Africa News blog
African business, politics and lifestyle
Uganda votes: oil blessing, oil curse?
That old Africa oil chestnut is being discussed again: is it a blessing or a curse?
When it comes to Uganda, nobody really knows which way to bet yet and its people often shrug their shoulders when asked what impact it will have.
One reason for that, and a cause of concern for some, is the secrecy surrounding the deals the government has struck with the foreign firms in the country and a lack of transparency around much of the planning ahead of production next year.
The Pearl of Africa discovered oil reserves, now estimated by some to be 2.5 million barrel’s worth, in its Albertine rift basin near Democratic Republic of Congo in 2006.
I visited the shores of Lake Albert this week and found some locals had a vague hope things would improve for them when the oil starts pumping, while others said they would hate the oil companies if their lives did not change.
Elections on Feb. 18 will decide whether long-standing President Yoweri Museveni or his bitter rival Kizza Besigye will be the one to oversee the beginnings of a windfall that could haul the country into middle-income status. Foreign oil firms are watching closely — they have had their problems with the strong-headed Museveni but know little about Besigye.
Uganda votes: Fighting talk
Ugandans love to talk. And, unlike in some other African countries, few people are afraid to be heard talking politics. Cafes and bars in Kampala and elsewhere hum to the sound of politicians being loudly verbally skewered.
The politicos themselves are not much different. Rhetoric is being ratcheted up ahead of elections on February 18. And the opposition are not holding back.
Kizza Besigye, the only man with any chance of unseating 25-year President Yoweri Museveni, is leading the charge with predictions of Tunisia and Egypt-inspired public protests should his party, for the third time in a row, say an election has been rigged.
“In our case it’s even more likely that we can get chaos because remember, no leader of our country has ever handed over power peacefully to another leader,” he told Reuters in an interview when asked if Uganda could follow the examples set in North Africa.
“Every president of Uganda has been bombed out of office. As long as there is repression that is sustained for a long time, that pent up anger builds and at some point explodes.”
Uganda is, he has since said, a “ruthless dictatorship.”
Strong stuff, indeed.
What else is there for the word “DEMOCRACY” in Uganda what is seen today is a promise made by the President himself after winning the Feb elections “i will Crush them” he was quoted using a runyankole proverb “Enumi Eligasa empango eyanda kuffa” meaning a bull that wilders it tounge near an axe will only be requesting to be beheaded. My fellow youth it is the only time we have to live like free people.All live media broadcasts have been banned..the police doest seem to understand the law or even read the constitution but thank God the internet is here for us to use..I wish all my fellow Ugandans Luck in this struggle for freedom.
Uganda’s Museveni at 25: Still fit?
“Look at him!” the emcee at celebrations to mark 25 years in power for Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni shouts into a mic. “Look at him! He is very fit!”
The former rebel decked out in his usual – and fairly unique – floppy hat and suit combo ambles down a grass slope and waves cheerily to his supporters.
“Look!” she shouts again. “You can even see from the way he is walking!”
Moments later, a pick-up truck draws alongside the 66-year-old and he slowly clambers up onto the back to continue saluting the crowds.
“Oh…” she pauses for a moment before quickly gathering herself.
“He is in a car now!” she booms. “That is the modern way! He needs that vantage point to see you. He is a kind-hearted man who wants to see you!”
I don’t subscribe to the principle of a benevolent dictator because it runs contrary to all of the principles, upon which democracy was founded. I suppose this moral dilemma is made somewhat easier by the fact that Museveni’s track record isn’t perfect. In addition, simply because you liberate a country, it does not give you free reign for the following 25 years. This is a reoccurring sentiment across the continent (Paul Kagame in Rwanda, dos Santos in Angola, etc…). People tend to think: ‘well this is as good as democracy gets in Africa, so that’ll do’. Lets no settle for second best, Africa deserves better.
Ugandan president is hip-hop hit
The track starts with a soulful “well, well” as a hip-hop beat rises in intensity. “Do you want another rap?” the same deep voice then says in perfect time. “You want another rap?”
But this is no ordinary rapper. This is, believe it or not, 66-year-old Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, previously better known for rebellion than for rhyming.
