira and got a vision of how it might have devoured smaller fish. Witches can also mix herbs that mess up your dreamspace. Before my mother departed from this earth on Friday 16th December 2022, her 75th birthday, I had seen a dreamvision of an open coffin in the middle of the year while painting the expanded annex house's main bedroom where she would transfer from the bigger mansion with my father. Having eaten jackfruit with a few traces of vinyl silk paint on my fingers at sunset, I thought the dream was warning me about toxic paints. By that time, my mother's abdominal problems had already started after she returned from seeing her brother Diyo who departed in August, a few months later. Muni University Vice Chancellor Christine Dranzoa's death was actually broken to me by Ma while I painted on Tuesday 28th June 2022; she attended both vigils with pain in her belly and even missed the burial of my big brother's grandmother-in-law Dorcas Abiria Nyai during the month in between. Before Grandma Abiria's husband and grandson departed, I had actually seen dreamvisions hinting on some of her Kampala relatives coming to Arua. One night before sleep, I begged GOD to tell me a solution for mum's pain. When my spirit heard a mysterious voice say "raw pawpaws", I immediately got up and googled if raw pawpaws can cure ulcers; they apparently also cure cancers. I told mother about it but nothing was done until my cousins Monica and Bayi visited; then my youngest sister started preparing the mix. Because the pain continued, Ma drank the fermentation a few times but gave up to rely on professional medicine prescribed by multiple Arua doctors plus more in Kampala City after 22nd October 2022; the drugs were too many and chemotherapy for Mama's colon weakened her farther after losing blood through six ulcer cuts in her digestive system. Although the raw pawpaw juice was ditched, I fasted and prayed everyday for my mother to heal. Twice in dreams, I was shown that she would be missing in future but I refused to believe that. When a coffin was finally brought to the annex house like in my mid-year dream around midnight on Saturday 17th December, I refused to shed tears; just accepted GOD's will but was so sad inside that I intentionally didn't watch my Best Footballer Messi win the World Cup on Sunday. At 4pm on the Thursday before Ma left, I had knelt down during Asr prayers and begged GOD fervently to give her more time, but it was too late: She was moved to a different City at 6am the following morning by angels and I'll see her again forever when my time comes too. The last words my father heard her speak were: YESU, e ko ma aza [Translated from Lugbara: JESUS, help me]! She had a smile on her face when she left.

I have heard what the prophets say who prophesy lies in MY name. They say, "I had a dream! I had a dream! How long will this continue in the hearts of these lying prophets, who prophesy the delusions of their own minds? They think the dreams they tell one another will make MY people forget MY name, just as their ancestors forgot MY name through Baal worship. Let the prophet who has a dream recount the dream, but let the one who has MY Word speak it faithfully. For what has straw to do with grain?" declares the LORD (Jeremiah 23:25-28)...

GOD can put a deceiving spirit in the mouths of prophets like the 400 men who enticed King Ahab to his death (2nd Chronicles 18). Even Simon the sorceror was called the "Great Power of GOD" by people (Acts 8:10) but believed Philip's good news of the Kingdom of GOD and was baptised. He offered Peter and John money in order to receive the ability to impart the Holy Spirit but was told he had no part in the ministry because his heart was not right before GOD. A female slave had a spirit by which she predicted the future and earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. She even reported correctly: These men are servants of the Most High GOD, who are telling you the way to be saved. However, Paul was so annoyed that he cast the spirit out of her in the name of JESUS Christ (Acts 16:16-21)...

We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith (Romans 12:6)... In the last days, GOD will pour out HIS Spirit on young and old, sons and daughters so that they prophesy (Joel 2:28-30 and Acts 2:17-18)... Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good: a message of wisdom, knowledge, prophecy, etc (1st Corinthians 12:4-11)... The Church can have more than one prophet because GOD appoints them (1st Corinthians 12:28)... Prophesying is not a sign for unbelievers but those who believe (1st Corinthians 14:22)... Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge. But if anything is revealed to another who sits by, let the first keep silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be encouraged. And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets (1st Corinthians 14:29-32)... Listen to my words: When there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, reveal MYSELF to them in visions, I speak to them in dreams (Numbers 12:6). You are your own personal prophet...

