By Cyprain Musoke

African societies lag behind due to the absence of the bourgeois or skilled middle class, President Yoweri Museveni remarked on Saturday evening.

Lecturing staff and students of the Kimak Senior Commandant College Jinja at State House Entebbe, Museveni said many African countries consist of only civil servants and small traders who are not dynamic enough to bring about social and economic changes.

“This society is paralysed. There is no dynamic class to create change. What we need in Africa and Uganda, in particular, are bourgeoisies who are generally entrepreneurs in industry and provide services as well as engage in modern agriculture.”

The bourgeoisie, he added, creates employment, buys raw materials from the farmers, engages in mining and pays taxes.

The President likened transformation of a society to organisms like butterflies that undergo a biological process leading to different life forms.

Peasants that existed in European societies have almost become extinct, he noted, while African societies are still largely engaged in subsistence farming.

“That is why we are telling our people to wake up. Life is not sustainable like this. Commercial farming and industries are the only answers to unemployment.”

The other sector than can create jobs is the service sector, he added.

“Visit hotels like Serena. It is built on only 4 acres. If you had to grow sweet potatoes on 4 acres, how much money would you get and how many people would be employed?”