Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni
It was a tough moment for intellectuals from all
corners of the continent who attended the African Leadership Forum in
Dar es Salaam last week.
Given the expression on the
faces of seriously learned fellows, the mega conference hall at Serena
Hotel had just turned out to be too small for folks who are trained and
paid to think on behalf of commoners.
In his keynote
address, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni launched a scathing attack on
African academics, saying they were not doing enough to study and come
up with realistic and achievable African solutions for African problems.
“I
have given up on them because they are busy trying so hard to be like
white people,” he said at an event attended by former heads of state and
intellectuals representing various organisations and think-tanks.
The
sudden verbal punch came after the leader presented his findings on
linguistic similarities among ethnic groups on the continent. His
research, which he said he conducted haphazardly during his many
travels, sought to disprove the narrative that Africa is a continent
with many dissimilar ethnic groups that do not share a common identity.
“Whenever
I go anywhere in Africa, I ask what things mean,” he went on. “But
these fellows (African academics) can study everything from the North
Pole to the South Pole except Africa.”
The theme of
this year’s forum was “Moving towards an integrated Africa”. Since the
founding in 1963 of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU, which is the
predecessor of the African Union—AU, the folks expected to galvanise
the continent and spearhead unity were busy doing “God knows what,”
charged Savo, as he is fondly called in Uganda.
No,
Sir, the leaders of Mother Africa are also the problem, said Richard
Sezibera, the secretary general of the East African Community (EAC). It
will take bravery and sacrifice for the integration dream to become a
reality. And the men and women who rule the continent are not ready to
go down that path.
The debate on whether or not Africa
has a common identity, which President Museveni tried so hard to defend
with his research findings, was not relevant in the first place, argued
Prof Issa Shivji.
“The question should be: do we have a
common problem and common enemy? The answer is Yes; Prof Shivji said,
“the common problem is under-development and the common enemy is
imperialism.”
The argument that intellectuals have let
the continent down is not new. It has been around since the early years
of decolonisation. The difference is that His Excellency did not say
anything about the failure on the part of leaders or the fact that most
of the leaders are themselves distinguished intellectuals.
In
my online search, I came across a paper by Goran Hyden entitled “The
Failure of Africa’s First Intellectuals”, published in the US by Indiana
University Press in 1967. It starts this way:
“It is
hard to dispute the fact that the birth and shaping of the new nations
in Africa has by and large been the work of intellectuals. The key
figures involved in the struggle for independence in most African
countries have been men of ideas—Azikiwe, Nkrumah, Nyerere, Senghor and
Toure being the best illustrations.
“If one accepts
this statement, though, it is easy to take the recent political crises
as indications that the intellectuals have failed in their efforts to
build the new nations.”
I unearthed another beauty that
Museveni will like. It was a 2001 lecture by Herbert W. Vilikazi,
entitled African Intellectuals and the African Crisis and published by
the African Sociological Review.
Said he: “We African
intellectuals are wrong in blaming individual African leaders of state
for failing to move Africa forward, when we ourselves have not done our
pre-requisite duty, namely, to formulate, debate, and publicise a
compelling Africa-centred development paradigm, which these leaders can
use to move the continent forward.
“This is the
fundamental cause of the failure of development in Africa, therefore, of
the crisis in Africa. African leaders have been deciding on policy
options within an inappropriate development paradigm.”
Mr
Museveni, who has been in power since 1986, stunned the conference
audience again when he threw another punch at those agitating for
presidential term limits. He dismissed them as misguided folks who focus
on “who is doing what rather than what is being done”.
“I
have not overstayed in power,” he said in response to a question on
whether term limits were essential to good governance and development in
Africa.
“I have overstayed in resistance."
Now,
back to you dear reader: Was President Museveni fair when he piled the
blame for the slow pace of progress in the continent on African
intellectuals?
Songa wa Songa is a senior reporter with The Citizen. ssonga@tz.nationmedia.com
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