Ugandans especially women are impoverished, unemployed/underemployed, sick, functionally illiterate, tired, frustrated, hungry, many in exile, voiceless and powerless and understandably angry at the NRM regime that has created these outcomes since 1986 contrary to its promises because of wrong policies and uncaring dictatorship. Ugandans had hoped to change all this by defeating NRM at the 2011 presidential and parliamentary elections. But as the majority know and international observers reported there was lack of a level playing field and NRM stole the elections and formed an illegitimate government with over 70 ministers. Having lost faith in the ballot box, Ugandans are searching for a formula to unseat an illegitimate regime (some claim it is a legitimate government), establish a transitional government to organize free and fair multi-party elections.
United Democratic Ugandans (UDU) an umbrella organization of parties and groups at home and abroad was formed in July 2011 to champion regime change by peaceful means in the first instance, reserving the right to use other means in case of disproportionate attack by the government. The role of women in this task was recognized and a gender representative was elected. The representative along with other members of UDU committee are mobilizing women who have borne the brunt of suffering and are looking for ways and means to participate in regime change. Apart from consultations and broadcast messages, the committee has searched for lessons that could apply to Uganda. In the interest of time and space, we shall focus on two case studies namely the role of women in the French Revolution of 1789 and the Russian Revolution of 1917. These two illustrations have been chosen because the conditions that triggered women into action are similar to what is happening in Uganda now (2012). Hopefully these lessons will help Uganda women to organize and participate effectively in regime change.
The French Revolution started in 1789 at a time when France was facing serious political, economic and social difficulties that had accumulated over the years. France suffered high unemployment, inflation and acute food shortages as is happening in Uganda. The urban poor spent half of their meager earnings on bread, the backbone of their diet, living in constant fear of unemployment, hunger and beggary. Because of government indifference, the French became politically conscious. The year 1789 witnessed skyrocketing food prices and unemployment countrywide. On October 5, 1789 Parisian women led by the city’s fishwives marched to Versailles where King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette lived. They demanded that the king address their suffering and accept all their demands which he did. The women then broke into the royal granary and carted grain to Paris. The royal family and the National Assembly were moved from the quiet environment of Versailles to the politically charged atmosphere of Paris.
Women also participated in the storming of the Bastille prison to obtain arms and free political prisoners. The women participated actively in the revolutionary processes. They demanded equality and liberty. They wrote revolutionary papers, organized women political clubs, engaged in political debates and supported the revolution in many other ways. The issues of main concern to them included equal education with men, inheritance laws, vocational opportunities and female political rights and all other basic civil rights. In 1791 they produced the Declaration of the Rights of Women. It stated in part that “Woman is born free and her rights are the same as those of man. The law must be an expression of the general will; all citizens, men and women alike, must participate in making it, either direct or by means of representatives, it must be the same for all. All citizens, be they men or women, being equal in its eyes, must be equally eligible for all public offices, positions, and jobs” (A. Esler 1994). The new French constitution converted absolute monarchy into a constitutional monarchy with limited powers. French women played an important role. From then on French women stopped being passive observers of political changes and became active players.
Nicholas II was Tsar of Russia from 1894 to 1917. Like his predecessors he believed he was the chosen of God to rule the Russian Empire as he liked. He ruled it autocratically. However, he ruled a troubled empire bedeviled by inadequate land allocation, high taxes, overworked and underpaid workers. Liberal officials and students demanded institutional reforms. But the uncaring Tsar remained determined to rule autocratically. In this environment of inflexibility, Russians began to listen to and became receptive to the ideas preached by Russian dissenters. In 1917, the year of the Russian Revolution, Russia suffered high inflation, declining real wages, deteriorating working conditions and above all food and fuel shortages like in Uganda today (2012). On March 8, the international women’s day, women textile workers poured into the streets of Petrograd shouting ‘bread’. Women and other workers joined in and within two days over 20,000 strikers brought life in the city to a standstill. Instead of negotiating, Nicholas ordered security forces to break up the food rioters, shooting them if necessary. Instead the police and soldiers joined the rioters. After losing support of the military and political leaders, Nicholas II had no other choice but to abdicate the throne on March 15, 1917. Russian women triggered actions that contributed to the end of the Tsar’s autocracy and insensitivity.
The causes of women revolts in France and Russia were similar to those obtaining in Uganda at the moment. The rulers in France and Russia did not care about the suffering of their citizens. It is reported that when Antoinette heard that there was a shortage of bread she suggested the hungry people should eat cake instead. In Uganda for over 25 years, Museveni and his government has exhibited lack of care for the ordinary people, refusing even to subsidize primary school lunches that keep children in school and make them perform better especially girls. Poverty is high, spreading and deepening, hunger is acute and stunting the children physically and mentally while food is being exported, prices are rising, unemployment and underemployment is high and those working for low wages are doing so under very difficult conditions. Some employees are not even paid their meager wages on time. The deteriorating environment has resulted in water tables dropping and rivers and wells drying up, causing women to walk longer distances with babies on their backs to fetch water. When land is sold, it is women who suffer because they have little or no land to grow enough food for the family. When husbands are unemployed or are in prison it is the wives who suffer as they struggle around the clock to make ends meet. Because it does not want to ease the suffering, NRM has consistently insisted that the causes of suffering are external beyond government control. Only the invisible hand of the market will eventually turn the economy around. But we know full well that domestic factors within the control of the government including rampant corruption, sectarianism, mismanagement, inappropriate policies like exporting food when citizens are starving, skewed income distribution in favor of those few families already rich and disproportionate allocation of public funds to security forces are largely responsible for the suffering of Ugandans especially women. In these circumstances of inflexibility and uncaring Ugandans do not have many choices to pick from. In fact the only peaceful avenue still open is civil resistance demanding regime change so that a transitional government is formed to organize free and fair elections and form a legitimate government accountable to the people, which is not the case at the moment. Uganda women like other women everywhere have a right to respond appropriately when their demands are not met by a non-caring government.