Opinion: Mzee has become a colonial overlord grabbing land in the North…

Government land- Anybody occupying government land (Aswa ranch, Lakang, land acquired for the Madvhani group, etc.) must leave with immediate effect but in any case not later than 3 weeks from today” (Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, 03.11.2023).

Today, we can acknowledge with certainty that the Government of Uganda (GoU) lays claims to land and expropriate it without any consideration, hesitation or plans for the ones living on it. This after years of stalemate and clashes. Because, the state has no answers and only beholden to the companies or foreign investors who “bought” the land.

That’s how the National Resistance Movement (NRM) operates. They are now giving Apaa Village three weeks to move. Others will follow in the Acholi sub-region. As the interests of Kampala/Entebbe is more important than the livelihoods or the pastoralist societies of the North. That is the message I am getting from the President.

He gives the citizens three weeks to relocate, but offers no securities, no basic ways to find new homes or land to settle on. The President is relocating families and villages all for the benefit of a few chosen ones. That’s what his doing and he has no plan or structure in place to give them shelter or a way to make a living.

What the President is now issuing is a case for the Madvhani Group, which have made agreements with the state back in the mid 2000s or around 2006 to be exact. There been plenty of setbacks and pushback on the deal. However, the state has continued and persistent that the group was to takeover 40,000 hectares of land in Amuru district and build Amuru Sugar Works.

While the mentioning of Apaa Village was to sell it to a South African Investor Bruce Martin so he got his own gaming reserve and hunting ground in the area. That was done in 2005 and continued to this day.

Another mentioned case was the sale of Aswa Ranch to the Libyan government in 1998. That’s why we know the state has worked on these cases for years and now suddenly only give a staunch warning.

That’s deliberate and a scare tactic, as there are no mechanisms or anything in place to safeguard the civilians here. Everywhere that the state has sold land. They are only becoming internally displaced people (IDPs) with nowhere to go. While the investors get prime real-estate and get huge chunks of land. That is hurting to know and the President should know better, but he has promised and the investors wants their loot. Therefore, he has to do something, because his not winning by the years going by. His not getting younger either, so he cannot enjoy the spoils if the assets and the land isn’t sold.

That is something we have to consider here, as the President just directs and orders like a colonial master over the sub-region. Where the public are just supposed to listen and if not… they will suffer consequences. The ironies of that, if they do listen… where should they go? Where and what has the state to offer them?

They have just lost everything and what they knew… so that some foreign investors could grab land in Acholiland. That’s the gig here and its infuriating. It just shows the arrogance and the entitlement of the government. As it just takes, take and doesn’t question its own behaviour here.

Acholi deserves better. They do… they are being sold for shiny objects and left out with nothing. While the President and his inner-circle is getting a piece of the action. Peace.

The ideals of the Lusaka Manifesto of 1969 is very relevant today…

1. When the purpose and the basis of States’ international policies are misunderstood, there is introduced into the world a new and unnecessary disharmony, disagreements, conflicts of interest, or different assessments of human priorities, which provoke an excess of tension in the world, and disastrously divide mankind, at a time when united action is necessary to control modern technology and put it to the service of man. It is for this reason that, discovering widespread misapprehension of our attitudes and purposes in relation to Southern Africa, we the leaders of East and Central African States meeting at Lusaka, 16th April 1969, have agreed to issue this Manifesto.

2. By this Manifesto we which to make clear, beyond all shadow of doubt, our acceptance of the belief that all men are equal, and have equal rights to human dignity and respect, regardless of colour, race, religion or sex. We believe that all men have the right and the duty to participate, as equal members of the society, in their own government. We do not accept that any individual or group has any right to govern any other group of sane adults, without their consent, and we affirm that only the people of a society, acting together as equals, can determine what is, for them, a good society and a good social, economic, or political organisation.

3. On the basis of these beliefs we do not accept that any one group within a society has the right to rule any society without the continuing consent of all the citizens. We recognise that at any one time there will be, within every society, failures in the implementation of these ideals. We recognise that for the sake of order in human affairs, there may be transitional arrangements while a transformation from group inequalities to individual equality is being effected. But we affirm that without an acceptance of these ideals – without a commitment to these principles of human equality and self-determination – there can be no basis for peace and justice in the world” (Manifesto on Southern Africa adopted by the Fifth Summit Conference of East and Central African States, Lusaka, 14-16 April 1969).

The ones that was behind the Lusaka Manifesto had a foresight and a vision. Just the three first paragraphs of the manifesto sets the tone. In such a manner, which shows the cold hard realities of the world. Yes, the manifesto was in defence of the majority of people and the ones who was segregated and second-class citizens in South Africa. However, these words and political principals are still viable to this day.

Just reading it… making me fume. Not only for the ones who had to suffer under Apartheid in South Africa. It makes me mad to think these things fit elsewhere in our time. There are people living under conditions that fits the bill.

To further prove my point… read this paragraph: “There is one thing about South African oppression which distinguishes it from other oppressive regimes. The apartheid policy adopted by its Government, and supported to a greater or lesser extent by almost all its white citizens, is based on a rejection of man’s humanity. A position of privilege or the experience of oppression in the South African society depends on the one thing which it is beyond the power of any man to change. It depends upon a man’s colour, his parentage, and his ancestors.” (Manifesto on Southern Africa adopted by the Fifth Summit Conference of East and Central African States, Lusaka, 14-16 April 1969).

We are just seeing it happening and I we should say something. Where one people are more worthy than another, as one is more privileged and the other suffering. We are seeing that is happening today and there are nations who are under this spell. That’s why the Lusaka Manifesto of 1969 still matters.

The final paragraph, I want to show is this: “If you are black you cannot escape this categorization; nor can you escape it if you are white. If you are black millionaire and a brilliant political scientist, you are still subject to the pass laws and still excluded from political activity. If you are white, even protests against the system and an attempt to reject segregation, will lead you only to the segregation, and the comparative comfort of a white jail. Beliefs, abilities, and behaviour are all irrelevant to a man’s status; everything depends upon race. Manhood is irrelevant. The whole system of government and society in South Africa is based on the denial of human equality. And the system is maintained by a ruthless denial of the human rights of the majority of the population – and thus, inevitably of all” (Manifesto on Southern Africa adopted by the Fifth Summit Conference of East and Central African States, Lusaka, 14-16 April 1969).

It is just heartbreaking reading this today. As the news cycle is coming, as the reality of people suffering in the Middle East. The Palestinian people are under this spell. They are captured in the system, which the Lusaka Manifesto of 1986 explains so well. The ones that we shouldn’t accept anywhere and within any realm. No one should be subjected to this and there is nothing you can say about. It is just a devious system for one kind and the others to suffer. There is nothing honest or truthful about it. There is only brutality and use of force against innocent civilians.

That’s why the Lusaka Manifesto matters and we need to remember these things. Not forget them, but remember, as it is a lesson from past that we need today. Peace.

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