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OPINION

By Kenneth David Mafabi

One of our young compatriots on the Mwangaza Online Platform shared a most hilarious and wildly inaccurate version of the precise origin of Mwangaza Study Groups!

Was he malicious or did he have ill-intentions? Not in the least! On the contrary! He exercised a healthy curiosity, but was misled by Meta AI! Meta AI is an artificial intelligence laboratory owned by Meta Platforms Inc.

The episode provided dramatic evidence of some innate limitations of aspects of AI. That discussion is for another time.

It becomes necessary, though, to set the record straight. The Mwangaza Study Groups journey spans almost 15 years — and has benefited from the express guidance and instructions of President Yoweri Museveni at its heart, as well as our own convictions.

That story too, shall be told, in full, another time. In the immediate, we flashback to our New Vision article (under the same title) we published in October 2021.

“Over the weekend, a number of Pan Africanist volunteers and patriots, launched the ‘African Revolutionary Study Groups Centre (MWANGAZA)’ - after more than a year of consultations, research and re-organisation. The group have formally requested President Yoweri Museveni to be their patron. They will issue a statement in the week, regarding their activities. MWANGAZA is Kiswahili for ‘brightness’, ‘light’, etc.

In the prospectus of the African Revolutionary Study Groups Centre (MWANGAZA), the group intends to encourage and facilitate the growth and multiplication of African revolutionary study groups - committed to the socio-economic transformation of Uganda and Africa.

More specifically, they intend to help multiply ideology study groups in the Ugandan Homeland, the East African region, Africa and its Diaspora - committed specifically to the examination of: the management of society; the consolidation of patriotic national statehoods; the central task of socio-economic transformation and its execution; securing the strategic interests of the African people, and insuring our future - through accelerated political and economic integration; the overall challenge for mother Africa to take her full and equal place in the World community of peoples and nations.

‘Study Groups’ have been an integral part of all major revolutions over the last 300 years. They certainly were a critical element in the Chinese and Russian revolutions of the last Century.

The Study Groups were critical in growing and maintaining ideological cohesion in the revolutionary movement during the conquest of political power, and in maintaining ideological cohesion of the revolutionary movement in power.

Ideological clarity and cohesion in particularly the leadership cadre, is at the heart of general political unity and at the heart of organisational unity and discipline. Ideological clarity and cohesion do not fall from heaven. They must be deliberately and systematically inculcated and grown.

The element of group discussion about the major issues of the day was certainly present in the ‘Clubs’ during the ferment and at the height of the French Revolution of 1789. It was certainly present amongst the Patriots of America - who were the ideological leaders of the struggle for independence from England of the American colonies. Pamphleteers like Thomas Paine were very important for their writings - aimed at building unity amongst the patriots.

Back home in the 1960s, we have the example of the study groups of the student movement led by Yoweri K. Museveni and his peers - about what needed to be done regarding the developing situation in the country. They continued this tradition of study at university in Dar-es-Salaam - developing a Pan Africanist dimension to the struggle. Yoweri K. Museveni further imparted ideological and other knowledge and skills to the Bawejjere Movement which was based in Katwe.

This was also the experience with groupings which originated from the UPC Left-Wing, like the Vietnamese Solidarity Committee headed by Dani Wadada-Nabudere.

That helps make the point that even in the era of broad national mass organisations, there must be a deliberate effort to consolidate and propagate the mass line. While the mass membership necessarily have a katogo of world views, the political and technical leadership of the mass organisation and the country, cannot be excused from the need to comprehend and apprehend the mass line in ideological terms. This is an absolute necessity for socio-economic transformation.

This is the specific national sense in which we speak about ideological clarity.

The study groups across different societal and generational echelons - are very important in our circumstances. Study - Action - Study; are critical in consolidating unity, cohesion and discipline for socio-economic transformation. Study - Action - Study, are critical in building a fundamental unity of the African people - along the road of insuring our future.

Back to MWANGAZA. The Pedagogy (method and practice of teaching) employed by the African Revolutionary Study Groups Centre (MWANGAZA), is a pedagogy of the emergent Peoples of the World - informed in large by Paulo Freire’s seminal work, A Pedagogy of the Oppressed.

This means that in the study group, all participants are co-learners, co-teachers and co-equal. They assist one another advance in deeper knowledge of a subject(s) or theme (s).

Group study helps deepen a collective awareness of our surroundings and reality - and of our strategic and historical tasks in the situation.

Group study calls for the greatest humility, modesty and discipline on the part of all participants. It does not matter if a participant has gone through some material before, how much formal education they have or have not, had. Group study is about continuous fellowship and, together, consolidating a discipleship for the fundamental and qualitative transformation of Uganda and Africa.

In their prospectus, MWANGAZA deliberately targets, among others; young people, business people, entrepreneurs, the corporate class, media, industrialists, the intelligentsia, public servants, political leaders and community leaders; - of all generations and all political persuasions.

According to their prospectus, MWANGAZA shall provide an e-learning platform and space for compatriots effective November 1, 2021; carry out field outreach work - to compliment the e-learning platform, avail online - reference literature, audio books, audios and videos, among others.

Compatriots shall enroll online for the programme of study - which shall be through interactive engagement.

MWANGAZA has prepared a thematic syllabus for the programme of study, which they shall unveil in their public statement, and on their e-learning platform. Karibu sana, MWANGAZA!”

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