INTERVIEW: `We should have a mechanism of continuous conflict resolution’

How about socially? Before Idi Amin’s era, were the tribal lines drawn?

In the post independent era, tribalism was not prominent. You would find a good majority of Acholi in police and army because of their preference. In civil service, there was no tribal ethnic divide that we see these days. It was more of a time of sharing the national cake fairly. We had the Binaisas who were quite high in Obote’s government and we had Grace Ibingira who was part of the ministerial team of Obote. Even in the second era of Obote, the key ministers who were close to Obote were not Langi; they were people like Chris Rwakasisi, a Munyankore, people like Luwuriza Kirunda, he was a Musoga, the Kyabazinga of Busoga was very close to Obote, quite a number of people from Buganda, from Bugisu, from Kabale. That was a government that gave us a real picture of nationalism; a national character. Then we even remodeled it into the political character of the country. So if the election of 1971 had been held, they had adopted a system where one MP had to have three constituencies. You would have your indigenous constituency and two constituencies outside your region. So that when I stand in Parliament, I talk for Uganda. Even the school system was structured on national character so that if you pass Primary examination well, you would go to Ntare, so you would find a Karimojong going to Ntare, a Lango going to Ntare, there you’re going to mix with the Banyankore, the Baganda. So many people mixed up in Budo. General Aronda for example, we used to call him an Acholi, in Kitgum High. So it gave us a national character. So when you’d go and drink with these Banyankore in their rural areas, you lose this character of being a Langi, of thinking only the Langis should be close to you. You completely build a national character. That is something which we have missed. Obote even lived by example by marrying a Muganda. The country had set a strong foundation for nationalism.

In your opinion, is Uganda completely free of neocolonialism?

What is your opinion on neo colonialism because we’ve always disagreed with many people when discussing neocolonialism? Africa took time and I think the traces are still there, to wean off the colonial mentality. One, we were tied up together through trade. We were growing cotton because that was the only cash crop that we the Langi were taught to grow. We did not have the capacity to think outside the box. The Baganda were taught that coffee is their traditional crop. Without coffee, a Muganda is helpless. We continued to buy things from UK in order to look expensive and presentable, up to today. What hurts me is the wedding apparel, the way we present our brides and bridegrooms. What is this long dress white veil culture? How is it related to our culture? I only disagree with people when they talk about neo colonialism in terms of ideology. I don’t go there because I see it every day.

So do you think that in order for us to deal with neo colonialism, we need to completely return to our African way of doing things?

We need a dramatic paradigm change so that we can go back to the roots. I’m not saying we walk naked. But I’m saying we have our African print. Tanzania by the way almost changed their environment and Julius Nyerere made sure he lived by example. He decided to deliberately promote that white shirt official or casual occasions. So no one had to put on a suit in the heat, then a tie and a jacket to look formal. It shows how much damage colonial rule did to our mindsets.  People even scorn individuals who speak corrupted English. I don’t want people who speak corrupted English to apologise. It’s not my language, why should I speak perfectly? Tanzania, even in their parliament, adopted bilingual communication where one can use either Swahili or English. I would long for the day where Ugandans adopt the same thing. What we need to do as African is try and specialise and create a strong market for ourselves and attract the international community to come and buy from us based on our competencies and abilities.

The theme for this year’s Independence Day celebration is, “Consolidation of national unity, security, freedom and prosperity. What are your thoughts on this? Do you think we’ve achieved these as a nation?

I’ve just shared with you what the post independent era put in place regarding national unity. Let’s look at the education system, let’s look at the investment and let’s look at our leadership. Are we creating unity or are we creating division? We know the president comes from the west and you find that the west takes 30% of the national cake and leaves 70% for all the other regions. That does not create nationalism. When speaking in parliament, speak for everybody equally, do not use tribal sentiments.  The chopping up of districts is disintegrating us even further. It is very dangerous for national building. What factors do we have that can deliberately promote reconciliation? We still have a general like Tumwine who says for us we fought so we don’t have to ask for your support.  Every year on the 26^th, the NRM are spending billions of Ugandan tax payers’ money to celebrate liberation day. What are you liberating? When the Musevenis were in the bush in Luwero, people were being shot in buses on the streets. After that they started collecting skulls and putting them on the roadside and saying these are Obote’s skulls. How do you know where Obote kept his skulls? You’re actually scratching the scar where the wound had healed. We should have had a mechanism of continuous conflict resolution. We don’t have mechanisms in place to reconcile a society, a community, a nation, to look at things in a balanced way. Until we have those mechanisms in place, it’s just an empty talk, noise, about national unity.

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