The road to what has now become a radio and club hit started a few months back at a ruling party rally when the leader of almost 25 years took to the stage and, professing that some youngsters had told him about rap, performed two folk chants from his birthplace in Western Uganda – Naatema akati (I cut a stick) and Mp’enkoni (Give me the stick).
Apparently, he turned up at another rally a few weeks later and asked the mostly young crowd if they wanted another rap. They roared back, “Yes, Sevo!” using one of Museveni’s many nicknames. A canny Ugandan record producer then took the lot, chant and all, added a thumping beat and the song everyone is calling “You want another rap?” was born.
The tune is proving a bit of a sleeper hit on YouTube – already well on its way to 100,000 views – and Museveni’s party is hoping it can endear him to the country’s sizeable population of under-30s ahead of February elections.
Different versions are now doing the rounds and turning up for sale in record shops. According to the country’s Red Pepper tabloid, the below CD cover, depicting the president as American gangsta rapper 50 Cent, is proving especially popular.
That GUY Is using public funds to rap.
But in Uganda, there are pot holes everywhere you go pakalast
Ugandan court gags anti-gay paper
The latest twist in Uganda’s hang the ‘homos’ saga was played out last week when the High Court in Kampala ordering Rolling Stone newspaper to stop publishing the names, photographs and addresses of people it says are gay. Alongside the photos, the paper urged the government: “Hang them.”
The court order came too late for the 26 already featured in two issues of the young newspaper that most people in the East African country have never heard of.
Frank Mugisha, director of gay rights group Sexual Minorities Uganda, told me last week that almost everyone outed by the paper, including himself, had since been attacked or harassed and that some were in danger of losing their jobs.
The same day I spoke to Frank I met Giles Muhame, the defiant 22-year-old editor of Rolling Stone, who now says he will find a way to “dodge the law” and work through a list he says he has of 100 gay men and women.
Muhame’s views will be abhorrent to many Western people of a similar age. Gays are “evil”. They “convert” children, they take drugs, they are akin to “terrorists”.
But his views are not uncommon among many young Africans. Homosexuality is illegal in 37 countries on the continent and gay people are mostly in the closet. In Uganda’s bars and cafes, I found a lot of support for Muhame and his paper.
This is the second time Uganda has caused uproar for the treatment of its fearful gay community. An anti-gay bill was tabled in its parliament last year proposing prison sentences for gays and the death penalty for “persistent” homosexuals.
Uganda election: Exciting start, what next?
If the potential success of an election could be judged by the excitement generated by its first day of campaigning, then Uganda is set for an excellent poll.
It can’t, of course, but it was heartening to see both ruling party and opposition supporters whooping it around capital Kampala yesterday ahead of a February 18th voting day that most think will be nothing but a foregone conclusion.
Thousands of screaming, singing, stomping supporters danced through town from the Nelson Mandela Stadium where the presidential candidates received their nomination papers to the sites of a couple of huge political rallies.
Hundreds more hurtled about the place on the “boda boda” motorcycles that ferry paying passengers around the city, revving the engines loudly in support.
Such was the excitement that the Reuters team had trouble battling through the crowds of people supporting opposition leader, Kizza Besigye.
Here’s a small snapshot of what we saw out the window:
Ugandans are excited about the forthcoming presidential elections but they are also very worried about the violence that is likely to follow the campaigns and the outcome.
Most ordinary Ugandans know that their votes do not matter in presidential elections, so they will go along with whoever gives them money. Therefore, the large crowds you see, especially those associated with the incumbent, President Museveni, are there because of the lure of money and not because they want Yoweri Museveni to continue as president.
Most Ugandans know or believe that the elections have already been rigged in favor of the president even before the campaigning starts.
Nile River row: Could it turn violent?
The giggles started when the seventh journalist in a row said that his question was for Egypt’s water and irrigation minister, Mohamed Nasreddin Allam.
The non-Egyptian media gave him a bit of a hammering at last week’s talks in Addis Ababa for the nine countries that the Nile passes through.
Allam bared his teeth when a Kenyan journalist accused him of hiding behind “colonial-era treaties” giving his country the brunt of the river’s vital waters whether that hurt the poorer upstream countries or not.
