Tag Archives: demographic

London conference discussed federalism in a tolerant atmosphere

The well publicized London federal conference organized by Uganda Federal Confederates (UFC) took place at the University of East London on October 27, 2012. The attendance could not have been better. A high powered delegation from Uganda joined others at the University including those from the United States of America.

All the four regions of northern, eastern, western and central (Buganda) and all demographic groups of men, women and youth were represented. Different organizations and political parties were also represented. United Democratic Ugandans (UDU) was represented by the Secretary General, Eric Kashambuzi who presented two papers on the Roadmap to Achieving Federalism in Uganda and plans to establish Tutsi Empire in the Great Lakes region.

The debate took place in a tolerant atmosphere under the leadership of the master of ceremony in which participants discussed a wide range of issues related to federalism versus unitarism freely and responsibly, disagreeing where they did in a civil manner. Decorum was exercise as required.

Presentations were followed by pertinent comments, questions and suggestions on the way forward. That the discussions were so engaging can be attested to by the fact that the master of ceremony had to set time limits for presentations and comments so that everyone had a chance to make a contribution. In the end according to my assessment the following observations emerged from the successful conference.

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The impact of immigration in Uganda

The issue of immigration has taken center stage in domestic, regional and international debates. Global economic hardship and the associated high unemployment as well as demographic dynamics have triggered the resurgence of interest in reviewing the benefits and costs of immigration. In Uganda concerns about immigrants’ disproportionate participation in the economy, politics and security forces are being expressed in various forums. Globalization and East African economic integration processes have opened Uganda gates to all kinds of immigrants with serious political, economic, moral and cultural repercussions.

Uganda’s story about immigration goes back to the 1920s. Pull economic factors as Uganda began cultivating cotton and later coffee that required a lot of labor and push political and economic factors in neighboring countries especially then Rwanda-Urundi resulted in many immigrants entering Uganda in search of work. Other immigrant workers came from Kenya and then Tanganyika. They located in areas where they could find jobs according to their skills. Those with herding skills went to cattle herding areas in all parts of the country particularly in Ankole, Buganda, Eastern and Northern Uganda. Those with farming experience found jobs in cotton and coffee growing areas in Buganda and parts of Eastern Uganda. Some workers returned to their countries of origin, others stayed. Some of those who stayed married local women, adopted local languages and culture and got completely assimilated. Others adopted local languages and names but married women mostly from their country of origin or from their ethnic groups already in Uganda and resisted assimilation or Ugandanization.

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Population explosion: Africa is sitting on a time bomb

A response

Mr. Peter Mulira – a lawyer by profession – has written an article on Africa’s demography with the above title which appeared in New Vision (Uganda) March 31, 2010.

I would like to offer the following observations.

First, Africa’s fertility is declining albeit slowly thus lessening the scare of a ‘population bomb’ – an expression that entered the demographic discourse in the 1960s.

Second, Africa has the potential to feed many more people than it has right now given its arable land, water supplies (surface and underground) and idle labor force. The problem is that much of the food is wasted through storage, transport and processing constraints and much of the balance is exported to earn foreign currency as required under the Washington Consensus, thus leaving little for domestic consumption – pushing up prices which many households cannot afford. At the same time Africa’s agricultural productivity is very low.

Third, instead of addressing these shortcomings, a new idea has developed: Africans are being urged to sell or lease land to foreign countries and/or companies to produce food to feed people in their home countries – an arrangement if implemented will reduce food supplies in African domestic markets. The case of Madagascar is too well known to be repeated here. The reduction of food availability to African consumers will then be erroneously interpreted as population growing faster than food supplies.

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