Tag Archives: quickly

We must come together quickly to save Uganda

If we, Ugandans don’t wake up quickly and unite under capable, visionary and patriotic leadership, we are going to lose Uganda as we have known it and become underdogs in a new entity. What is happening in Uganda right now has a long history beginning with Yoweri Museveni. Museveni knew very early in his life what he wanted to achieve for himself and his Batutsi people. He wanted a Tutsi Empire covering initially the Horn of Africa and Great Lakes region using Uganda as a base. I went to Ntare School with Museveni. As a prefect, I had a duty to study the behavior of students to recommend those that had leadership qualities. Museveni appeared to me as a restless individual with a mind fixed on something I could not quite understand. Museveni started a student organization while still at Ntare School. He supported the creation of East African integration and federation.

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Uganda is ripe for a Glorious Revolution

Revolutions occur when the people (ruled) or their representatives demand basic changes in their governance relationships with the rulers. Revolutions can be bloodless like the Glorious (peaceful) Revolution of 1688 in England or bloody like the French Revolution of 1789-1799. Revolutions reflect deep-seated and long-held grievances by the public against their leaders. Revolutions occur when these grievances reach a boiling point. Has Uganda reached that point?

Before examining conditions for a revolution in Uganda let us quickly review conditions and steps taken in England and France to effect fundamental changes – Revolutions – in the relations between the rulers and the ruled.

In England, conditions that led to the revolution of 1688 started with James I who had been king of Scotland. He became king of England in 1603 following the death of Queen Elizabeth I from the Tudor family. James was a member of the Stuart family. The Stuart kings (James I, Charles I, Charles II and James II) ruled England from 1603 to 1689. Parliament conflicted with Stuart kings, fought them and limited their powers for many reasons including the fact that James I had been king of Scotland and therefore a foreigner as king of England.

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Uganda’s downward spiral must be suppressed quickly

In my book “Uganda’s Development Agenda” published in 2008 I wrote a chapter comparing independent Uganda with medieval Europe (500-1500 AD). I showed similarities in the low standards of housing, clothing and eating as well as in agrarian economy and low level of technology. Since the publication of the book, I have conducted further research about Uganda and concluded that its problems have gone beyond standard development challenges.

The mounting problems including absolute and relative poverty have been suggested as part of the reasons why many Ugandans have turned to unusual behavior including witchcraft, human sacrifice, excessive alcoholism etc.

A few years ago while on vacation in Uganda, a python was killed in our village. It had to be incinerated and the ashes scattered so that parts of the snake are not used for witch craft. I also learned that cats were disappearing mysteriously because parts of them are used for witchcraft. I had a conversation with a senior citizen in the area who said that people have lost faith or suffered a rupture in institutions that sustained them forcing them to turn to witchcraft.

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When someone treats you like a slave you have got to defend yourself

According to Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary a slave is, inter alia, (1) a bond servant divested of all freedom and personal rights; a human being who is owned by and wholly subject to the will of another, as by capture, purchase, or birth. (2) one who has lost the power of resistance, or one who surrenders himself to any power whatever… (3) …one who labors like a slave.

A number of developments with reference to the Great Lakes Region (especially Rwanda and south west Uganda) have forced me to revisit the issue of being a slave. First, my visit to Burundi, DRC and Rwanda in January/February 2010 and the detailed stories I heard in formal and informal settings in addition to information from other sources has made me realize that groups of human beings in the region have been deprived of their human rights. Reports about massacres or should we say genocide of Hutu people in Rwanda and Eastern DRC committed by Tutsi, the hidden mass graves of brutally murdered Hutu people some of them under buildings in Rwanda and DRC, the comments from people who should know better but think Hutu people – all Hutu people – are barbaric, wild beasts, genocidaires and assassins that deserve to be punished made me wonder where the world is headed.

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