THE LAST WORD: A giant retires

I have almost 36 hours of interviews autobiographical interviews with Obote and I asked him about Byanyima. An extract of his comments was published in Daily Monitor just before Obote died in October 2005. “He is a very good friend,” Obote told me of Mzee Byanyima, “because he is an honest man. I still wonder why a man of such great principles remained in DP. He really belonged to UPC. It is in UPC that you find men like Byanyima. He was lost in the DP. He is a good man.”

Obote’s respect for Mzee Byanyima in spite of their political and policy differences is illustrated by yet another significant event. On May 27, 1980, Obote returned from exile in Tanzania, landing at the airstrip in Mbarara and drove directly to Ishaka, Bushenyi, where he held a huge welcome rally. After the rally he drove back to Mbarara and spent a night. And guess whom he invited for dinner that evening? Mzee Byanyima! They ate and talked, reminiscing about Uganda’s turbulent period under Amin.

That Obote felt it important to invite Byanyima for dinner on his first day in Uganda after nine years in exile instead of the many UPC stalwarts from the district speaks volumes about the two men and their mutual respect in spite of (and may be also because of) their political, policy and ideological differences. But it is also an indication of how much Uganda has changed. Today, political differences are seen as personal animosities and policy disagreements are treated as personal conflicts. Yet if there is a lesson from the life of Mzee Byanyima, it was the demarcation between the political and the personal.

In my many and long discussions with him, he would tell me of how even Amin, while driving to Kabale, would once in a while stop over at his home for a chat. Given the impression we have of Amin as an evil man, this came as a surprise to me. Byanyima was very critical of Amin’s government and its actions. But not once during my many and long discussions with him did he attack Amin personally. He would criticise his politics and policies and the actions of the intelligence services and the army but never the man.

It is through these interactions with Mzee Byanyima that I learnt slowly key principles that I always aspire to uphold. I learnt from his relationship with Obote that you could disagree with a president without being disagreeable. You could appreciate positive qualities in a president without necessarily endorsing his/her rule. It is possible to work with a president for the good of the nation without working for him. Finally, I learnt that you could compromise with a president without being compromised by him.

Mzee Byanyima did all this with Obote and set an example that we have failed to emulate. He was a unique politician who defended his principles with passion and dedication but did not hold personal grudges against those he disagreed. He was also unique because he never took a political position so that he can be loved by the masses or be accepted by those in power. On the contrary he sought clarity, not reputation and engaged in politics in pursuit of his values not in a quest for power.

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amwenda@independent.co.ug