In Twenty18, I spent money so recklessly that I remained with only 500 UgX. On Sunday before sunrise, a dream told me to tithe the coin in a Church of Uganda offertory bag with a wooden handle. I obeyed and two days later, I received a brown envelope with 500,000 UgX banknotes. I do not agree with preachers who say we should not pay tithe yet the invisible, devouring Destroyer is still alive and hungry. Paying tithe is a liberating contribution to GOD's storehouse, not even a competition sijuwi Women versus Men and Zone v Zone; give what you have including 100 UgX (the silver cow, kuchu kuchu, jege jege)! JESUS saw a poor widow put two copper coins (mites) in the treasury and ruled that she put in more than those who had abundance (Luke 21:1-4). The widow's full percentage giving is similar to the bi-annual Campaign of Israel in the Universal Church of the Kingdom of GOD. Zakat or 10 percent charity to the poor is very noble but 10 percent Church tax is compulsory (Malachi 3:10 is non-negotiable). Noone is to appear before ME empty-handed (Exodus 23:15). It may not make you the Richest Person on Earth like John D. Rockefeller (who actually paid his tithe diligently), but it surely covers your needs; GOD knows everything that fits you. Everytime I withheld my tithe in a Roman Catholic boarding school during O-Level, I would get a problem that required me to spend the money I was supposed to give eg my flip-flop [slapats in SMACK slanguage] would snap, so I paid the tithe to the cobbler. Other times, I would spend the tithe on goodies I liked and later discover that they were totally fake, which meant I lost twice. Other people would get freak accidents when they withheld their tithe while another group saw unbelievable testimonies after obeying the command: You mysteriously find something that had been lost for a while or get 10-fold money from a random source or the exact offering you gave.

Kim Walker-Smith in the song "Throne Room" proclaims, "Dream after dream, YOU are speaking to me... And I fall on my face with angels and saints, and all I can say is: Holy, holy, holy are YOU, GOD..."

I love Akiane Kramarik (a Lithuanian-American paint artist) very much because the night before I discovered her story, I saw someone like her in a dream. When she was 8 years old, she fasted and prayed for a whole day so that GOD could show her the face of JESUS to paint. Meanwhile, a Korean girl saw visions of Hell in 2009 during her prayer marathon and got several artists to paint her visions; I discovered her video in 2017 after seeing a dreamvision about Hell-ish punishment.

Somewhere at the turn of the Twenty20s, I saw a modern bridge within Aliba Parish (Ayivu) in a very unbelievable dreamvision; people dissed me sharply on Facebook that I was poor and delusional but by 2023, construction had started near my mother's home ghetto...

Two nights before the 2020 FA Cup Final, I saw Arsenal beat Chelsea by scoring two goals in a dreamvision. In order not to see a different scoreline, I didn't sleep on the eve of the showpiece (spent it at Semei Nyai's vigil in Mvara) and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Black Panther) did the necessary; sign dat ting! The Blues scored first but I kept the faith, not the sight.

On Thursday 30th December 2021, I dreamt about a fully-packed Hell, then Heaven where I saw a young, chubby "GOD's Son" in golden attire like a Chinese kid (Some books claim JESUS spent time in Tibet before he was 30 years old); Security Control Room where everything happening in the world is visible on screens like VAR plus a black and pink GOD device in the corner that audibly replays people's thoughts like a Synchron Stentrode (Morgan Freeman who played film roles as GOD was judged for questioning GOD's logic) plus Levi Juice. Hell was represented by a long auditorium hall that accommodated three storeys of all the evil characters you have ever seen in movies including the Ghostbusters spirits and Michael Myers (the Most Feared Halloween monster); the wickedest individuals were at the bottom or floor level while those who could be saved out of Hell flew up to the top after walking in through the door. The following day, I found an unexpected Facebook friend request from Erica Mukisa Belinda Kimani, a former Ugandan witch who lived in Hell serving the Devil and also visited Heaven. My Old Girl would beat up her teachers in their dreams and cause painful swellings on their flesh. I was born in Jinja like her and grew up in the Adventure Capital of East Africa for 11 years with dreams of practising magic arts until I accepted JESUS in Kyebando a month before my 14th birthday. So, I believe her sensational story and appreciate the testimonies of other people she hosts alongside her husband Timsimon Kimani aka Bamboo who I knew as a musician (Favourite Song was "Nairobbery") long before I even ever heard of Erica. For Bamboo's wife (Mama Maisha), I can transcribe any Podcast to text ("The Devil is bad!")...

In "JAH Love Me", Jamaican artiste Konshens sings about a "built-in navigational system" that guides his path. Everyone has it and subconscious dreams are one of its instruments. Explore your dreamvisions...

One Sunday morning in March 2022, I woke up hearing a message that Apostle Moses Mukisa at Worship Harvest Naalya might preach. When I tuned in to 100.9 FM Voice Of Life (VOL) Radio in Arua at 11am, I was amazed close to the end of his sermon when his explanations somehow synced with what I heard. Eish...

Zimbabwean Prophet Passion-Java aka Gaffer who runs a Prophetic School in America (schoolofp07@gmail.com; call +13015037144 for prayer) said, "GOD speaks to everybody, once or twice a day... It is you who does not hear... Unlock the gift in you to operate... Jeremiah type are born like that... No matter the gift you carry, you need someone to unlock it... When JESUS was baptised by John, immediately HE saw in the realm of the spirit... A dove came from Heaven. HE heard the Voice of GOD... 2nd group speaks about those like Amos who are called to be prophets... 3rd level is submitting under a prophet... Like Aaron who spoke for the stammering Moses..."

