Random thoughts on liberation, Museveni’s neo-pan-Africanism

Where is the economic and strategic centre of gravity for the African race? When you see Black people suffering almost everywhere -- in Africa, the USA, Brazil, etc., it is partly on account of lacking this centre of gravity,” this was the most important question that President Museveni posed in his inaugural speech after taking the presidential oath for the seventh time.

Museveni was at his most passionate while lamenting the African condition and railing at the Western powers that “lecture” Africans about democracy. Luke 6:41-42 says: “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the plank that is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck that is in your brother’s eye.” 

This is a call to humility. It cuts both ways in denouncing the holier-than-thou attitude that afflicts humanity. 

Whatever the failures of the systems the Western world seek to hold up as a standard for all, we cannot ignore the overwhelming evidence of abuse of power that litters our landscape. This evidence demands a verdict. 

As a student, I followed keenly the Ali Mazrui and the Ngugi wa Thiong’o frameworks of thought. Mazrui built his critiques of reality on a racial foundation. His BBC series, “The Africans” was lauded worldwide. Ngugi builds his critique on class. He believes that the world is a struggle between the haves and the have-nots! Museveni appears to straddle the two approaches but his emphasis seems to be on race. 

Africa will only take its proper place in world affairs when the crimes of slavery, colonialism and apartheid are treated the same way the Jewish Holocaust is treated. Whichever school of thought one embraces, the reality is before us. The only way for Africa to stop being a playground for the powerful countries of the world is for Africa to become a battleground whose cause is total liberation - cultural, economic and political!

We may denounce the meddlers from outside but our words will ring hollow unless we take control of our political destiny, develop a culture of respecting our constitution and build the state institutions that give meaning to our values. 

Giving lectures on democracy and giving economic advice and loans on terrible terms are both forms of meddling. We can ignore unsolicited advice but how can we ignore the economic baits that cripple our long term economic independence. Why do we cut counterproductive deals for the exploitation of our natural resources? Shouldn’t we embrace Julius Nyerere’s view that our mineral wealth is safer under the ground until we have the capacity to exploit them meaningfully?

But that will not happen unless we get our politics in order. In the NRM 10-Point Programme Museveni admitted that economic prosperity allows for meaningful participation of citizens in political life of the country, but concludes that “...the immediate problem of Uganda is not economic, but political. When the political questions were mishandled, the economic problem ensued; and unless the political question is amicably resolved, there will be no economic recovery in Uganda.”

But no talk of African unity should be allowed to divert us from rejecting the crumbs of ritualistic elections every five years and demanding the full loaf democracy. As Shakespeare wrote in Julius Caesar, “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves that we are underlings.” 

Let’s recall what Nyerere said in 1969 after receiving an honorary doctorate from the University of Toronto: “The right of a man to stand upright as a human being in his own country comes before questions of the kind of society he will create once he has that right. Freedom is the only thing that matters until it is won.” 

To achieve that Nyerere had to “meddle” in other country’s affairs. Geopolitics is actually about meddling! That will require many centres of gravity. Uganda in the Great Lakes, Nigeria in West Africa, Egypt in North Africa and South Africa in Southern Africa. All it will take is moral authority!

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