“You obviously don’t know enough about this subject to be asking questions about it,” he snapped before later apologising to her with a kiss on the cheek.
Five of the nine Nile countries — Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Kenya — last month signed a deal to share the water that is a crucial resource for all of them. But Egypt and Sudan, who are entitled to most of the water and can veto upstream dams under a 1929 British-brokered agreement, refused.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi have not signed yet either and analysts are divided on whether they will or not. Six Nile countries must sign the agreement for it to have any power but Egypt says even that wouldn’t change its mind. The five signatories — some of the world’s poorest countries — have left the agreement open for debating and possible signing for up to a year.
So, the world may see the first major water war, but we still do virtually nothing about climate change.
Uganda gays feel threatened by bill
Being gay or lesbian in Uganda is illegal and those who are risk being locked away for up to 14 years. Now, a new parliamentary bill wants gay people to face even stiffer penalties and is proposing life imprisonment and even death sentences in some cases.
Pepe Julia Onziema and her partner, who asked that her identity be hidden, spend most of their time together — indoors. They are a lesbian couple living in Uganda where homosexuality is against the law. Pepe is also a gay rights activist in Kampala and is openly vocal about her sexuality and because of that she is often victim to discrimination and harassment.
“Myself I am at risk,” Onziema told Reuters Africa Journal “I can’t move on the streets as I used to, I can’t go to a shop … I have been picked off the streets, detained for sometime, ridiculed, intimidated, some money taken away from my wallet…”
David Bahati, an MP for Uganda’s ruling party, proposed the bill. “Homosexuality has become a huge issue in this country we know that it is not our values, it” not Ugandan, it’s a threat to our traditional family and the children of Uganda…”
The bill has the support of many Ugandans. Anti gay protests have been used to support the bill. The reaction from the west and human rights activists has been the opposite. Donors — who fund about a third of Uganda’s budget, have been piling on the pressure to get leaders to shelve the bill.
Yoweri Museveni, President of Uganda, said recently: “When I was at the Commonwealth conference, the Prime Minister of Canada came to see me and what was he talking about? Gays, Prime Minister Gordon Brown came to see me and what was he talking about? Gays, when I go to New York when I was coming back, Assistant Secretary Carson rang me, what was he ringing to talk about? Somalia and gays.”
The bill also targets straight Ugandans who will face up to 7 years in prison for withholding information about homosexuals.
Everyone has the right to practice and explore their own sexuality. The realm of sexual orientation falls within a private sphere which the government, no matter how well-meaning it thinks its actions are, is not supposed to intrude into.
Will EAC’s common market deal work?
For telecoms-tycoon-turned-philanthropist Mo Ibrahim, it’s one step forward, two steps back. For Benno Ndullu, governor of the central Bank of Tanzania, the whole thing is bound to stall unless problems are ironed out first.
For many Tanzanians, it’s a threat to their jobs, language and prospects.
But for the leaders of the five-member East African Community (EAC), signing the common market protocol on Friday represents the future fortunes of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda combined.
Signing the document — the culmination of a relatively speedy 18 months of negotiation — will mean goods, services and the community’s 126 million people can move freely across their borders, in theory at least.
Together, the five countries muster $60 billion in gross domestic product combined, and believe they can prosper better as one unit than apart.
Already they have a customs union, but by 2012 they foresee sharing a single currency and finally political federation.
This is exactly the type of thing necessary for long term growth, leading to transparency, then true democracy. This alliance would have lost any chance of success if GlobalWarming Zealots ever succeed.
I tend to agree with Samuel, when he says that perhaps the fact that African nation’s representation in the ICC is a reflection on our need to right the wrongs. I won’t be deluded and say that Africa does not have these problems but I will say that we have been largely misrepresented. One cannot generalize about Africa, Richard Dowden make a good point in saying that for every generalization that is made about Africa, five countries fall away. Instead of looking at this in a negative way by asserting that Africa is indeed the lost continent we should actually be proud that we acknowledge the problems that we have and we are finding ways to mitigate them. In short, no I do not think it is a true reflection of the continents problems, in fact I think it is more a reflection of the countries need to change what is believed to be the status quo in Africa.
