When is Uganda going to sit down and record its history?

Nicholas Sengoba is a commentator on political and social issues

What you need to know:

  • Now a country that has about 80 per cent of its population that was not around when these events took place about 40 years ago, such information is risky especially if no serious effort was made to keep a record of the events when they unfolded.
  • Uganda had a great opportunity to record the history of the turbulent 70s when Amin was overthrown, but what followed was even more turbulence and instability with wanton murders and a fresh wave of exodus into exile.

Commemoration of the death of the Anglican Archbishop of the Province of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Boga Zaire which occurred on the February 16 1977, brought to the mind something very intriguing.
When we finally settle down, -for Uganda seems never to have rested and been at peace with itself- how will we tell our story to give us a useful record of the past?
We are talking about an honest and accurate record, useful in helping us understand where we have come from to get to this point and if need be guide us on how to move forward.
For a society to endure, it has to have a repository of such records that it updates in a timely manner.

According to researcher and historian, Fred Guweddekko of Makerere University, Saint Janani Luwum was ‘personally’ shot dead by the then Ugandan president, Field Marshal Idi Amin Dada.
In other words he did not delegate this murder which he executed alongside that of ministers Arphaxad Charles Kole Oboth Ofumbi (Interior) and Lt Col Erinayo Oryema (Lands). They were all allegedly condemned by Amin for the same offence of conspiring to overthrow his government by force of arms.
So when a public holiday was announced to remember ‘only’ the slain Archbishop, many were left in suspense. What about the other two victims who were also prominent figures at the time?
These omissions simply tell us that the culture of keeping the record is very wanting. Why this is so may be found in the way the history has played out.

Uganda has a challenge that many of the major players especially in the politics of the country have been at it since independence and are still at it till this day and have influence in one way or another. As such, we never seem to have a complete break between one group leaving power and another taking over. So the group which takes over carries along remnants of the group that condemned and replaced. Those carried along just sing from the new song sheet to fit in but also do everything it takes to try and revise the past to cast themselves in good light. They carry the past in their fist as they venture into becoming the present and the future. Many times to achieve this, they exile or kill some people who have a good knowledge of their part in the past.

It is very difficult to be a judge in one’s own case. Writing of history has the same challenge. If the history of a country is festered and beleaguered with crime and atrocities it is very tricky to record its story if you have the same players staying put for a long time.
Also if one group intends to stay in power in perpetuity, it will do all it takes to create a dark past as compared to its own failings or achievements.
Still you don’t get anywhere near the accuracy of the record of history that you desire.
When people get exasperated in the present, they look at the past with nostalgia to lift their spirits. It is a form of living in denial in some cases.

Those who are cunning and unscrupulous enough will take advantage of them and try to create a rosy narrative that may be far from honest, to satisfy their desires.
Recently, social media was alive with an exchange between Amin’s son Hussein Lumumba and Conrad Nkuutu the son of Shaban Nkuutu who was allegedly murdered by Amin and buried in a mass grave.
Lumumba claims that Shaban Nkuutu ‘died of natural causes’ and his relatives buried him in a mass grave to blame his father Amin.
Now a country that has about 80 per cent of its population that was not around when these events took place about 40 years ago, such information is risky especially if no serious effort was made to keep a record of the events when they unfolded.
Uganda had a great opportunity to record the history of the turbulent 70s when Amin was overthrown, but what followed was even more turbulence and instability with wanton murders and a fresh wave of exodus into exile.

Then Apollo Milton Obote came to pick up the pieces he had been forced to drop in the 60s. He did not do much as he held onto power that was being wrestled out of his hands by the group led by Yoweri Museveni in the tall grasses of Luweero from 1981 to 85. His own generals were also on his case.
The Museveni group is here and if you listen to them carefully, it is like the real Uganda started in 1986 when they shot their way to power. For the last 30 years they have written our history uninterrupted. They are judges in their own case so you can guess what the record is like.
If you put all these issues together we may not have a clear record to refer to as our history. It is the history of those and by those who hold the seat of power and is bound to change when that time ends.
Nicholas Sengoba is a commentator on political and social issues. [email protected] Twitter: @nsengoba