Japanese are wise traders

President Museveni provoked a quiet storm of criticism after he reportedly declared that “Japanese are not wise traders”, adding that he would no longer tolerate foreign industrial companies merely assembling instead of manufacturing in Uganda.

Closing the weeklong Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in Kampala, Mr. Museveni accused Japanese investors of basically being bloodsuckers. 

Predictably, the online Ugandan community hurled opprobrium at the president. Some derided him for being out of touch and others were even less diplomatic with their diction. 

Aside from this, I would say that Ugandans do not only require Japanese trade. We could also benefit from Japanese culture and craftsmanship. 

Specifically, I am talking about Kintsugi (“golden joinery”), also known as kintsukuroi (“golden repair”).

Let me explain how this ties into how we may go about our business. 

Kintsugi is the 400-year old Japanese art of putting broken pottery pieces back together with gold. That means where a pot is broken, it appears golden. 

You can see that it was broken but because it has been repaired with gold, it is aesthetically more appealing from highlighting the broken areas as a part of its gilded design. 

As a metaphor, this denotes healing ourselves as it teaches us an important lesson: Sometimes in the process of repairing things that have broken, we make something more enduring in a delightfully impressive way. 

Kintsugi squares with the notion that whatever does not break us, makes us stronger and even more attractive than before.  

As the president woos investors, he would do well to keep in mind that Uganda is a broken country.

East, west, north, south are set at odds by 135 districts, 56 tribes and 70 languages, 43 of which fall into four main families—Bantu, Nilotic, Central Sudanic and Kuliak.

Thanks to our divisive politics, the differences which come with such diversity have been emphasised to our despite. 

As our adversaries like it, we are torn between the competing interests arising out of such diversity. 

However, if we are able to repair our nation by not only embracing its diversity, but by exposing where the damage is then, as with Kintsugi, we may create a country more unique, beautiful and resilient.

To be sure, nations must not only trade in commerce; they must trade in unity. This way, different people understand their differences in ways that teach them that they are not so different after all.

Japan, in this context, can teach us how to be better Ugandans partly through the software of cultural practice as we benefit from the hardware of Japanese manufactured goods. 

The former articulates our national ethos (the distinguishing character or guiding beliefs of Uganda). 

It also speaks to a Ugandan personality to the extent that our traits, as a people, are accentuated by sense of continuity; a willingness to rise above what sets us apart. 

By this token, a collective sense of selfhood joins with a sense of universal achievement. Based on this theoretical foundation, we negate underlying sets of classes based on tribe, religion and economics. 

Naturally, however, this is only possible when there is that sense of renewal that Kintsugi brings.  

After years of Mr. Museveni’s rule, we have a unique opportunity to change the course of our history by creating a new species of government in which the rulers are the led and the led are the arbiters of progress.

Again, Japan may show us the way. 

As of 21 January 2024, there have been 64 individual prime ministers serving 101 terms of office in Japan. 

By trading in leadership change, the Japanese are much wiser traders than we are. 

Mr Philip Matogo is a professional copywriter  
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