Is Uganda's anti-gay law worth the ostracization?
President Yoweri Museveni, who has been in power since January 1986, has overstayed his welcome.
Uganda’s right-wing populist politics have a cost.
President Yoweri Museveni, who has been in power since January 1986, is on the receiving end of some international blowback from its longtime ally, the United States. Thick-headed; right-wing populist; far passed his prime. All of these ways of referring to the 79-year old Ugandan leader are not entirely incorrect. Just a tad unkind.
A right-wing populist at heart — a la Erdogan — President Museveni, despite his dark skin, got along well with Donald Trump. Their proto-paleo populism make them natural allies, even though they won’t be Netflix and chilling-out together anytime soon. “Donald Trump speaks to Africans frankly. Africans need to solve their problems,” the Ugandan leader tweeted after Trump was caught calling certain African nations “shithole countries,” in an act that can only be properly construed under the category of profoundly undiplomatic. (Averted Gaze)
President Museveni’s increasing political irrelevance became readily apparent to me after reading this morning that the Ugandan President’s response to being dropped from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) for the country’s anti-gay law. His response was to council Ugandans to "not to be over-concerned.” As if a cup of java and deep, cleansing breaths might offset the economic and reputational damage to the country due to such an unjust, medival law. But, at 79, Museveni cannot seem to grasp the notion that some people are just born gay, like my late cousin Binyavanga Wainaina.
In 2022, Uganda exported goods worth $10.6 million under AGOA. Superyachts cost more, fer sure. And while it is not a large amount, to be sure, it is a significant one that could increase under a newer and more economically relevant President. If Uganda were to move beyond Museveni — as it has been trying — and move beyond a coffee, tea, oil and tourism economy, AGOA might be a larger factor in the country’s economic growth. “Under this deal, Uganda has been exporting goods, like coffee and textiles, to the United States for years without paying any import tax,” notes Wedaeli Chibelushi for BBC News.
President Biden announced that he would be dropping Uganda, the Central African Republic, Gabon, and Niger from America’s tariff-free trade program starting in 2024, due to human rights violations, another embarrassment. The 23-year old policy has been at the core of U.S. economic and commercial engagement with sub-Saharan Africa. The African Growth and Opportunity Act qualified Uganda to duty-free access to hundreds of textile and apparel benefits. Uganda, we cannot fail to note, was dropped by Biden from AGOA directly because of the country’s new, regressive anti-gay law. Museveni, curiously, responded as if nothing particularly out of the ordinary had occurred:
Certainly, as far as Uganda is concerned, we have the capacity to achieve our growth and transformation targets, even if some of the actors do not support us. It is the eight points that I outlined for you at our recent Independence celebrations that are decisive. The eight points are: patriotism – not following politics of identity but following politics of interests; supporting the private sector; economic infrastructure development to lower the costs of doing business in the economy; regional integration to create big markets that can absorb our products; working with foreigners who respect us; eliminate corruption; social infrastructure to develop the human resource through universal education and health, and protecting the environment that controls our water and our rain.
It is good that the American Government avoided the mistake of de-funding the procurement of the HIV drugs for our 1.4 million People on those drugs. However, all our People on the ARVs and all the Ugandans need to know that we had a contingency plan to fully fund the procurement of those drugs if ever the external funders were unable to fund them.
So, in other words — China. And/or maybe Russia, with whom African governments are making Faustian bargains up and down the continent. Swell and lovely. Museveni, at 79, is trapped in the anti-colonial mindset, where Russia and China are allies, comrades even. Let’s be clear: the President of Uganda prefers dealing with right-wing bigoted populists, like Trump, because they adhere to his vision of the West, populated almost entirely by exploiters. There is no “Silicon Kampala,” because, quite frankly, as an octogenarian (next year), he cannot fathom the benefits of a digital economy. Museveni is, in fine, a victim of his age. And it would be better for the country to step aside for some younger leadership.