According to Tori Donald who "chose the wrong path" of sin (witchcraft, altarwork, portal-opening, astral projection, cultism, New Age video making, smoking, drinking, porn addiction, etc) but repented before his silver cord which attaches the body to the soul was severed (Ecclesiastes 12:6), dreams have three origins: GOD (encourages and gives guidance through allegory), the demonic realm (deceives, discourages plus distracts from GOD's purpose) and your soul (reveals anxieties and unfulfilled desires from your mind, will plus emotions). For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the GOD of Israel; Let not your prophets and diviners, that be in the midst of you, deceive you, neither hearken to your dreams which ye caused to be dreamed (Jeremiah 29:8). Hold on to JESUS for HE is the "Chairman of the Board"! When your spiritual eye is dedicated to the single purpose of praising GOD, the Light of GOD enters you.

Musumba [Pastor] Vicky of Mutundwe recommends asking GOD for the Holy Spirit to help you understand your dreams instead of requesting for monotonous predetermined symbol interpretations from other people especially pastors like herself. The Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the FATHER will send in JESUS name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything (John 14:26). A cow or radio broadcast console in a dream does not mean the same thing for everybody. For some, it is their job while others run or stay away from the symbols in the dream.

Lunchtime is fun when JESUS Music takes centrestage at 1pm. Sheilah Dear who hosts Salt TV's Connected, one of my Best Gospel Music presentations of All-Time in UG (alongside Lighthouse TV variety, UBC's Gospel Music programs, NTV's GXP with Carol Flower, Channel 44 Countdown with Lady Bizzle, etc) said on Friday 13th May 2022 that dreams can warn you about coverup masks people wear and direct you to be very careful around them. 

Bishop Isaiah Mbuga of Christ Heart Church once taught: The enemy knows that while you are awake, he cannot affect your system... manipulate... alter your destiny... confuse anything that belongs to you... People oppress you to try and bring discouragement in your life... When he fails, he now comes through the final door... with a transactional dream where you are pulled into legally binding agreements or activities which end up affecting your destiny: Eating in the dream; Getting your money and giving it out; Fighting and waking up with physical pains which later become cancers or wounds; Sexual dreams very common because evil spirits have gone out into the world... Happen on the eve of a very important thing in your life eg interview, job, opportunity to present your business proposal - something like that... How do you deal with these dreams: Learn to watch and pray... Awake while in prayer; Be sober, don't be dozing or distracted by phones, internet, friends, matters of the heart (someone disappoints you then you think about it for months and years). Don't become angry; Apply the blood of JESUS everytime you wake up feeling dirty; Fight back the demon you saw.

Jennifer Eivaz who calls herself "The Praying Prophet" realised in college that she could hear GOD's voice in a way she could "prove out". When she and her husband started to lead a church in Central California, she would have dreams and receive specific information about people who attended. She was careful not to scare people, she said, often opting to check in with them rather than launch into specific predictions or insights of their lives. She also started recording training videos on prayer and prophecy, which caught the eye of Steve Shultz, who had founded the Elijah List and invited her to contribute.

Sadhu Sundar Singh of India, the former Sikh who burnt a Bible page after page while his friends watched saw incredible visions after turning to JESUS.

Edmond Oduka (The Sharp Shooter from Kainos Fellowship in KLA City) taught me via Facebook that, "Prophecy starts by dreams. If you look at the Book of Daniel for example... In Chapter 1 to 5 he was dreaming. In Chapter 6, 7, 8 and 9, the dreams progressed to become visions and he was able to have these experiences while awake..."

In "Tasting The Powers Of The Age To Come", Elvis Mbonye (+256-774-739264 [elvismbonye@yahoo.com], from Zoe Fellowship Grounds around Plot 47 Lweza, near Kajjansi) who refers to himself as a "Major Prophet chosen by GOD" and the "Prophet to the Nations" talks about dreams in about two-thirds of his first published book. The best thing I learnt when I finally got his book in 2018 (thanks to Osa Gloria Arinaitwe) after waiting for five years since I first heard about him is "Dream Induction" or Dream Activation where you think about what you want to find out in the Dreamworld before sleep (the cousin of death) overcomes you.

In the 2nd Edition of his book "Sowing The Mustard Seed", Ugandan President since 1986 (when I was two years old) Yoweri Kaguta Museveni writes, "I pity people who say there is no GOD. I know that HE is there, not because of what the bishops and their juniors keep saying but because of my personal experiences. One of what I regard as GOD's message happened to me in Copenhagen (Denmark's capital) on my way back from USA, following the entering into Rwanda by the RPF... I think we were driving towards a farm or something like that, together with [First Lady] Janet in the back of the car... All of a sudden, I startled from a brief sleep by seeing in a dream (or was it a vision?) somebody with a sharp, shining knife, standing behind Janet as she sat facing the other way. He was aiming the knife at her breast... My mind straightaway went to our young children - especially the girls: Natasha,  Patience and Diana who used to commute from Entebbe to Kampala Parents School everyday... Nothing wrong had happened to the children. Even Muhoozi at Budo was alright... I only found out when I arrived back in Entebbe... It was (the frontline assassination of Major General Fred) Rwigyema that I had obviously dreamed about... This is not the first time that GOD had used dreams or other signs to alert me of certain events - bad or good..." Mugisha Muntu broke the news of Fred's death to M7.

