Tag Archives: people

Western bias has undermined human security in the Gt. Lakes Region

The great lakes region of Africa including DRC, Rwanda and Uganda is one of the richest, if not the richest, region in the world. It has natural resources in diversity and abundance and many resilient, intelligent and hard working people. In spite of these attributes, the region has some of the poorest people in the world.

Before slave trade and colonialism, Bantu people in east and central Africa had developed economic and political systems and institutions that ensured human security. Bantu groups such as Ganda, Nyoro, Kongo, Luba, Lunda and Rwanda had established great kingdoms (The World Book Encyclopedia 1983) which ensured human security through law and order, food security and respect for human dignity for all Bantu peoples. All these developments and civilizations were undermined by the arrival of Europeans through slave trade, colonialism and bias against Bantu people. Slave trade took place in all parts of the great lakes region. The introduction of European weapons and hunting human beings caused too much damage in demographic, economic and social terms.

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Unequal power relations and impoverishment of Rujumbura’s Bairu

Those who do not believe that unequal power relations can make some people rich and powerful and impoverish others and render them powerless need to visit Rujumbura county of Rukungiri district in southwest Uganda.

Rukungiri district of which Rujumbura is a part has been in the news for more than a year now. It will likely continue to be in the news because the increasing imbalance in power relations between Bairu and Bahororo people – the latter are rulers of Uganda since 1986 with a big number coming from Rujumbura – has continued to disadvantage Bantu/Bairu people. Bahororo people (Nilotic/Batutsi from Rwanda) have amassed so much power which they are using to end – once and for all – Rujumbura’s Bairu resistance to Bahororo domination since 1800. Under normal circumstances, one would have expected Bahororo to use their power to improve the welfare of all the people in Rujumbura. Sadly this has not been the case. The opposite has been the result.

Upon their arrival in Rujumbura in 1800 as refugees Bahororo people used their military power in collaboration with Arab slave hunters/traders and European weapons to defeat and subjugate the once rich, relatively peaceful and numerically superior indigenous Bantu people. Bahororo gave the defeated people the collective name of Bairu (slaves), still in use to this day in 2010.

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President Museveni’s scary statement should be opposed

President Museveni’s speech delivered at Hoima on June 11, 2010 is very scary indeed. Ugandans and their friends must not allow his scary remarks to be repeated or put into action.

When President Museveni, a head of state and chairman of the ruling party, talked about cutting someone’s head for entering his olubimbi (territory) was he saying, for example, that:

  1. opposition parties cannot aspire to form a government in Uganda with a new president
  2. poor people cannot aspire to become rich
  3. illiterate people cannot aspire to be educated
  4. women cannot aspire to inherit their parents’ properties
  5. women cannot aspire to work outside of the home and earn an income
  6. raw material exporting countries cannot aspire to industrialize?

If our understanding of his message is correct, then President Museveni is advocating a static division of labor or comparative advantage which is very difficult to accept. For example, Uganda cannot and should not accept to remain a producer and exporter of raw materials because we do not want to enter the lubimbi or territory of industrialized countries. This lubimbi concept explains why under Museveni’s leadership Uganda has de-industrialized.

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Inter-ethnic and intra-ethnic conflicts in the Gt. Lakes region

In order to understand, resolve and prevent conflicts in the Great Lakes Region (Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi) we have to understand clearly their origins and key players. Those genuinely interested in peace, security and prosperity for the people of the region must research and write objectively including on topics that are taboo like this one.

The Great Lakes region is inhabited by two main ethnic groups of Bantu and Nilotic peoples. Bantu ethnic group arrived in the area 3000 years ago from West Africa and the Nilotic ethnic group 600 years ago from Southern Sudan. Since their interaction the region has experienced inter-ethnic and intra-ethnic conflicts.

Ethnicity carries a sense of collective identity in which a people perceives itself as sharing a common historical past. Many ethnic groups are divided into subgroups called clans (Peter J. Schraeder 2000).

Inter-ethnic conflicts in Rwanda

Many who have written and commented about conflicts in Rwanda from pre-colonial period to 1994 have with few exceptions confined themselves to inter-ethnic conflicts between Batutsi and Bahutu. It is true that during the pre-colonial and colonial periods to 1962 rivalries and conflicts were inter-ethnic.

Intra-ethnic conflicts in Rwanda

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Relations between the horse and the rider in the lakes region are being rattled

Colonialism and slavery are still alive and well

Those of you who have attended a horse race game have noticed that it is the horse that runs with some lashings at times to make it run faster. When the game is over, it is the rider or the owner of the horse that receives the trophy. You have also seen that when the horse gets tired it rebels, sometimes furiously, demanding a break.

