At 54, here are some unusual ways Uganda has changed

Uganda celebrated its 54th anniversary of independence this week. So has the country changed in these 54 years?
Some things are still largely the same – Uganda’s “native imperialism”, beginning with Milton Obote 1’s incursion into the Congo, Idi Amin’s threats against Kenya and fateful foray into Tanzania. These instincts were taken to a new level by Yoweri Museveni – Congo, Sudan, Central African Republic, kind of in Rwanda, and Somalia, he actually projected an old Ugandan characteristic of its soldiery.

There is still the same nauseating nepotism in national government, the corruption (worse today, some argue), the violent treatment of the Opposition, the president-for-life politics, and so forth.

Yet, even in the politics, things have actually changed…even if in strange ways. There are at least 10 big changes, but we have space for three.

Staying with the political, in the early years of independence, Opposition politics was primarily a parliamentary affair. The shift ticked up considerably during Idi Amin’s military rule in part because, well, there was no Parliament.

However, the seeds had been sown in 1966 with the Milton Obote’s attack on the Lubiri and subsequent abolition of kingdoms. A militant underground movement took root in Buganda, with an active external wing based out of Nairobi.

After the ouster of Amin, and President Museveni and other leaders’ move to the bush after the 1980 election theft; and the NRM’s one-party state after it took power in 1986, the most significant Opposition politics in Uganda shifted outside Parliament.

Today, it only matters marginally what, for example, the Opposition FDC does in the House. The FDC leadership that the government focuses on, and the one that ultimately matters, is outside Parliament, especially people like the party’s presidential candidate Kizza Besigye.

Another major change is the office, or station, of the First Lady. First Lady Janet Museveni is very politically active, and in recent years she has been an elected MP and a minister, in a break with the past.

But there is also another difference. Miria Obote had brought a classical tradition to the State House, complete with an annual ball in black tie.

Surrounded by other “noble” women who knew the waltz and fox trot, they kept a certain style to State House. And Miria generally is a gentle spirit, often bringing back banana leaves for her friends from the village so they can make luwombo in purist tradition.

From Amin’s time, you can say we have had the common, or proletarian, touch in our First Ladies. If you are a traditionalist Africanist, that is probably a good thing. If you are an aristocratic snob, you might sneer.

One of the most dramatic changes has been in the economy. Driven by the economic liberalisation and privatisation of the late 1980s and early 1990s, the State has – commendably – retreated from a commandist role in the economy. The State in Uganda today is quite minimalist, although, in a contradictory way, the number of State functionaries, including MPs, has shot up. What that has done is increased the number of people leeching off the taxpayer, not expanded the State structures themselves.

It is like overloading a bus. The size of the vehicle itself doesn’t change.

The things post-independence “Africanisation”, Amin’s expulsion of the Asians and his plunder (or “allocation” to use the word of the time) of their property, have actually been achieved through liberalisation, and the survival from the inevitable carnage that came from the World Bank/IMF-driven structural adjustment programmes.

Uganda today is Africa’s leading coffee exporter, for example. Only a mad or drunk – man would have bet on that 20 years ago.

Perhaps even more stunning, and unique for Africa, is what has happened in establishment religion. Talking of leeches, the mushrooming of “independent” and evangelical churches created a flood of pastors and preachers who came to feed off those seeking salvation.

The response of the old churches, especially the Catholics and Protestants, is worthy of study. They went in the opposite direction – they corporatised.

It was a response to the fact that the “saved” churches had crowded them out of the pockets of the flock. In social and humanitarian industries where they used to be active, they were edged out by donors and NGOs.

The State muscled into their primary and secondary schools, and the sharp rise of private schools sidelined them. They went into private universities, where the government allowed more room to charge fees and operate as the owners saw fit.

But the game-changing action came, first, from the Catholics, who got into banking (Centenary Bank), and top-end real estate (Mapeera House). Now the Protestant Church is building its grand Church House.
The Catholic and Protestant churches in Uganda, are easily the most corporate in Africa today.

Mr Onyango-Obbo is publisher of Africa data visualiser Africapedia.com and explainer site Roguechiefs.com. Twitter@cobbo3.