The 3rd Eye (pituitary gland), located in the middle of the forehead between both outside eyes, can see in the deepest dark. Baba (Grandmother) Vanga from Bulgaria was not born blind but when a tornado blinded her, she still saw the future with her eyes closed (including the "two steel birds" of 11th September 2001 in New York). Her prediction accuracy was almost 90 percent as she foretold the future for many people including soldiers like Adolf Hitler who walked away disappointed. She was nicknamed the "Nostradamus of the Balkans" and saw the universe end in 5079 AD after so many incredible events like Christ's return, peace, end of hunger, sea colonies, etc.

"The Interpretation of Dreams (1899)" by Sigmund Freud (Austrian neurologist) is not a bad book to read while doing dream research; psychoanalysis unpacks unconscious conflicts. People dream to cope with the problems the mind is struggling with. Dreams are fueled by people's wishes.

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist who saw dreams as the psyche's attempt to communicate very important things to the individual. It's a way of knowing what is really going on. They guide you to achieve wholeness. Destiny manifests itself in dreams, cures for conflicts are hidden there too. I love Jungian Therapy; it's like Analytical Psychology.

Sid Roth hosts and interviews so many people with incredible dream experiences on his show called "It's Supernatural".

According to Lovy Longomba Elias (Kenyan-born Congolese) of Revelation Church in California (USA), "Everything you see physically is a delayed reaction because this physical world is in the past. It's a reflection of something that has already happened... Dreams are a revelation of what is happening around you. It's not an attack in the night... It's a window into what's happening spiritually. Many people rebuke the dream instead of rebuking the events that are influencing your physical life... GOD is just telling you: My guy, wake up! You are being destroyed... If you read throughout Scripture, there's noone that ever prayed against dreams... Fear makes you alert... It is a bad thing if you are not dreaming... Remember a dream... Every Christian should prophesy... Stop rebuking dreams, accept them! It is a message from GOD... When I fast, my primary goal should be: I want to humble myself before GOD... A fasted life is you eat but you never overeat... Initiate the dream... Check in to see what is happening spiritually... Prepare, for GOD will speak... The Spirit will remind you... but the soul is where what GOD has spoken is recorded... Pray for interpretation..."

Edgar Cayce (the American "Sleeping Prophet" who died on 3rd January 1945 as he predicted) said, "Everything in your life will be foretold to you in a dream..." JESUS was crucified for all of us humans, that is what matters most.

The two Most Acknowledged Dream Specialists or Interpretors in the Bible are Joseph (son of Jacob aka Israel) and Daniel (My favourite verse in his book during Senior 4 was 1:17 because I was having a very hard time passing Literature [got C4 in UCE, then C in UACE like a tiny upgrade] yet English was an assured Distinction 1; History too). Nevertheless, other people also saw prophetic dreams and visions eg Abraham, King Abimelech (who took Abraham's beautiful wife), Jacob (saw the Ladder of Angels), Laban, Pharaoh of Egypt, Pharaoh's butler plus baker, Midianite, Solomon, Ezekiel (saw wheels), King Nebuchadnezzar, Joseph (husband of Mary), Magi (the 3 Wise Men), Pilate's wife, Paul being called to help in Macedonia by a man (Acts 16:9), etc...

And the LORD asked me, "What do you see, Amos? A plumbline," I replied (Amos 7:8)... Amos answered Azariah, "I was neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but a shepherd and also took care of sycamore-fig trees. But the LORD took me from tending the flock and told me: Go prophesy to my people Israel" (Amos 7:14-15)... This is what the Sovereign LORD showed me: a basket of ripe fruit. "What do you see, Amos?" HE asked. "A basket of ripe fruit," I replied. Then the LORD said to me, "The time is ripe for my people Israel; I will spare them no longer" (Amos 8:1-2)...

Acts 10 is a very powerful example of what Dreamsurfing can do: One day at about 3 in the afternoon, Cornelius (a Centurion in the Italian Regiment) had a vision where an angel told him to send for Simon Peter. Meanwhile, Peter fell into a trance the following day where he saw a large sheet let down from heaven to Earth with all kinds of animals, both clean to eat and impure: GOD doesn't show favouritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears HIM and does what is right (That includes non-Jewish Gentiles represented by the unclean animals in the trance).

Concerning JESUS of Nazareth, Acts 10:43 says: All the prophets testify about Him that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name...

The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch. During this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. (This happened during the reign of Claudius.) The disciples, as each one was able, decided to provide help for the brothers and sisters living in Judea. This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul (Acts 11:26-30)...

When Paul placed his hands on them (in Ephesus), the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. There were about 12 men in all (Acts 19:6-7)...

