Author: Musaazi Namiti. PHOTO/COURTESY
Last Sunday, this newspaper shared a quote from President Museveni on its social media platforms, which I think was brutally frank and may have shocked people as it was bereft of tact and diplomacy.
“Some people have already gone to the moon,” Mr Museveni said, “but we [Africans] are still here. They are now looking at us like insects. You can spread [sic] insects with doom and they die without knowing.”
He went on and was a bit comical: “It’s also a good thing to be ignorant because if you’re ignorant, you’re not worried — you can die comfortably. The Americans, Chinese and Russians have gone to the moon; the Indians went there recently. We are the ones still here now.”
Mr Museveni was right about non-Black people not holding Africans in high esteem. Of course, they do not go around saying: “We do not hold Africans in high esteem.” But actions speak louder than words. We know how Africans (with decent jobs and family ties in their countries) are treated when they apply for visas at Western embassies.
And those with a retentive memory remember how, in 2020, the Associated Press news agency, one of the largest news organisations in the United States, cropped our own climate change activist Vanessa Nakate out of a photo in which she had featured with White people. They did not want a Black woman in the photo.
As I read Mr Museveni’s quote, I could see that it had an unmistakable tinge of bitter disappointment. He was indeed right about the fact that we have not made as much progress as other countries — countries that are exploring space, countries that have lifted millions of people out of poverty.
But Mr Museveni and other African presidents are leaders and have the capacity to mobilise people. Separately, Mr Museveni has ruled Uganda for nearly 40 years. Precious few presidents get to lead a county this long. What has he really done to transform Uganda, which, according to Kim You-Churl, South Korea’s former ambassador to Uganda, was ahead of South Korea in “many aspects’’ in the early 1960s?
South Korea’s 52 million people earn an average of $35,000 a year, nearly as much as Italians; Ugandans earn less than $1,500. Even those that earn this amount live in poverty, strictly speaking.
In 1971, long before Mr Museveni realised his dream of ruling Ugandans, the United Nations put Uganda on the list of Least Developed Countries (LDCs). Fifty-three years down the road, Uganda is still on this unenviable list and imports anything from toothpicks to wet wipes.
So, if non-Black people are looking at Africans — and for that matter Ugandans — like insects, who is really to blame? In my humble opinion, Mr Museveni and other African presidents should take full responsibility. They have signally failed to provide leadership that sets the stage for their countries to take off.
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Mr Museveni may not know, but for the people of Uganda, the real problem is not the failure to go to the moon.
The problem looks like this: Hospitals that do not work (patients at the Uganda Cancer Institute sleep in the open as there are no beds); human rights violations (Ugandans are detained and tortured for supporting Opposition politicians); horrendous corruption (Mr Museveni’s former Cabinet ministers and a former chief of police have been sanctioned by the UK and the US).
What is more, in Uganda people apply for public sector jobs, get the highest scores at job interviews and do not get hired.
You cannot do moon missions here. No way!
Musaazi Namiti is a journalist and former Al Jazeera digital editor in charge of the Africa desk
[email protected] @kazbuk
