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Kampala, Uganda | JULIUS BUSINGE | Starting October 26-27, Uganda will host the inaugural ‘Kampala Geopolitics Conference’ at Makerere University, Kampala.
Over 100 speakers from various countries including France, Germany, South Africa, Kenya, South Sudan and Uganda will discuss 21 topics vital to global concerns before hundreds in the audience, the organizers said last week at a presser held at Makerere University main campus in Kampala.
The organizer is the Embassy of France in Uganda in partnership with Makerere University, Konrad Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS), Alliance Française de Kampala (AFK), UN Women, Uganda and the Institute for International and Strategic Affairs (iRiS).
The topics selected, cut across the global issues such as politics, economics, health, demography, gender, environment, and youth, social issues in the Africa and the global context and more.
Stephanie Rivoal, the ambassador of France to Uganda, said the two-day conference aims at creating an interactive and dynamic platform for dialogue and free exchange of ideas cutting across contemporary local and international issues.
It will bring together professors, researchers, politicians, diplomats, journalists, activists and key leaders to engage in an interactive debate and find solutions to the challenges affecting the world’s political and international relations.
The Makerere University Vice Chancellor Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe said they are using the conference to re-launch “our debates.”
He said that for many years, Makerere University had maintained its reputation as the icon of debate among institutions of higher learning. For instance, he said, shortly after Uganda’s Independence in 1962, the University hosted the First Makerere African Writers Conference of 1962, which was a milestone in African literature that directly addressed the legacy of colonialism.
The conference attracted prominent writers such as Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Ezekiel Mphahlele, Lewis Nkosi, Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Rajat Neogy among others.
Going forward, in a bid to influence changes in policy in Uganda, Rivoal said that they will hand over the resolutions of the conference to the Speaker of Uganda’s Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga who is expected to be part of participants at the conference. She also said that the performance of this inaugural conference will determine whether the event would be held annually.