Write down the vision; write it clearly on tablets so that whoever reads it may run to tell others (Habakkuk 2:2). My wish is to see a constantly updated electronic magazine like Daily Prophet (newspaper) or YESU Corner Magazine that records prophecies and testimonies from around the world, but social media especially Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, etc are not very far off from that. JESUS is the Way (John 14:6)!

FINAL NOTE: There are hundreds of dream stories I cannot share in detail including my first recordings like meeting the Anti-Christ; the trip with a few yearmates eg Ivan Earl Agaba on a frozen Lake Victoria that was near my Kisubi school; missing a trip to Russia; Jinja train escape with a soundtrack in the dream (though I turned it into a script); etc, but completely accept the power of Dreamsurfing. According to Jeremiah Johnson: Not everything that GOD speaks to us privately should have been public knowledge. Dreaming is free! It is the Oldest Form of spirituality. At first it appears vague but is a premonition of things to come or revelation of what is happening. Real people follow dreams; it is self-reflection. Attaining lucidity during everyday reality or consciousness is what the Dalai Lama calls "the Great Realisation". It can occur between thoughts like dreaming while awake.

Talk to us in our dreams, LORD!

Worship GOD (aka YAHWEH, YA, JEHOVAH, JAH, MUNGU, ADROA, GOTT, DIEU, KATONDA, RUHANGA, RUBANGA, SHANGDI, ALLAH)! For the testimony of JESUS is the Spirit of Prophecy (Revelation 19:10).


Friday

Lugbara Art

After the Almighty GOD (who art in Heaven), the other best things in life are three: Agriculture, Architecture and Art = Grow, Build and Create (Others may say it's Women, Arsenal and Computers or Marriage, Entertainment and Money; Faith, Hope and Love; Family relationships, Fitness health and Freedom to choose; Work, Work, Work; etc). No Agric, no life! Architecture is a form of Fine Art but it stands alone because of its spacious size, accommodative usefulness plus longevity like (architect Joel Aita's) Arua Hill Stadium and Business Park. Personally, I define Art as a plethora of creative GOD-given talents and skills expressed through works which can be appreciated by any of our (five or six) senses for example paintings, BIGAMBO or talents are seen eg Messi, music is heard like Hillsong Worship, sculptures and carpentry are touched, food is tasted by the tongue for instance namungodi [rice mandazis] while perfumes and aromas are smelt. Meanwhile, thought vibrations (or intentions) are felt in the spirit.

