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Sowing the Mustard Seed: The Struggle for Freedom and Democracy in Uganda

Article  in  Foreign Policy · October 1999

DOI: 10.2307/1149386

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 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, LLC

Review
Author(s): Gilbert M. Khadiagala
Review by: Gilbert M. Khadiagala
Source: Foreign Policy, No. 111 (Summer, 1998), pp. 141-144
Published by: Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, LLC
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 Books

ism, the peace processin the MiddleEast (a region that suppliesmore

than half of China'scrudeoil imports),and stabilityin South Asia.
The views expressedwithin StudyReportson International Relations
1997-98 suggestthat its publisher,authorship,and content are indeed
noteworthy--butnot for the usualreasons.Insteadof tryingto discern
how officialChinesepolicyhas seepedinto this survey,Westernanalysts
shouldreadtheseessaysforwhat they reflectabouta changingChina. Its
political system, though still undemocratic,is beginning to open up.
Frankand often unorthodoxviewshave gaineda measureof acceptance
both in officialandscholarlycircles(even thoughthe CommunistParty's
censorshave frequentlycriticizedStrategyand Management as violating
partyideologicalguidelines). China's of
rising6lite foreign-policyanalysts
representa new generation,one that is increasinglycosmopolitan,sophis-
ticated,well informed,andcool-headed.In fact,asthe contentof thissur-
vey indicates, its authors may have more in common-in terms of
analyticalskills,outlook, and knowledgeof world politics-with their
Americancounterpartsthan with theirelderChinesecolleagues.

Sowingthe MustardSeed:TheStrugglefor Freedom

and Democracyin Uganda
byYoweri Museveni
Kaguta
224 pages,London: 1997
Macmillan,

byGilbert
Reviewed M. Khadiagala

U gandan presidentYoweriMuseveniwas a prominentfigure

duringBillClinton'srecenttripto Africa.Thatvisitsoughtto
highlightAfrica'spoliticalrenaissance, the roleof
particularly
leaderssuchasMuseveni,in usingstatepowerto rebuildthreedecades
of decayingpoliticalsystems.Whilein Uganda,Clintonlent legitima-
cy to fragile,yet hopeful,trendsof reconstructionby promisingan
Americanpartnership with the newAfrica.Butmostobservers of the
much publicizedvisit missedthe unparalleledopportunityit gave
Musevenito articulatethemes dear to Africa'snew generationof
andleadership.
politicians:responsibility

G ILBERT M. K HA DIAGA LA is an associateprofessorof Africanstudiesat thePaul

H. NitzeSchoolofAdvancedInternational
StudiesandauthorofAlliesin Adversity:
The
FrontlineStatesin SouthernAfricanSecurity(Athens:OhioUniversityPress,1994).

SUMMER 1998 141

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Books

Two examplesfromClinton'svisit sufficeto illustratethese themes.

First,Museveni refusedto be part of the bandwagondemandingan
Americanapologyfor the ravagesof slavery.Instead,with characteristic
candor,he insistedthat the primaryresponsibilitybelongedat the feet of
the precolonialAfricanchiefs who had sold their own people for trin-
kets. Second, while conventionalwisdomdecriesthe world'smarginal-
ization of Africa, Museveni arguedthat it is local leaderswho have
marginalizedAfricathroughtheirfailedpoliticalandeconomicpolicies.
Sowingthe MustardSeedcapturesthe broadoutlinesof
Museveni'svision of Africanleadershipand responsibil-
ity.This visionemergesthrougha long-winded, his-
torical narrativethat catalogueshis life from
childhoodin westernUganda,to theguerrilla warsof
the 1970sand 1980s,andendswiththe presidential
electionsof 1996.This is an autobiography written
witha passionfordetail,the inevitableresult,perhaps,
of a desireto wantto tellall.Ifyouarelookingforthe trees,
youwillneeda lot of patienceploughingthroughtheforest.Forwe not
only see Musevenias a childherdingcattle,but froman earlyage,as
one educatinghis people,the Banyankole, aboutmodempracticesof
cattlerearingandagriculture. Fromhisyouth,therefore, he wassoldon
the idea of modernization through formal education. But he is also
skeptical of the Christian passivity that led many Africans to transfer
theirwelfareandresponsibility to God'smercy,andduringmostof the
independence period,to governments.
Inhisearlydays,Museveniforgedcloselinkswitha cohortof "young
nationalists" whowereto joinhim in his politicalstruggles duringthe
tumultuous yearsfollowingUganda'sindependence. Organized firstas
promoters of pan-Africanist ideals,the groupbroadened itsconcernsto
thescourgeof ethnicpolitics.The keyto Uganda's problems, Museveni
says,stemmed from "opportunistic" and "sectarian" leadership.Before
he led his NationalResistanceMovement(NRM)to powerin 1986,
claimsMuseveni,"Uganda's leadershadnot beenableto handlecor-
rectly relativelysimpleproblemof buildingnationalunity."
the
In his relentlesssearchforwhathe describes as"principled politics,"
MusevenicastsMiltonObote,the country's firstcivilianpresident,as
the villainof Ugandanpolitics.As earlyas 1966,whenOboteplunged
Ugandaintochaosbysuspending its constitution,Museveninotesthat
he contemplated going into exile with his friends to launchan armed

