The Fight For A New Uganda
Photo: Ghetto Media TV
With all that’s currently being reported on in the United States, as extremist supporters of President Trump stormed the US Capitol last Wednesday afternoon, in such a fashion that has been described as an act of domestic terrorism, many eyes around the world have been fixed on the goings on in Washington; so much so, that you shouldn’t be surprised to realise that you may have missed a few, other, important news headlines.
The UK government recently announced that, in England, it’s estimated that 1 in 50 individuals in private households have now been infected with the Coronavirus, causing the UK to enter into another national lockdown, one even more restrictive than the first lockdown during Spring 2020 - which was initially thought to be the peak of the pandemic in the UK.1
Less than a year later, governments have begun their first roll out of coronavirus vaccines, yet, ‘New Scientist’ recently reported that it is likely many African nations won’t have enough vaccines to achieve herd immunity “for years to come”. 2 Contrastingly, in more novel news, Forbes also reports that in the US, “... if all goes as planned, you would be taking your cat to get COVID-19 shots before the end of the year”. 3
And as we now find ourselves riding another wave of a global health pandemic, isolated and aware of the different changes and injustices happening on a global scale, on the topic of the freedoms and the liberation of black lives, and overall human rights, the story of the current political climate in Uganda seems a most pressing issue.
On the 14th of January 2021, Uganda will be going through its most critical election to date, as incumbent President and tyrant, Yoweri Museveni, seeks to hold power for another term, making it 39 years in power - something current US President Donald Trump could only dream to achieve. Yet, the situation on the ground in Uganda, which youth grassroot activist source Samson Ssewanyana, describes to us as “intense”, must be brought to light. As President Museveni uses his power to terrorise the people of Uganda, utilising security organisations such as the LDU (Local Defence Unit) to murder the current youth uprising, the youths of Uganda are fighting back fiercely and bravely, ready to take matters into their own hands and overthrow the current regime. Ssewanyana tells us that, in Uganda, “it is extremely hard to win with democracy” - the past 35 years of Museveni’s presidency would agree with his position, which begs the question: why hasn’t the youth revolt against black oppression in Uganda been front page news? Would you have heard of it if it were a white populous nation? If it were a revolution in the United States of America, the United Kingdom, or Russia, might this news have made it onto your daily news feeds? For one, President Museveni is believed to control the majority of Uganda’s free press, “and the journalists who do stand up against the status quo are [being] shot at, tear gassed, and sometimes their recordings and equipment are confiscated”, Ssewanyana tells us. Thus, the people of Uganda find themselves in a crisis, of which they are barely able to communicate it to the rest of the world.
If the Black Lives Matter movement is intended to raise awareness towards the injustices that black people face on a global scale, the focus must not only be about injustices experienced at the hands of the white world. Even African leaders have succumbed to the appalling examples set by the white world towards black lives. Why are African leaders comfortable in oppressing their own, often in worse ways than the white world oppresses black lives? It is what the “civilised” Western world has shown Africans as the way forward, both during their colonisation of African nations, and with their current actions in Western societies today. The biggest issue that Africa faces in this regard is that all eyes, if any eyes at all, are not on African nations or on their leaders, so that when the people, the youth especially, march for their lives and rights, because no one is watching, they are silently murdered for their efforts. We only need to look back to the recent massacre of #EndSARS protesters at Lekki toll gate in Lagos, by the Nigerian government on October 20th 2020, to witness the truth of passionate youths demanding change from their government, and being murdered for their efforts.
Now is the time to shine a light on black African lives - not to stand by as black lives are continuously murdered. The oppression and killings of the youths of Africa, is a poor attempt to silence the leaders of tomorrow’s political and social change. If we believe that democracy and a peaceful transfer of power is justice, and that justice is for all, then the people of the world, black people and all allies alike, must help the youths of Africa, by shining a light onto their fight and on their efforts, because, “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Martin Luther King Jr.
