Reviewer: Kofi Akosah-Sarpong in Ottawa, Canada

TITLE: YOWERI MUSEVENI: WHAT IS AFRICA’S PROBLEM?

EDITED BY: ELIZABETH KANYOGONYA

PUBLISHER: University of Minnesota Press, 111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290, Minneapolis, MN 55401-2520. 2000

PAGES: 257

PRICE: US$18.95 (Paperback); USA$47.95 (Hardcover)

Both from his position and the history of his country, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni is well placed to ask the question, "What is Africa’s Problem?" Aside from his country, the entire Great Lakes Region in central Africa, especially as the "recent seismic shifts in Congo and Rwanda have exposed the continued volatility of the state of affairs in central Africa" reveals that it is time Africans ask painful questions about their existence in relation to their progress. By posing this painful question, Museveni demonstrates that he is not an Idi Amin or Jean-Bedel Bokassa—a shallow, primitively backward and evil beings who were not even fit to rule themselves--but rather a new generation of African leader who is genuinely concerned about the African predicament not only from face value but from a deeper urgings to open up the African heart and find out what is troubling it in order to understand "What is Africa’s Problem?"

What is Africa’s Problem? is actually President Museveni’s writings and speeches over the years, which lay out the possibilities for Africa’s overall change for the better from its present self. It reveals Museveni as thinker, a sharp reflector, and with broad and deeper grasp of Africa’s existence—its history, economics, culture, society, arts, spirituality, and how to play with these elements for Africa’s progress. No doubt since ascending to the leadership of his country the whole world is witness to his capacity to turn Uganda from the ashes of violence, bloodshed, and the Idi Amins to sound, rational policies, informed by Uganda’s history and culture, and which progress has made Uganda a shinning example of what is expected of the new generation of African leaders.

The late Tanzanian President Julius K. Nyerere captures this state of affairs in a foreword to the book when he stated that since Museveni was sworn in at the end of January 1986, Uganda has replaced its years of conflict and instability "with peace, freedom, and development."

And nowhere could one judge Museveni by what he has been trying to achieve than his speeches in this book and elsewhere. Nyerere is happy writing the foreword of the book because he has helped Museveni and his guerrilla army to overthrow "the infamous" General Idi Amin, whose rule Nyerere describe as "eight-year regime of mass murder, cruel and ruthless torture, economic destruction, and deliberately imposed misery still leaves its shadow over the people of Uganda, years after he was overthrown."

Nyerere was convinced that violence and instability in its next-door neighbour, Uganda, was counter-productive to Tanzania’s development. Gen. Amin’s bloody stupidity spelt over to Tanzania. Added to this is the Amins in Africa tolerated and accepted by the world community despite the open knowledge of their evil. By helping Museveni and his guerrilla army overthrow Gen. Idi Amin, Nyerere reasoned "Tanzania now has greater opportunities to develop itself, and much less excuse than formerly for any failure to exploit to the full the possibilities of bilateral cooperation across the Ugandan-Tanzanian border."

What is Africa’s Problem? is divided into four broad parts: Ugandan Politics, Military Strategy in Uganda, African Politics, and Africa in World Politics. Under each part there are sub-headings. There is a short glossary explaining key Uganda vernaculars and key political events in Uganda. The editor of the book, Elizabeth Kanyogonya, profiles Museveni before the various parts and sub-headings. The profile reveals Museveni, iron-willed, principled, and having thorough grasp of Uganda. Still, the profile demonstrates Museveni as having learnt from close range the stupidity, nonsense, and evil that characterized the various governments that came to rule Uganda. He was convinced after President Milton Obote’s Uganda People’s Congress Party rigged elections in December 1980 then the only solution to the country’s perennial violence and instability was guerrilla struggle. Despite having only 27 guns, he organized the National Resistance Army (NRA), a unique guerrilla organization in Africa, to "oppose the tyranny that Obote’s regime had unleashed upon the population" and officially launched his guerrilla struggle in February 6, 1981.

During his swearing-in address as president of Uganda on January 29, 1986, Museveni argued that, "ours is a fundamental change" and not necessarily that of elsewhere in Africa where what is characterized as change "is nothing short of mere turmoil. We have had one group getting rid of another one, only for it to turn out to be worse than the group it displaced. Please, do no count us in that group of people." Museveni decries bad leadership such as when he visited Gulu and has to speak in English. "This is because our leaders in the past did not encourage or foster a national language," he told his audience in his usual blame of slave trade and colonialism with the price of Africa’s bad leadership. More painfully is Miseveni’s unhappiness in regard to Africa’s bad leadership and "deep sense of betrayal that most of Africa kept silent while tyrants killed them."

While blaming slave trade and colonialism for some of Africa’s predicament, Museveni thinks what is wrong with Africa today, which explains its backwardness, is its inability to "master its environment and harness it by utilizing the positive aspects" for Africa’s "betterment." Put in another way, since Africa’s dealings with themselves and with the outside world are not informed by their culture and history, they have been functioning like a chicken without head—running around aimlessly without any sense of direction. To correct this senseless state of affairs, Museveni says democracy should be rooted in African values; elimination of foreign interests in order to grow political independence; independent, integrated, self-sustaining national economy wrapped around the acquisition of technology; war against corruption from all fronts; improvement of social services; and land reform and cooperation among African countries. As former United States president Jimmy Carter, writes at the back of the book,"…We need to understand what Africans think about Africa" and What is Africa’s Problem? gives firsthand look about this.