Prime
Miria Obote: An unexpected heroine for the feminist cause
On treatment. Ms Miria Obote, the former First Lady.
What you need to know:
Who could have thought that the woman many considered inconspicuous, with barely a career to talk about would have it in her to vie for the highest office in the land? Yet, like Steven Tendo puts it, Miria Kalule-Obote’s pitch made her a sudden heroine for the feminist cause.
When Miria Kalule-Obote returned to Uganda to bury her husband in 2005, not many people could have thought she had it in her to force herself into the history books of the nation the way she did in the events that followed. After all, she was not a young vibrant woman on the cusp of her career. For all the majority knew, she did not even have a career to talk about.
The sympathy that the country poured out to her as the widow of Uganda’s independence leader could have ended at that but for the lady to reject the attempts by history to relegate her to oblivion.
Before she returned in 2005, there had been snatches and bits about her whereabouts from mainly those who had the patience to dig beneath the layers of time to know Uganda’s history.
The death of President Apollo Milton Obote on October 10, 2005 prompted his widow, Miria, to come back home. This, however, could not have prepared the country for the move that she pulled two months later, to declare her intention to run for the top office, against a field of tried-and-tested men.
Kalule-Obote’s pitch for president made her the first woman to ever do that in the history of Uganda. It made her a sudden heroine for the feminist cause; not many feminist groups could have wished for a better end-of-year gift to push their agenda.
That she won an eventual 0.6 per cent of the vote, more than 57,000 votes, spoke volumes. Here was a woman who had been written off by many critics as one who did not fully understand the implications of her efforts to become president. Many argued in the letters pages that she was a senior citizen (she was 70 years old at the time) and therefore was above the petty squabbles of politics since the fight was bound to get messy.
These thinly veiled sneers against her abilities against the seasoned politicians who included President Yoweri Museveni, John Ssebaana Kizito and Kizza Besigye did not seem to have the intended effect of fazing the UPC party president. Abed Bwanika, who was also running for the first time, was the only one who was seen as in the same boat. Seemingly overnight, she had transformed herself from the woman in the background to the one who set the agenda.
At the funeral of the former president, she delivered a speech that was seen by many as food for thought, especially regarding the history of Uganda as had previously been taught in school. The speech raised the critical question against placing the UPC at the scene of one of the country’s most misinterpreted events; the storming of the Bulange in 1966. Was Milton Obote really to blame?
The campaigns for the 2006 general elections were suddenly given a new twist with her entry into the race in November 2005. She was inexperienced and this was brought up so many times in the run-up to the elections. She was the leader of a divided house, with factions being reported in UPC.
Kalule-Obote, however, did not flinch. With what later came to be regarded as her strong character, she weathered her storms like an old hand in the political game. It was like when her husband died, he did not really die. The young fiery politician who bested the brains of his day and brought Uganda to a metropolitan unity was somehow living again in his widow, bringing the fight to an unprepared opponent.
It was therefore not surprising that after her run, in the next elections, there was another woman gunning for the top job. It might be a long shot but it is probably not too wild to claim that there has been a rise in political activity by women in the years since Kalule-Obote first threw down the gauntlet.
She did not faint during the campaigns and she did not throw in the towel, even when her vocal cords became strained from the endless campaign speeches and ululations. Politics usually degenerates into personal mud-slinging and many wondered how she would handle this. She was always graceful and civil.
This could have been the reason an inexperienced woman who had lived for a long time outside the country could have managed to return and convince thousands of people to choose her for president. That is probably why in recent weeks, the political classes have made it a big point that President Museveni has reopened communication channels with Kalule-Obote. With a psychological constitution like hers, enemies can be expected to rethink their motivations and come over to her way of thinking.
