The Legacy of Obote
Oct 28, 2005
<b>John Nagenda</b><br>UGANDA’S No1 COLUMNIST.. INFORMED, CONTROVERSIAL AND PROVOCATIVE<br><br>IT is a dizzying spectacle witnessing people falling over themselves to be nice to the newly departed. It is born out of the maxim, “Don’t speak ill of the deadâ€, and is probably world-wide.
John Nagenda
UGANDA’S No1 COLUMNIST.. INFORMED, CONTROVERSIAL AND PROVOCATIVE
IT is a dizzying spectacle witnessing people falling over themselves to be nice to the newly departed. It is born out of the maxim, “Don’t speak ill of the deadâ€, and is probably world-wide.
What is more, the intention, possibly hypocritical, is not entirely bad, although often leading to surrealism; comedy even! I am writing this in the direct wake of the death of Apollo Milton Obote, the incumbent to whom “the Instruments of State†were handed over on 9 October 1962, henceforth our Independence Day.
These facts are not in the slightest dispute, and Obote will always, rightly, be remembered for receiving those instruments, which catapulted Uganda from a “protectorate†to an independent sovereign state, with its place at the table where nations meet to do business. What a proud moment for us all, not least Prime Minister Obote, as he then was.
And how very lucky for him to be in that position at that time! It is when titles like “Father of the Nation†who had “fought for his people†start being bandied about with such easy facility that you call for pause for thought. With Nkrumah of Ghana, yes, likewise with Kenyatta of Kenya, Tanzania’s Nyerere, Kaunda of Zambia, Tafawa Balewa of Nigeria; later Mandela of South Africa - nearly all of them, as others also, PGs (“Prison Graduatesâ€) – with all that implies. They fought for freedom and paid the price. But Obote in that company? Call me, if you like, “a bad Muganda†(i.e not a dead one, according to Oboteian dictates) but “facts is facts†as a Dickens character tells us. Some have questioned whether Obote actually said that a good Muganda was a dead one, following the 1964 killings by his forces of Baganda at Nakulabye, but he never denied it at the time.
Earlier, at the commissioning of Africa House in London, both Kenyatta and Nyerere had given rousing speeches of African unity; Obote’s contribution was to state ominously that “he would destroy the Bagandasâ€.
This re-writing of history to say that Obote had nothing against the Baganda is cheap nonsense and wishful thinking. Personally I think those Baganda this week who held olumbe (funeral rites) and chose a brown mongrel dog to be his heir were wrong, but the heart has its reasons.
Included here would be memory of the strident rumours of 1969 that a young woman named Tutu had administered a sophisticated poison provided by forces not a million yards from Mr Obote, which had killed Sekabaka Muteesa II in London. It is not limited to Buganda, serious though that is. For Uganda as a whole, it cannot be easily forgotten that it was he who spawned Amin, by promoting him head of the armed forces instead of others more qualified, especially in education. Amin proceeded to enter the lexicography as a byword for cruelty.
But not before he had “eaten Obote for breakfast†without the slightest belching, while that worthy (who had chosen him thinking him too stupid and uneducated to be a threat) was away in Singapore at a Commonwealth leaders’ meeting. Obote richly deserved it, but did poor Uganda deserve what followed? And, beyond Uganda, the region and the continent and the Third World? For that is how serious it was.
The praise singers always sing of Obote’s mighty popularity, even quoting his melodramatic annual visits to far-off Bushenyi in Ankole. Popular? In that case why, having first led Uganda 43 years before to Independence, was he leader for nine and then five years, spending the remaining 29 years in lonely exile?
The Movement government has seen it fit to allow him home to Uganda and this week given him a state funeral, for reconciliation purposes. On balance this is right.
But when Muteesa II, the first President of Uganda, died at whoever’s hand, and the Baganda and others clamoured for the return of his body, Obote bluntly refused. Instead, a great deal of champagne was swallowed by the UPC bigwigs at the Uganda Club to celebrate the Kabaka’s demise. Did any in the UPC decry this, or indeed ever regret the deeds of their reign? Reader, you be the judge! But bear in mind that reconciliation is a sham if based on falsehoods, and bestowed on the unrepentant.
***
The other “happening†of the week was the return to his country by the self-exiled leader of the opposition party FDC, Lt. Col. Kizza Besigye (Having been away recently I plead ignorance on whether he has been advanced to some rung of General; probably not. But welcome back our “long-lost sheep†and brother!).
Besigye’s return might not prove very important but will add to the general spice of life. But on his very first day home he announced it was only because he had to register in person for the presidential elections that he was here. Did he mean he would otherwise have voted from South Africa? Also, speaking on BBC he said he Besigye would “without a doubt†bring back term limits, changed by MPs this year. I thought and wrote that this was rightly Parliament’s job.