Pennamed Aiko (shortened from Ayiko meaning "Happiness" in Lugbara), my Art is a life of "GOD, ink (or paint), sweat and cheers"; I do it for ma Suru [my Country]. Turn your pains into pain-tings, losses into less-ons, problems into poems, heartbreaks into Artbreaks, rejections into redirections, criticism into realism and messes into messages! What doesn't kill you only makes you two-times-stronger, which is actually antifragility like Hydra. Do not ignore your dreamvisions, focus on your goals and hustle like artpreneurs do, but sleep and rest well too plus rehydrate! Where I come from, Happy-iness is spelt with the letter Y: Without YESU, no joy! No JESUS, no Heaven! 'Tis so sweet to trust in JESUS! Success is getting what you want while Happiness is enjoying success, but Double Happy-iness is wanting what you get, whatever is meant for you; good or bad. Art translated to my mother tongue is Wura. I started my Art journey in Jinja by penciling stickpeople and animals, then added flesh by P3, struggled to reproduce 3D perspectives in KLA City, studied calligraphy as well as fonts on my own after being beaten by my mother for "poor handwriting", wasn't taught Art as a class subject in P7 but discovered how newspapers are made in a textbook borrowed for a holiday from Doro (Itesot-Indian halfbreed), discovered painting, couldn't afford acrylic paints nor brushes, was doubted by some schoolmates but finally discovered the euphoria of superfocus while using only ballpoint pens for drawing during Y2K at SMACK after a Bob Marley assignment by my desk neighbour Sato (Fullname: Jean Rwamukaga aka Kaahwa); I emancipated my portraitmaking from pencil slavery. The following year, I dropped out of the Fine Art Class at Macos, was blocked by the Technical Drawing teacher (with tears in my eyes) from joining his TD students but the 5HEL Combination classmonitor Arshad Ahmed kept me busy practising my drawing skills (One of his three elder brothers named Arfaan also got me KADS Uganda theatrical set design backdrop-painting jobs displayed at Uganda National Cultural Centre aka National Theatre). Later in 2001, I met a beautiful, Queen Sheebah-like brownskinned girl in Arua who spoke Lugbara so fluently at a tender age that she inspired me to re-study the vernacular more diligently on my own. I had a big crush on her (she conquered me), but kept quiet about it because of her age (6-11) though fondly addressed her as Xnthi (meaning unlimited number like infinity). I only worship one GOD in Heaven but Xnthi was soulfully divine and powerful like a Kumari goddess on Earth (I respected her highly even if I was 11 years older than her: One morning she stunned me when she confessed that she liked me because I treated her better than other people who belittled her). Maybe love is a crime, but I will not block the Beautyful One from manifesting her own destiny! To deal with my indestructible obsession, I snapped on the 3rd Agofe's 90th birthday (Saturday 26th November 2016) and dedicated an online Lugbara Dictionary to her plus featured the "dope and perfect" oku [woman] in my own renditions of ancient masterpieces as well as new creations eg Lugbara With A Pearl Earring (2021 Portrait), Superhot, She Wore A Green Attire (SWAGA 2024), etc. Meanwhile, Em - a supercalm campus melody from Kigezi (who used to therapeutically address me as "Boyfriend" between 4th to 6th semester) told me there is "no reason to stop" when I wanted to quit drawing; I guess creativity never ends. The Standard Newspaper at UCU Mukono Campus gave me a GODsent platform to archive my cartoonworks since Monday 7th May 2007 (Actually my Big Brother's 33rd birthday anniversary) and I also got a one month stint at Sunday Vision around December 2010 (The New Vision artwork on weekdays was unluckily given to a proven Etop [Vision Group's Ateso language newspaper] contributor in Soroti which almost depressed me in the end like a demonic dark cloud of failure above my head, but I found a way out of it by appreciating the bi-monthly UCU Standard more). My upbeat Art manager Edmund from Lyantonde also got me some gigs, then I moved to Arua where my brother-in-law Emmyways invited me to paint at his Springs schools. I've created blogs, videos, translated Lugbara, painted signposts and drawn a number of logos plus book illustrations. The initial AikoGraphics product mission list in 2003 included only: Advertisements, Logos, Portraits, Posters and Badges but I can offer more than that today as evidence of skill development. My artworks have been displayed on and within various buildings from MTAC Nakawa in 2007 to Prime Impex Building on Jinja Road, Springs Kindergarten (Arua) since 2017, Arua Central Market 2021, etc. During the Covid-19 Ugandan lockdown, poet Lindsay Hames in Kansas (USA) inspired me to use more layers and brushes while colouring my tradigital Art. Old campus fellow Rachael Nakanwagi Nsamba in Seeta (Mukono) mentioned me on Facebook (1st September 2020) as "one of the Best Cartoonists" she knows when comedian Patrick Idringi (aka Salvado) asked his friends to suggest a cartoonist for an upcoming project; it was very uplifting though unexpected - had somehow tried to hide from Raq! Then in November 2020, a Ugandan actress (who is also a director, producer, fitness trainer and TV presenter) named Maureen Nankya (Jolly, better known as Mona) asked me to draw cartoon characters of the cast in her TV series (The Office) to premiere on Top TV and while preparing to draw the third portrait (which happened to be Ugandan actress Jackline Katusiime), I had some sort of Aha (Eureka) moment which sparked me to redraw the first two I had earlier inked and improved their quality. My Covid-19 lockdown Epiphany inspired me to coin the portmanteau "Ugatoons" which is cut from Ugandan cartoons as a Fine Art movement of renewal. What do you do when you run out of motivation, zeal, gusto, oomph, zest, fire, willpower, driving force, passion, hunger, passion, ava [interest], anointing oil or fuel? You have to question why you do Art! Why do you wake up every morning? What is your real calling, vocation or profession? Overwork, non-payment and underpayment fatigue can cause you to burn out like charcoal becoming ash, but you need a reason for drawing that lasts longer than normal like volcanic rocks or anthill-soil + paper-pulp brickets. My help comes from GOD who gives me all my gigs; Commitment (Grit, Longtime Perseverence, Clear Direction, Mental Toughness, Daily Practice, Never-give-up Stay scheming Attitude) is a discipline that keeps you going and improving even when there are no financial papers (or money, money, money; legal tender; numbers) nor any other incentives. Afterall, GOD gives the talents, all we do is apply them. I wouldn't mind if AikoGraphics is listed alongside Pierre Pierre, Black Broadcast plus A&E Europe: My mission to create world-class Art as a Black kicked off with the label Atelier [French for Studio] in 2001, then Imitari [Latin for Portrait] in 2002 before the name AikoGraphics descended to me in February 2003 while walking back home on Mt. Wati Road (Anyafio Village, Arua). Within a year, I had discovered that the same name was also used in Nippon (ie Japan) by Nikki Aham and Oregon (USA) where the Nike swoosh originated. Creativity is definitely spiritual and universal, without imaginary borders. You need Talent, Imagination, Motivation and Endurance (TIME). The funniest thing about Art is that you can make something out of nothing (like the 8th Day of Creation). Self un-employment is a choice. Complaining about joblessness is a byproduct of Ovu [Laziness]; just do what you want to do even when unpaid like pro bono publico at the start or receiving negative responses, abuse, ridicule and hate! The rewards and profits will find you in their own time. Marathon runners do not stop until they reach their targeted destination (finishline).

Arrangement and Photo by Aiko at Mt. Wati Road in Arua like a Museum of Lugbara Art...

