The Study on Moral Upbringing of Children in a Modern Buganda: A Case Study of Masaka Municipality, Masaka District.

Abstract

NDAGIRE AGNES (2014-MO92-20033) The Study on Moral Upbringing of Children in a Modern Buganda: A Case Study of Masaka Municipality, Masaka District. Immorality is a silent cancer that is eating up the world today. Morality ought to govern the way of life of people worldwide and this makes it an undesirable concept to many who are pre-occupied with money and competitively promote self-interests. Moral upbringing of children goes as wide as determining the kind of children and adults a parent will have, at a time when they are supposed to make their own decisions. The study is, therefore, attempting to understand the phenomenon of moral upbringing of children, amidst the growing rates of immorality in not only children but also adults. The study is on moral upbringing of children in a modern Buganda with a focus on Masaka municipality. The objectives of the study from which themes were developed constituted of finding out how children were being morally shaped in a pre-modern Buganda society, finding out how formal education has affected the moral upbringing of children and proposing ways of how to morally raise children in a modern era. According to the nature of study, a qualitative research approach and a case study research design were used in this research. The study findings show that people of Masaka municipality, Buganda, Africa and the World at large are infested with the problem of moral deficiency. Other people do not know what is going on, they leave everything the way it is and just look on. Immorality has been brought partially by the coming of the Europeans which made us acquire pseudo independence up to date. It left us torn to pieces and in the middle of the bridge, in other words, we are not becoming Europeans and at the same time we are no longer Africans since we do not behave like Africans any more. The coming of Europeans was followed by, colonisation, religion, individualism, materialism, language and the culture itself. Other causes of immorality were of our own making and they included failure to respect our language and culture, copying every culture that comes our way, laziness that makes our people think they can achieve wealth freely. This has been the cause of lesbianism, homosexuality and so on. To address these problems the people of Buganda are argued to live by example, change their attitude towards the African culture, conserve the environment through embracing nature, ensure that they provide time for their children, leave by the means that they can afford. The government is also urged to make laws that can limit exposure of children to social media platforms which are the source of pornography and other misbehavior. Key Words: Moral Upbringing, Children, Modern Buganda, Masaka District.