142 FOREIGN POLICY

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struggle:"Weknew that dictatorshad to be actively opposedand that

they wouldnot just fall off by themselveslike ripemangoes."Museveni
vilifiesObote for exacerbatingthe country'sethnic and religiousdiffer-
ences and, more significantly,for creatingthe political conditionsthat
led to the emergenceof General Idi Amin and the subsequentmilita-
rizationand destructionof the fabricof Ugandansociety.This, in short,
is the politicalcrisisthat the NRMhas soughtto reverse.
Obote and Amin, we are told, symbolizethe largerproblemof "the
political bankruptcyof the independencegenerationof African lead-
ers,"who exploitedsectariandifferencesforpersonalgainsand, in turn,
destroyed the foundations of nationhood. The bulk of the book
describeshow Museveni,imbuedwith a messianiczeal,soughtto build
a movement that sowedthe seedsfor new structureswherefuturelead-
ers could create national unity without the personalambitionsof self-
advancementand corruption.In Museveni'sUganda, the instruments
of regenerationhave been the armyand the "no-partymovement"sys-
tem, which seeks to build a consensusacrossa wide spectrumof Ugan-
dan society.The militaryhas been the essentialtool for recreatingthe
state, restoringorderand the rule of law.Yet, despite 12 yearsof rule,
the armydoes not seem to be doing well in pacifyingcommunalwarsin
northern and southwesternUganda--casting doubt on Museveni's
imageas a domesticmodernizerand regionalleader.Although Musev-
eni attributesthe northerninsurgenceto a lack of "individualentrepre-
neurial spirit"among its inhabitants,his critics have accusedhim of
relyinginordinatelyon militarymeansto resolvethe conflict. He might
take seriouslythe recent advice of United Nations secretary-general
Kofi Annan that "Africamustdemonstratethe will to rely on political
ratherthan militaryresponsesto problems."
Yet,when it comes to Uganda'sfuture,the decisivestruggleis on the
economicfront-a taskthatMusevenivividlydepictsasjump-starting
his backwardcountryinto a modemindustrial society(a tallorderfor
an agricultural
societydependentprimarilyon foreignaid).One func-
tionof leadership
in a backward
country,he contends,is to disseminate
the virtuesof responsibilityand wealth creation.Throughrural"teach-
he hasexhortedUgandansaboutpovertyreduction,
ingsessions," mon-
etization of the economy, and the need for a new social contract
between the individualand the state. Although he has won the hearts
and minds of peasantswhose lives have improvedmarkedly,Museveni
has invited the ire of "radicaltheorists"and bureaucratswho question

SUMMER 1998 143

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Books

his patriotismon everythingfromprivatizationto his decision to wel-

come back the Asians expelled by Amin. Museveni has nothing but
praisefor the InternationalMonetaryFundand the WorldBank,which
made "usrealizethe importanceof macro-economictools such as let-
ting pricesfind their own level."As a starpupil of the BrettonWoods
institutionswith regardto economic reforms,Ugandahas been reward-
ed with Westernlargesseand, morerecently,debt relief.
Is economic reconstruction,at whateverprice,a lesserevil than the
perilsof poverty?Museveni'sresponseis an unabashed"yes."This view
stands in starkcontrastwith the opinions of South African president
Nelson Mandela, who criticizedClinton following his visit to Cape
Town for peddlinginterventionisteconomic policies that manySouth
Africans believe are bound to erode what remainsof African sover-
eignty.While Mandelahas pointedlycriticizedthe stringentrulescon-
tained within the U.S. African Growth and Opportunity Act,
Museveni stands to be one of the beneficiariesof this legislation,
which rewardscountriesthat undertakefundamentalpoliticaland eco-
nomic reforms.These two differingpositionsreflect broaderquestions
about the mode of integratingAfrica into the global economy, ques-
tions that Africans have only now begun to confront. One suspects
that Museveni will triumphin these debates,as he has done over his
domestic criticswho have often accusedhim of "betrayingour princi-
ples and selling out to Westernideology."
Throughout this book, one senses Museveni'syearningto fill the
intellectual void left in easternAfrica with the retirementof Tanzan-
ian presidentJuliusNyerere. Museveni seems to want to be the new
philosopher-king,cajoling his people with presidentialwisdomon all
mannerof things. But if this tome is his entry into the annalsof philo-
sophic presidencies,then he does not quite measureup to Nyerere's
legacy.The diatribesand invectives against his opponents that litter
almost every page demean the philosophical traditionof moderation
and caution. Besides,Nyerere'sleadershipstemmedfromdeep-seated,
yet unchanging convictions born of grand conceptions of the indi-
vidual and society. Museveni'sideas are limited and pragmatic,nur-
tured in the battlefieldsof Uganda'sruralLuweroTriangleand within
the constraints of global capitalism. This book is steeped more in the
narrow convention of a street fighter than the contemplative tone of
a scholarly treatise.

144 FOREIGN POLICY

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