The Lugbara people produce a lot of ongo [music], films photos, drawings, paintings, poems and handicrafts (eg kobi, o'buka, kota, sei, olangi, kome or kitipara, ari, mesa, imvu, adungu, mukeka, yofe, olufe, etc) that can be used for various purposes including mingling enyasa, covering food, shielding toddlers from sunheat, collecting harvests, decoration and so on. The culture is truly sweet! The language can also be quite dramatic: (the English word) roof is translated "jo dri" [house head], floor is "jo ale" [house stomach], stomach can also be "a" or "anyajo" [millet house], food especially the bread made from cassava or sorghum flour is enyasa [food slapping] because of what the mingling stick does during preparation or how people pick chunks to eat by slapping and pinching the foodmass, car can be "afa idri koko" [non-living thing], peace is "asindriza" [beautiful heart] while finger is "drimva" [child of the hand, not head]. The Lugbara wordsound "ago" means husband or pumpkin whereas "ezo" is either girlfriend or warthog (wild bushpig); watch your tone seriously unless you don't mind poetic comedy! If a boy does not tell a girl he truly admires her, she can label him a coward; however when he does, she may scold him for nagging her. As a tonal language, Lugbarati serves up different meanings for similar words eg a dude may tell a chick: A le mi tu [I love you very much!] and she texts back the same exact thing but when she actually means: I want to kick you! The best way to write or type that beautiful emotion without any confusing tonal encryption would be: A le mi ambamba [I love you too much]! In many Lugbara villages, if you drop out of school, fall sick often, lose offspring, fail in business, get accidents mysteriously, do not work for an NGO or Government, lack a marriage spouse and child or house, then you are considered cursed and in need of cleansing through paying dues (a few Ugandan Shillings) or slaughtering an animal for past mistakes by yourself or those you descended from. Like seriously, who are we sacrificing the cattle (sheep, goat, cow, chicken, etc) to? Ancestors, ADRO, Azazel or people harbouring ole [witchcraft in the heart]? Why bind someone just because of food? JESUS shed blood for our transgressions, iniquities, diseases, etc (Isaiah 53:5). By HIS stripes, we are made whole. Happiness is personal, not a public opinion. We all exist in different timezones; there are people who get married at 10 years of age, some graduate from university at 11, start business at 25, become immune to common sicknesses at 30 while others get very good international jobs at 44. Chicken eggs hatch after only 21 nights while elephants give birth after 2 years; calm down! The biggest mango trees all started as small seeds. Even after the tribal cleansings, problems never cease: What matters is finding other ideas and practical solutions. As long as GOD allows the Devil to roam on Earth, problems will continue; you solve one, another draws your attention. GOD put enmity between us and the snake (Genesis 3). Women give birth in pain and are ruled by their husbands while men sweat for food all the days of their life, until they return to Lado, because cursed is the ground with thorns and thistles. Our FATHER, deliver us from Evil (Sickness and poverty)!

Arua Citystate (7th March 2016 Emblem modified by Aiko and displayed on the west face of Arua Central Market 2021)

It feels therapeutic #DrawingWhileLugbara! Once upon a time in Arua, I did some manila artwork for my Best Friend (Lili) and her buddies could not believe everything was drawn in Arua, of all places. Can't good Art come from West Nile, doesn't Lugbara genius exist? Talent is not geographical. Isn't there an Art scene around Arua (from Madi Okollo to Vurra, Maracha, Terego, Yumbe, Koboko, Adjumani and beyond)? Haven't you seen any monuments or sculptures (like at Slumberland, Muni National Teachers College, Onduparaka Suburb, Ezuku, etc), murals (eg at Christ The King Church on Arua Avenue, Lodonga Basilica in Yumbe, etc), signpaintings like "Slow... Tooth can lost/ (te) be care full/ 2009" in all caps or gallery locations? Blacks are never ignorant getting goals achieved. Some visual artists/ designers/ exhibitors from near or in Arua and the Lugbara Kari include: King Eugenius, Stacey Gillian Abe, Pius Hoo (muralist), Osoarts Concept Photography on Oluko Road, my namesake cousin Malunga (at Plansuite Consolidate near Manibe Roundabout), Daphne Anicia who loves Art, Androo (aka Andrew Cara, my OB at Kalinabiri Primary School), Richard Amaku (Richo Painters) who chairs the West Nile Painters Association, Adriko Arts, Photo Centre Trust, Lado Art Factory, Azisha's Art and Crafts Spot (AACS), R(onald)'Kumbuka Art, Walter at Paps Supermarket in Sambya, Rap Image Point Arua, Westnile TV, Immaculate (Immy) Mali aka Anderu who presents pain as a touchable emotion, Bright Warom (West Nile Art Expo), Desmond Feni, Arua Artzone Ltd including Sunday Ayikobua (Graphic Designer), etc. From Busia/ Malaba to the Rwenzori, Arua to Lake Victoria, Uganda - which I fancy calling United Gombololas (UG, the Funniest Country on Earth) is the Pearl of Africa; Lado in the northwest from KLA City is where my ancestors are resting: Kini ama drileonzi [Mbu twasirana]! Good or bad, we take whatever is meant for us. Art is not a competition, but contribution and collaboration. One by one makes a bundle!

