Queen’s tower gets facelift as Pan African Square rots away

The Uganda government gave the tower befitting beauty with a water fountain, splendour lights and silky tiles sandwiching it.

Just metres from the magnificent British Queen Tower, is a monument of 14 South Africans, who died during the struggle to liberate South Africa from apartheid, which was unveiled by the former president of South Africa Jacob Zuma on March 25, 2010.

The queen’s tower is in the vicinity of the monument of the Pan Africanists, which is now in a desolate state.

The Pan African Freedom Square, which used to be the pride of the African struggle for liberty, is now a shadow of itself.

The Pan African Freedom Square was established to remember Pan Africanists, who fought for Africa’s independence and cultural unity.

Professed Pan-Africanists, including President Museveni, planted trees at the Square to commemorate the struggle of African people.

Mr Museveni is the patron of the Global Pan African Movement while the minister of Internal Affairs, Gen Kahinda Otafiire, is the chairperson.

Once a secure environment with flags of African countries flying in peace, the square’s monument is currently surrounded by shacks, garbage, and a stream of sewer.

A rotting bed of the late Dr Abdul-Raheem Tajudeen, the former secretary general of the Global Pan African Movement, leans on the monument as if it is consoling it about the bad times that have befallen them.

“I struggled to repair these lights and illuminate the monument at night,” one of the square caretakers said.

During the construction of the Kampala Flyover Project, the square lost part of its land to the rebuilding of the Clock Tower.

The construction company used it as a dumping ground for their waste materials. But when the contracts were done with the flyover works, they didn’t fully restore the damaged Freedom Square’s environment and structures, like the fence and the grass.

Dr Tajudeen’s furniture, which showed the modest and exemplary life he lived, has since been destroyed or literally dumped.

Gen Otafiire said he was aware of the bad state of the Pan African Freedom Square, adding that they would work on it.

“I am aware of it. We were trying to work on it, but ran short of money. When we finish the [Pan African Movement] headquarters, which we are building, we should work on it (square),” Gen Otafiire said yesterday.

Gen Otafiire said many African governments like the idea of the Pan African Movement, but they don’t want to pay to promote its cause.

 “African governments haven’t been paying. Uganda, sometimes Kenya, but the rest don’t pay,” he said.

The shortage of funds has made the management of the square difficult.

The square caretaker said they are struggling with trespassers.

 “People wanted to take that bed [of Dr Tajudeen], but I refused. I just felt that it should be preserved. But his chairs were recently taken by unknown people,” the square caretaker said.

During his lifetime in Uganda until 2004, Dr Tajudeen treated the Pan African Freedom Square as a sacred ground.

He would spare no one if the colonial power monument was given more preference than those of the Africans more so on the Pan African Freedom Square.

Dr Tajudeen wanted the freedom square to commemorate the African children who struggled to liberate the continent from colonialism and its aftermath.

He even wanted the late Lucky Dube, a South African reggae musician, who used his music talent to fight for African liberation, to plant a tree at the Pan Africa Freedom Square when he visited Uganda in 1995, Shaka Ssali, a renowned journalist, said in an interview with Daily Monitor in March 2018.

Some of the trees planted by celebrated Pan Africanists at the Pan African Freedom Square were cut down to create room for the rebuilding of the Clock Tower and the expansion of the flyover project.

These days, the Pan Africanists’ monument works as a clothes line for the homeless people’s garments. On another day, it is turned into a kitchen and at night a ducks coop.

Mr Daniel Rugarama, the executive chairperson of Pan African Movement, Uganda Chapter, said they are not in control of the management and administration of the Pan African Freedom Square.

“As the national chapter, we use the square without hindrances when we have events. However, we aren’t in control of the square. …We don’t have permanent rights to use the place. We can’t determine how it is run. Therefore, whatever state you found there, it is the question to ask the global [Pan African] chapter,” Mr Rugarama said.

Gen Otafiire said he had chased people, who were idling and those who had turned the square into a market, but he was criticised for it.

“I am not going to allow those who have established kitchens on the square,” Gen Otafiire said.