Oh no it wasn’t, fire-breathed our new returnee, it was the people who should have decided! Do you get the feeling that his party leaders who didn’t go into exile with him are not feeding him the right lines; especially since he has not been in the picture? A terrible and terrifying thought: might the FDC at this rate be planning to turn to “Cambridge graduate†Sebaggala for their Supremo? Get me outta here!
UGANDA’S No1 COLUMNIST.. INFORMED, CONTROVERSIAL AND PROVOCATIVE
IT is a dizzying spectacle witnessing people falling over themselves to be nice to the newly departed. It is born out of the maxim, “Don’t speak ill of the deadâ€, and is probably world-wide.
What is more, the intention, possibly hypocritical, is not entirely bad, although often leading to surrealism; comedy even! I am writing this in the direct wake of the death of Apollo Milton Obote, the incumbent to whom “the Instruments of State†were handed over on 9 October 1962, henceforth our Independence Day.
These facts are not in the slightest dispute, and Obote will always, rightly, be remembered for receiving those instruments, which catapulted Uganda from a “protectorate†to an independent sovereign state, with its place at the table where nations meet to do business. What a proud moment for us all, not least Prime Minister Obote, as he then was.
And how very lucky for him to be in that position at that time! It is when titles like “Father of the Nation†who had “fought for his people†start being bandied about with such easy facility that you call for pause for thought. With Nkrumah of Ghana, yes, likewise with Kenyatta of Kenya, Tanzania’s Nyerere, Kaunda of Zambia, Tafawa Balewa of Nigeria; later Mandela of South Africa - nearly all of them, as others also, PGs (“Prison Graduatesâ€) – with all that implies. They fought for freedom and paid the price. But Obote in that company? Call me, if you like, “a bad Muganda†(i.e not a dead one, according to Oboteian dictates) but “facts is facts†as a Dickens character tells us. Some have questioned whether Obote actually said that a good Muganda was a dead one, following the 1964 killings by his forces of Baganda at Nakulabye, but he never denied it at the time.
Earlier, at the commissioning of Africa House in London, both Kenyatta and Nyerere had given rousing speeches of African unity; Obote’s contribution was to state ominously that “he would destroy the Bagandasâ€.
This re-writing of history to say that Obote had nothing against the Baganda is cheap nonsense and wishful thinking. Personally I think those Baganda this week who held olumbe (funeral rites) and chose a brown mongrel dog to be his heir were wrong, but the heart has its reasons.
Included here would be memory of the strident rumours of 1969 that a young woman named Tutu had administered a sophisticated poison provided by forces not a million yards from Mr Obote, which had killed Sekabaka Muteesa II in London. It is not limited to Buganda, serious though that is. For Uganda as a whole, it cannot be easily forgotten that it was he who spawned Amin, by promoting him head of the armed forces instead of others more qualified, especially in education. Amin proceeded to enter the lexicography as a byword for cruelty.
But not before he had “eaten Obote for breakfast†without the slightest belching, while that worthy (who had chosen him thinking him too stupid and uneducated to be a threat) was away in Singapore at a Commonwealth leaders’ meeting. Obote richly deserved it, but did poor Uganda deserve what followed? And, beyond Uganda, the region and the continent and the Third World? For that is how serious it was.
The praise singers always sing of Obote’s mighty popularity, even quoting his melodramatic annual visits to far-off Bushenyi in Ankole. Popular? In that case why, having first led Uganda 43 years before to Independence, was he leader for nine and then five years, spending the remaining 29 years in lonely exile?
The Movement government has seen it fit to allow him home to Uganda and this week given him a state funeral, for reconciliation purposes. On balance this is right.
But when Muteesa II, the first President of Uganda, died at whoever’s hand, and the Baganda and others clamoured for the return of his body, Obote bluntly refused. Instead, a great deal of champagne was swallowed by the UPC bigwigs at the Uganda Club to celebrate the Kabaka’s demise. Did any in the UPC decry this, or indeed ever regret the deeds of their reign? Reader, you be the judge! But bear in mind that reconciliation is a sham if based on falsehoods, and bestowed on the unrepentant.
***
The other “happening†of the week was the return to his country by the self-exiled leader of the opposition party FDC, Lt. Col. Kizza Besigye (Having been away recently I plead ignorance on whether he has been advanced to some rung of General; probably not. But welcome back our “long-lost sheep†and brother!).
Besigye’s return might not prove very important but will add to the general spice of life. But on his very first day home he announced it was only because he had to register in person for the presidential elections that he was here. Did he mean he would otherwise have voted from South Africa? Also, speaking on BBC he said he Besigye would “without a doubt†bring back term limits, changed by MPs this year. I thought and wrote that this was rightly Parliament’s job.
Oh no it wasn’t, fire-breathed our new returnee, it was the people who should have decided! Do you get the feeling that his party leaders who didn’t go into exile with him are not feeding him the right lines; especially since he has not been in the picture? A terrible and terrifying thought: might the FDC at this rate be planning to turn to “Cambridge graduate†Sebaggala for their Supremo? Get me outta here!