Welcome to my online, electronic, virtual or cyber Museum of Lugbara Art (MoLA), what I also call Pari Lugbara Wura ni, which is always open for 24 hours a day/ 7 days a week/ 52 weeks a year; Lugbara Ink is my lifestyle. Happy World Art Day (15th April)! Entrance payment or Entry fee to this Art Club exhibition is: FREE THOUSAND (Free,000) UGX only. However, any donation or supportive grant is absolutely welcome - no limits, whether Mobile Money (to +256-781-345712, Edward Aikobua), supplementary tools or suggestions: awa'difo! Emi we emi yofe si; MUNGU le Lugbara ambo!

For GOD and my Country UG...


BIO: ELIZABETH NDEZO DRAMANI [National ID: Liza Dramani expires in November 2024] (Arrived 1947, Departed 2022) was a Ugandan teacher, banker, farmer, crafts artisan and businesswoman; I addressed her as "Ma(mi)". She was the daughter of Reverend Onesimus Banito and Oripa Airu who had 12 children in Aliba Ojepi. Liza meanwhile had 7 descendants plus about six grandchildren at the time of her departure and was a very active, "humble, trustworthy" member (Treasurer) of Mothers Union in Arua. She forced me to improve my "poor handwriting" in Jinja during the early 90s, praised my football and drawing skills plus mentored me to use bigger brushes (especially 4 inch) for painting walls to reduce time spent; she used to do painting while younger plus played sports like netball. Her encouragement combined with the carpentry instructions taught by my father benefitted my Art practice. She also sold cassava flour from near Emmanuel Cathedrel. I learnt about sewing stretchrings from her; Liza would task me to draw flowers on pieces of paper for carbontracing onto furniture cloth-mats she made or paint wedding decoration items. She made handicrafts like doormats, zukulu holders, etc from sisal or threads plus was a wool crotcheter. She also sold drug envelopes to clinics. Although the "Rumble in the Jungle" happened in 1974, six years before she became a refugee in Zaire, my mother would sing to me some of the music Zaireans composed for Muhammad Ali. Her memory remained sharp even in her 70s. She also knew a lot of Lugbara Anglican Church hymns. Around 1965, mother studied at Giova and Nyangilia P7 School before joining Arua Technical Teachers College (1966-9) where she qualified as a Grade 2 teacher. Liza worked at Nyantonzi Primary School Masindi (1970-1), Katobi Airforce Primary School (1972-4), Naguru Katale Primary School (1975-7) and Spire Road Primary School in Jinja (1979-1980). Due to the 1979 Liberation War that ousted the Lugbara-Kakwa President Idi Amin, she had to flee to Ojapi and taught at Ojapi Primary School (whose badge my father designed: We Climb For Success!). Then she went to exile in Congo with her children before joining her husband in Jinja around 1981. From the following year up to 1995 when she left Jinja permanently for Kampala, she was a Note Examiner at Bank of Uganda. It's my mum who taught me how to fill in bankslips. My lovely mother was retired from public service for medical reasons (Thinking about her sickness once brought tears to my eyes: Why couldn't she heal in Jinja?), carried out business in KLA (helped her during school holidays) before moving to continue with my father in Arua from 2001 up to her departure from Earth due to ulcers and colon cancer treatment. Liza's earthly temple of GOD is resting in Ojapi Village (Maracha). She usually told me I was famous for football in our Spire Road hood but didn't understand what happened to me; I basically acquired new dreams. One incident I will never forget my mother for was when I got a terrible fever in P5; a bodarider was called to cycle me home for 200 UgX before lessons ended. I sat outside waiting for her to return from work with the keys; I was shivering like an earthquake (literally gritting my teeth) but she went ahead to cool my skin with a damp cloth which she kept soaking in a basin of cool water. The weather was humid-cold but she insisted until we saw a doctor in the night. Six years later (during S4), I read something in a Biology book about how high temperature is not good for "enzymes" and my respect for my mother doubled. I even apologised to her for all the wrong I may have done or said as I travelled back and forth between West Nile and Bantuland. Before leaving Kampala in December 2013, she visited me and I couldn't hold back tears begging her never to say that I "do not want to listen" to her; felt death approaching like a curse but implored it one day to go away in the mid-2010s as if it was sitted on a sofa. Ma used to tell me I was the Cheekiest (Most Disrespectful) of all her kids; I moved to Arua to spend my final decade close to her. As a crafts maker herself, I guess I got some Art genes from her. She taught me how to mingle enyasa [Lugbara cassava bread] during P7 vacation and I dedicated the Wikipedia article for "Lugbara cuisine" to her after answering many of my questions about various dishes. The best thing I credit my mother for nonetheless is talking to me about the biblical GOD; she never took me to any witchdoctor, shaman nor spiritist. GOD is great...