For diplomacy, Uganda needs Kadaga more than Kagimu

The three controversies have exposed Uganda’s weak foreign policy and poorly articulated roles of cultural and military diplomacy in the conduct of our international relations.

These diplomatic gaffes besides dirty cases of drugs trafficking and business deals have ruined our Foreign Service as the preserve for Uganda’s crème de la crème and relegated it to yahoos. I will focus on our cultural diplomacy on which Ugandans have knocked down Kagimu and have given big hugs to Kadaga as the ugly and the good cheeks of Uganda on the international stage.

The overly hostile reactions of Ugandans question our wisdom in using embassies as dumping grounds for undeserving but well-connected cadres of NRM. We have abused our smart career diplomats, bright graduates and Ugandans with proven integrity to mirror Uganda on the international arena.

Indeed, Ugandans are justly furious that Kagimu, 50, has insulted the intelligence of 35 million Ugandans by his ‘display of stupidity’ and has exposed Uganda as goat to be ridiculed in the UN. Contrarily, Ugandans have clapped for Kadaga’s witty rebuttal in Quebec, Canada, to Canadian foreign minister John Baird who had attacked Uganda over her poor human rights record and restriction of gay rights.

Kagimu’s crime was a 12-minute jabber at a symposium on cultural diplomacy at the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy, Switzerland. And tomfool is the unkind dishonour Ugandans have bestowed on our good envoy to Switzerland. Certainly, the good former Bukomansimbi MP and NRM cadre’s ‘idiotic rant’ had proven the next big thing about Uganda on the World Wide Web after Kony 2012 video on YouTube.

Millions of viewers
The video had pulled in more than 3,000 curious viewers and hundreds of abusive comments before it were quickly removed by Kagimu’s coaches! But the news of Kadaga’s clever clash with Baird notched most read article (Daily Monitor, October 26, 2012) and excited a triumphant welcome for Kadaga on return to Uganda.

We must pity Kagimu. First, the man from Bukomansimbi as a learner failed to handle the big challenge of diplomatic stage in Geneva. Kagimu knew nothing about acceptable diplomatic behaviour and pressed the self-destruct button once he touched the mike and opened his mouth on an unfamiliar subject of the ‘Role of Cultural Diplomacy in Furthering Sustainable Development’.

Second, Kagimu insulted the golden principle of scholarship which emphasizes disputation of ideas. He resorted to the village doctrine of ‘what my master says I will repeat.’ Kagimu set off by saying he will first talk to please the professor, who spoke before him, even when he (Kagimu) disagrees with him! “I don’t believe in what I’m saying, but I’m repeating what I have found.”

But the topic demanded Kagimu to assert that sustainable economic or political development should not be imposed at the expense of African cultural perspectives. Rather, respect for diversity of other peoples and their cultures. Kagimu needed only to recall British Premier David Cameron offering development aid to Africa but bundled with demands that African governments must respect gay rights.

But Kagimu, an African ambassador, cast himself as an African cultural destroyer as he faltered: “I don’t believe in cultural diplomacy. We must not stretch it, we must not promote it!” “We must abolish! Why sustain them? We must break that (African) culture! We must fight that culture!”

Contrarily, Kadaga confronted the issue cleverly and dismissed Baird at the Inter-parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly in Quebec. She educated Baird that in his Christian backyard and tens of states in USA, the issue of gay rights remains unresolved. Kadaga demanded Canada must respect Uganda’s sovereignty, societal values and cultural norms.

But Kagimu buckled in the face of the debate and resorted to local issues he knew about ‘culture’. He attacked Buganda’s crude bark clothes, Africa’s primitive spears, and hand hoes that he said must be banned lest they choke off development. He blabbered on: “Why must we (Africans) innovate or adapt? We no longer think. We just wait, copy and paste (from the West, East …)! With the Uganda flag button on his lapel, Ambassador Kagimu completed the stamp of embarrassment for Ugandans. All that Kagimu knew about diplomacy was economic relations. Asked why he only emphasizes economic diplomacy, Kagimu shot back that Ugandans don’t eat human rights!

Kagimu’s blunders question whether our diplomats are groomed on tasks abroad. It also casts doubts on whether our Parliament vets the calibre of diplomats Uganda sends to Geneva in Switzerland, foreign capitals, and UN organs. But the bigger question is, will President Museveni heed Ugandans calls and fire Kagimu and envoys of his ilk from the UN seat in Geneva, Switzerland, and the UN?

Kagimu only needed to assert that elements of cultural diplomacy are used to fulfill national policy objectives as was being pressed by Cameron. They are packaged as bilateral or multilateral soft power to benefit the more powerful partners such as the United Kingdom and Canada against smaller powers such as Uganda.

Cultural diplomacy, including news and views broadcasts and movies, such as Britain, America, and China are suing through educational and cultural exchanges, sponsored visits with Uganda’s media houses are clever psychological operations aimed at managing our minds to accommodate or copy ways of life in Britain, America, and China. Have we ever considered the psychology of Hollywood, Bollywood and Nollyhood in our lives in Uganda?

Kagimu should have questioned whether Africans should take cue on development from indigenous or West-centric viewpoints as demanded by Cameroon and Baird. He should have discussed the topic from an African normative and ethical standpoint and asserted that Western nations use cultural diplomacy in furthering so-called sustainable development based on their prisms and not the cultural wellbeing of recipients.

Kagimu should have contested and even rubbed in Western-centric ills of prioritising same sex marriage rights on the same scale as more pressing rights to access food, shelter and healthcare in discussing sustainable development. But Kagimu ruined the big debate on the linkage between economic, cultural and environmental development, without letting one damage the chances of survival of the other.

Regardless of Museveni’s action on Kagimu, Uganda demands more of Kadaga’s fine-brush strokes and not Kagimu’s broad-brush strokes for cultural, economic, military, and political international relations. More importantly, Uganda needs to re-focus its poorly articulated foreign policy and assert its interests in post-oil and gas discovery and extraction era. Amazingly, the European Union, and the Americans are already running several steps ahead of us on assessing our own powers and angle of tilt in post-oil and gas extraction era.

Kagimu and his coaches cannot therefore dismiss the role of cultural diplomacy – one of four key instruments of international relations – the others being economic, military, and political power.

Ugandans must know that cultural diplomacy as derived from informational propaganda is psychological warfare by another name. Ugandans must learn to deal with the perception and management of competing ways of life in this globalised world. This explains why Kadaga knocked down Canadian Baird to huge cheers by Ugandans. Ugandans understand cultural diplomacy as seen in the Kadaga-Baird brush as a rejection of non-reciprocal Western imposition of their world views on Ugandans.

In conclusion, the role of cultural diplomacy in advancing sustainable development simply implies imposition of a superior cultural perspective on aid and development. We must rigorously question this veiled concept of the so-called mutual awareness, mutual interface and mutual understanding and mutual interests. We must question the role of cultural diplomacy in boosting sustainable development as preached by Western sponsors. This was the issue that Amb. Kagimu failed to grasp and contest but which Speaker Kadaga won for the Pearl of Africa –Uganda.

Lucima works with DENIVA and is a scholar of International Communication

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