In medieval Europe people accepted their place in society as divine ordinance and asked no questions. Women were told to respect their husbands and do as they were told. Peasants (men and women) were told to labor and not to worry about earthly material things because their rewards were in heaven. However as time passed women and peasants in general began to ask questions and to demand a better place in society on earth. They revolted and liberated themselves.

The women’s struggle for equal rights with men has been recognized internationally and the gender gap is narrowing. But the recognition and support did not come easily. Similarly, small holder farmers (peasants) have received international recognition as productive, efficient, environmentally and community-friendly and are receiving international assistance to improve their quality of life. This too came after many years of struggle.

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Museveni has become a liability to his sponsors

When Museveni was waging his bloody guerrilla war in the early 1980s he gave the impression that he was a uniter in contrast to his predecessors who had been viewed as dividers along sectarian lines. Consequently many Ugandans across the country sponsored his cause.

When he became president in 1986 he formed a cabinet that truly reflected his determination to unify all the people of Uganda. He even defined an economic policy that reflected accommodation of various interests. Then he announced that only individual merit would determine recruitment, assignment, promotion and awarding of scholarships. He advised that political activities would be suspended until national unity had attained a level that sectarianism would not raise its ugly head in Uganda politics. His popularity at home soared!

In May 1987, Museveni’s government entered into a stabilization and structural adjustment agreement with the International Monetary Fund and later with the World Bank. The government adopted the ‘shock therapy’ version of comprehensive and simultaneous implementation of all the elements in the structural adjustment package that was favored by the donor community. “He [Museveni] quickly became the darling of the West when he embraced the IMF/World Bank prescribed Structural Adjustment Programs, cutting down on civil service and social services expenditure and sacrificing state parastatals on the alter of liberalization” (Business in Africa. April 2001).

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Bantu people must reclaim their glory as a pre-condition for development

The second half of the 20th century was marked by decolonization in Africa. New flags and anthems replaced colonial ones albeit after bloody wars in some cases, new names replaced colonial ones: Gold Coast became Ghana, Upper Volta became Burkina Faso, Northern and Southern Rhodesia became Zambia and Zimbabwe respectively, etc. Presidents and prime ministers replaced governors. The principal idea behind all these changes was to reclaim African pre-colonial glory.

The first half of the 21st century should be devoted to the decolonization of epithets (terms of abuse) or distortions introduced before or during colonial days. These epithets were deliberately coined and have been repeatedly applied since then to the present day in 2010 to keep down Bantu people (as opposed to Bantu-speaking Nilotic people). You still hear some Bahima and Bahororo boasting that any one of them is worth 1000 Bairu, others are telling us with confidence that their women are more beautiful than Bairu women. Ms Kesaasi confirmed this in April 2010! To repeat, these epithets are intentionally used to devalue Bantu people irrespective of their education, work experience and even wealth.

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Why Uganda is in deep trouble

When people engage in human sacrifice, excessive alcohol consumption, unprecedented domestic violence; when men abandon their families, citizens commit suicide, the vulnerable are taken advantage of, security guards arrange to steal property they are guarding, neighbors demand payment to push your car out of a ditch, girls are afraid to go to school for fear of being molested, people attend public functions to steal or cause trouble; when some officials are paid to attend meetings but do not show up in conference halls; officials blame unemployment and poverty on laziness and drunkenness, leaders mislead their people, progress is measured in the number of vehicles in towns, the number of international conferences hosted and officials react to evaluation of their performance by development partners rather than their citizens, then you know there is trouble. I could go on. Uganda has undoubtedly reached this level.

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The trouble with NRM double standards

Since 1980 when the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) won the general elections and the National Resistance Movement (NRM) began a guerrilla war in 1981 to unseat the UPC government by force since the Uganda People’s Movement (UPM) had failed to defeat UPC at the polls, I have followed NRM’s policy statements to the present day in 2010. NRM’s statements before 1986 are contained in two publications – Yoweri Museveni (1985), Selected Articles on the Uganda Resistance War; and Mission to Freedom (1990). I have had the opportunity to read the contents of the two publications.

NRM’s policy statements since 1986 are found in many publications or hard copies that have been distributed at conferences and summits. Since 1986, I have had the opportunity to attend major conferences and summits at the OAU/AU and United Nations in New York where these statements have been delivered by senior civil servants, Ambassadors, Ministers and the President.

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