And Museveni ties all of these so-called “eight points” up with a quaint, pretty, anti-colonial bow. “These pressures from outside are joogo (dharau - looking down upon somebody, underrating somebody) towards the Africans and must be rejected,” he continued. We cannot fail to note that it sounds as if Museveni is addressing listeners from a bygone revolutionary era — the era of Mobutu; the era of Moi — long since past its expiration date. Most of Museveni’s eight points are just high-falluting words masquerading as anti-revolutionary ideas. Uganda, which has never been a superlative example of transparency and growth, ranks a staggering 142 in the Corruptions Perception Index. And that’s a fact not covered in his eight points. Further, regarding universal education, a major concern among Ugandans, Museveni has fallen woefully short. According to the World Bank blog, this March:
Even in countries like Uganda, which offers free primary education, parents still have ancillary school expenses for uniforms, exam fees, school upkeep, books, or hiring an extra teacher. The cost of sending a child to school in Uganda varies from US$168 for government schools to US$420-680 for private schools. At the same time, more than 60 percent of adults in Uganda are very worried about school fees; for 40 percent of adults, school fees are the biggest source of financial worry. This is not surprising, as about 42 percent of Ugandans live below the poverty line of US$2.15 per day (about $785 per year).
This is truly something for which Museveni must be proud! For who else is to blame for those metrics after over 30 years in power? Certainly not the British empire, though Museveni seems to invoke them often. Uganda’s governance, according to the Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG), is largely mediocre. Of the benevolent East African strongmen, only Rwanda’s Kagame — who, unlike Museveni, achieved power in the 21st and not 20th century — appears to have some sort of relevance among the young. Not much, but some. Then again, Rwanda, unlike Uganda, is governed at least somewhat by metrics. Uganda, by contrast, is ruled by the every whim arising from the mind of Yoweri Museveni.
This year, Museveni became Africa’s fourth-longest-serving head of state. But the results of his last election, against a popular music star, were questionable. Bobbi Wine, at age 41, is regarded by many older Ugandans skeptically. Museveni, at 79, fought in the bush when Bobbi Wine was but a child; Museveni, at 79, has been in power for nearly as long as Bobi Wine has been alive. And yet, as the years go by, Bobbi Wine’s trenchant, persistent critique of the Museveni regime is building force. Hitting home. Perhaps this young former pop star is not just all buzz and fluff, but the future of the country. He certainly has the scars.
Derek Petersen, Professor of History and African Studies at the University of Michigan writes for The Conversation:
In recent years, media and public attention has focused on Museveni’s rough handling of political opponents and the deterioration of human rights under his watch. A petition before the International Criminal Court accuses him of sponsoring violence and abusing critics. Leading dissidents bear the scars of abuse inflicted by agents of the state.
For many Ugandans, however, Museveni remains essential. The president’s claim to power rests in large part on history, on the hold with which the country’s dark past grips the citizens of the present. The inhumanity of the 1970s and early 1980s – the casual and unpredictable brutality of Amin’s government, the mass killings of Obote’s regime – have passed out of the living memory of most Ugandans. Museveni’s government has had to create routines and institutions that remind Ugandans of their recent history. Keeping the politically instructive memory of the dark past vividly alive has been his enduring achievement.
While Museveni will be remembered, fondly, for liberating Uganda from the grasp of malevolent dictators, his legacy as a benevolent dictator itself is in peril. It should also be noted that the anti-queer laws, like the increasing deterioration of human rights in Uganda, are all symptoms of the same general malady. Museveni represents an outmoded past.
It is time for Yoweri Museveni to return to his fine ancestral herd of cattle. To return to the fields and take up the aristocratic art of the gentleman farmer. To let the younger generations of Ugandans craft solutions to the problems of the future. To put aside the rhetoric of revolution and enjoy the benefits of longevity.
It is time for Uganda’s President Museveni to step aside.
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