Open letter to President Museveni

Greetings, Mr. President. Receive kind greetings from Accra, Ghana.

First of all, let me express my sincere gratitude for promoting Pan-Africanism in Uganda, the East African Community, and all of Africa.

There is no question that the entire continent of Africa has benefited from your political vision on behalf of Uganda.

You have indeed single handedly maintained this ideology, just as Kwame Nkrumah did after delivering Ghana as the first African nation to achieve freedom in 1957, noting that his country’s Independence wouldn’t be complete without the liberation of all other nations. Africa is indeed pleased visionary guidance in the de-colonisation agenda.

Mr President, I recently moved from Uganda to Ghana to enroll in the country’s prestigious University of Ghana, Accra, which was founded in 1948, for a Doctorate history graduate programme. In the same year, the University of Ibadan in Nigeria also opened its doors. Both universities are presently commemorating their 75th anniversary.

Both universities, along with our top-ranked Makerere University, have been championing Afro-centric scholarship to promote the Pan-African agency ever since they were founded in West Africa.

The presence of national and regional archival centers that have expertly preserved all available pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial documents is the key strategy that has exclusively allowed the two universities to thoroughly embed their students’ of various academic disciplines into Afro-centric scholarship.

Ghana reportedly has regional archives in Tamale and Kumasi in addition to the National Archives of Ghana in Accra.

On the other side, there are fifteen offices for The National Archives of Nigeria. Zone offices serve as the three primary archive sites. Newspapers and official government publications are also kept at each site, along with records of colonial administration pertaining to that specific region.  This has enabled researchers, especially historians, to visit these archives to pick and verify facts, give the public  reviewed colonial and other historical distortions filled gaps in advancement of African past history.

Mr. President, allow me to bring to your humble attention that Uganda apparently has Uganda National Records and Archive center located in Wandegeya Kampala. This is supported by centers like Makerere University Main Library that hosts key government archival materials. There is however no single regional National regional archival branch in the country to gather rich archival materials in Uganda’s regional zones to supplement the National center!

According to National Council for Higher Education reports, Uganda has apparently a sizable and expanding number of universities across the country. These research institutions have  departments ready to make use of such facilities should they be available in order to publish research findings  that could perhaps break the archival  silences, particularly in colonial records that  inaccurately depicted African history.

Many historical facts regarding the political, social, and economic organization of pre-colonial centralized and decentralized societies in Uganda may not currently be known to the general public as a result of their possible neglect to be archived for scholarly study in the future that would advance Pan-Africanism.

Please, Mr. President, offer Ugandans a legacy gift of regional archives to preserve additional regional historical records in addition to the National Archival Center now that your visionary leadership has established regional cities.

Additionally, these facilities would draw more international researchers looking for specific papers.

Apparently, Ghana and Nigeria are reaping significant financial benefits from local and foreign researchers who visit the two nations in quest of Archival documents.

Given that Uganda is situated in the center of Africa, it may also be a significant additional location to research the history of African culture in addition to hosting major archival documents from the great lakes region.

Additionally, I would like to request that the closed files from government agencies that comply with the thirty-year ban on classified archival files be transferred to the National Archives and the new branches when they open with your help for research purposes.

I have no doubt, Mr President, that in the spirit of advancing Pan-Africanism, your humble consideration of my plea on behalf of over four million Ugandans will be taken into account. I thank you.

Your Grandson, Ahumuza John. M. Vianney, PhD History, University of Ghana, Accra.