Beautifying old ugliness doesn’t create new beauty

By Magode Ikuya

Different incidents rouse different reactions in society. Just soon after the country had joyously celebrated the exit of colonial officialdom in 1962, the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC)-formed government found its reign of independent Uganda starting with a startling stutter. 

John Kakonge, then the secretary general of UPC, did not get appointment to any office in the Obote set-up of UPC victory. 

No one who had known the exceptional staunchness of Kakonge in enabling Obote-led UPC to sail to power ever imagined that he would suffer the fate of Moses in the Christian Bible who never attained any place of the Promised Land. 

Obote had particularly coaxed Kakonge from contesting for a parliamentary seat in a Kampala constituency to concentrate the energy on building UPC for support across the breadth of the country. 

Obote pledged that Kakonge would be allotted special nomination upon victory. Kakonge delivered his portion of the arrangement, trouncing the Democratic Party to reduced figures. 

But, Obote with-held the package of his bargain. A distraught Kakonge, announcing his resignation from Uganda’s politics, then flew out for exile to Dar-es-salaam of the then Tanganyika. 

It took the intervention of prime minister Julius Nyerere to hammer a plebiscite to the drama by his phone call to Obote, expressing disquiet at the starting of a scene in public on the very day of a wedding ritual. Obote relented by asking Kakonge to return and offer to find “something” for him. 

This way, Kakonge became the real first Ugandan to flee to exile for political reasons even though his name may not have been captured by any refugee bodies. 

The incident roused ripples within the UPC. This was how many young minds of UPC in my youthful days in politics discovered new causes for discussion. 

Our wondering of how Kakonge was being treated led to our wandering into notions of how organisations for society ought to be run. Through many such interactions, there slowly stewed a broth of ideas which became our bonding. 

James Magode Ikuya

It is from the set of ideas we formed for our common convictions that was derived the synonym “we”, the annotation of shared thinking, which frequently preface the paragraphs of this column.

We called it cultivating ideological consciousness of the African struggle. We sought not only to gain greater awareness of colonialism, but also the undertaking of organisation and structures for overcoming intrigues of the type which perceived UPC mates like the Obotes unleashed to Kakonge. 

Whereas ideology is a form of social awareness which stirs society to activity, not everyone hinting these days to ideology possesses the same meaning we made of it. 
Ideologues of presupposed “ideology” seem to assume that ideology is just one more item of instruction rammed into empty heads like is done in classroom pedagogy, the mere reciting of issued standard texts. 

It was useful for colonial times to rely on driving the cramming of catechism and works of textbooks. 

This was their basis for induction of Africans; it propelled the losing by Africans of their humanity for accessing scraps of admiration for their rulers. 

Ideologies are ideas specialised to the different social interests springing from the effects of diverse social situations. These are manifested in the politics of every society. 

Unlike exact subjects of mathematics, biology or geography, which are normally offered to school-going non-initiates for their gaining intellectualised specifications, no one can justifiably be reprimanded for lack of ideology. 

Everyone is influenced to hold some ideology or another; even the love of ignorance is also an ideology. It is those who seek African liberation who should ask how the understanding of their said ideology can best be made possible to every other in the struggle. 

The liberation ideology is imbibed not by rote, but by the interest of struggle. It is true that organisation of struggles must always be preceded by sharing of a common awareness. But, such awareness has to serve organisation of actual struggles. 

Only by seeking and engaging in organisation of politics does ideology become more understood and appreciated. Every ideology of social action, which seeks to succeed, must, therefore, be grounded on organisation. 

Mere talk about creation of ideological awareness without necessary organisation appropriate for its conclusion can only be idling in moments of unpursued pipe dream.

The writer is the Minister of State for East African Community Affairs