MWANGAZA publishers unveiled!

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Mwangaza African Revolutionary Study Groups Centre unveiled MWANGAZA PUBLISHERS at Kololo Independence Grounds on July 31, 2025. More than 20 titles were unveiled — including Out of Ashes a Leader Emerges and Mama Janet: The Heart of Uganda!

We are grateful to Mama Tendo who availed us the space to exhibit — in a function presided over by the First Lady, Mama Janet Museveni.

We thank all those who came to the Mwangaza stall. Finally, I thank my deputy and team leader of the Mwangaza Publishers initiative — special presidential assistant/special duties, Barbara Nabirye, congratulations to you and your team.

Some compatriots have asked why the Mwangaza books have a price-tag. The answer is very simple — we print the books at a cost. Next week, we devote the column to “Understanding Mwangaza Publishers”.

In the meantime, we flash back to our “Learning from Yoweri K. Museveni on Study Groups”!

“Last week, we undertook to speak briefly about, “Why Study Groups”. President Yoweri Museveni has a very rich and deep experience ... from ... Sowing the Mustard Seed: The Struggle for Freedom and Democracy in Uganda, (1997, 2016). The excerpts are from pages 41, 42, 43, 45 and 46.

“I had to put all my three choices to the University of Dar-es-Salaam. I had done so because by this time, I was no longer a mere student seeking knowledge in order to get a job in the public service. I was no longer a careerist. I was a freedom fighter and despised careerism. The history we had been studying in the Junior and Senior Secondary schools — a total of eight years — had opened my eyes...”

“When Vasco Da Gama passed by the East African Coast, news would have travelled up to inland areas — information to the effect that new powerful people were coming. My question was, ‘Why couldn’t the African chiefs notice this new threat and get together to defend us against these imperialists?’ To me, this was a big failure by the traditional rulers.

Coming to more modern history, you had more than 39 German kingdoms by the time of the French Revolution and afterwards. They were the same people but divided ... A Pan-Germanism movement started. Following the defeat of France in the Prussian war of 1870, the German kingdoms were united as one state by Otto von Bismarck ...”

“When I arrived at University College, Dar es-Salaam, to my disappointment, I found that the students were mere careerists — just preparing themselves to fill the administrative positions of the just departed colonialists. Many of them were not even bothered with the liberation struggle going on in Southern Africa. Many of the lecturers were also right wing — toeing the line of imperialism. There were, however, a few like Dr Walter Rodney ... who ... wrote his famous book, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa ... there were also other useful books ... such as the ones by Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth and Black Skin, White Masks ... the famous lectures by Prof. Thomas Szentes, that illuminated the social laws of motion in society. Those works were very useful for understanding phenomena in society over the ages — from primitive societies, through feudalism, to the present capitalist society ...”

“Seeing the low level of political consciousness among students, we decided to start a Pan-Africanist students organisation known as USARF (University Students African Revolutionary Front) — comprising students from Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Ethiopia and the Sudan, among others.

Among the most active in our group were Shija of Tanzania and Dr John Garang of Sudan (now South Sudan).

Seeing that some of the teaching staff in the social sciences were propagating neo-colonialist ideas, we started self-help study groups every Sunday morning. Lecturers like Walter Rodney, John Saul and others would lead those study group sessions.

We also invited radical lecturers from all over the world such as Stockley Carmichael, Dr Eduardo Mondlane, Dr Cheddi Jagan of Guyana and many others.

The group also got in touch with the liberation movements that were based in Dar-es-Salaam: FRELIMO of Mozambique; ANC and PAC of South Africa; SWAPO of Namibia; MPLA of Angola; ZAPU and ZANU of Zimbabwe; and some groups from the Comoros and Seychelles.”

At least five elements can be discerned from the excerpts from the President’s book which have been shared above. First, awareness of a problem, challenge, surrounding reality. As for example, why and how had we in Africa succumbed to colonial conquest and occupation?

How did other peoples build enduring collective strength?

Second, awareness of incomplete, partial or distorted appreciation or understanding, of surrounding reality – as for example, in the form of low consciousness.

Third, conceiving of study groups as a means of self-help — to finding comprehensive solutions to challenges, through developing a more complete appreciation of the totality of surrounding reality.

Four, humility, determination and discipline to stay the course of study and ideological self-improvement — through the study group.

Five, a consistently revolutionary, patriotic and Pan-Africanist dimension to study and action.

It is our fervent hope that Mwangaza African Revolutionary Study Groups shall learn and aspire to learn — from the tradition and practice of the political and ideological giants of the University Students African Revolutionary Front of the late 1960s.

USARF, through their study group sessions, contributed to building an enduring discipleship — on the shoulders of the Mwalimu Julius Nyerere generation — for the liberation of Africa.

Through the said study group sessions, they also contributed to building a discipleship for what Karrim Essack and others have called the Second Liberation of Africa. Dar-es-Salaam then, was a true crucible for the African revolution.

Today, we are still faced with the continuing long and arduous struggle for fundamental socio-economic transformation — within a united Eastern Africa. The study group is a time-tested tool for ideological self-help and self-development. Importantly, it can be customised to diverse work, academic study, rest, recreation, etc. — schedules.

Recent history is resplendent with examples of the critical importance of study and accurate appreciation of surrounding reality, in the revolutionary transformation of society”.

The writer is a Senior Presidential Advisor/Political Affairs (Special Duties) State House