Description

Museveni reloads story of his life in autobiography

Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has been in power for more than three decades. This means that the majority of the residents of East Africa – most of them under 30 – only know of Museveni as head of state and from what others have said of him in history books and media accounts.

However, to understand the president better – including how he has managed to win the trust of Ugandan voters above the din of criticism – one needs a deeper look into his life. In Sowing The Mustard Seed, the President tells the story of his life from childhood to the ideas that shape his leadership.

In what strikes the reader as a photographic memory, the author recalls, blow by blow, the events, scenes and names of people he encountered since he waged his war on Idd Amin in the early 70s, to 1987, when he became president of Uganda. The fine details are pieced together ever so seamlessly and in a fluid narration that sometimes makes the reader want to believe that, indeed, Museveni can recall events that happened when he was four months old, as he tells us on the first page of this autobiography.

In this off-my-chest confession-type work, Museveni reveals how, starting out with a couple of dozen soldiers, he was able to topple the despotic regime of Idd Amin and later that of Milton Obote. He reveals, in great detail, how Julius Kambarage Nyerere of Tanzania helped him in his war endeavours.

Museveni also pulls back the mask on the sources of the thousands and sometimes millions of dollars that his fighters received in their campaign to liberate Uganda from Amin. Some of those he seems eternally grateful to include the late Muammar Gadhafi of Libya, who funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars and armed his team with everything from arms to propaganda equipment. He also reveals to us his war relations with Samora Machel  of Mozambique and the circumstances in which Cuban leader Fidel Castrol gave him a pistol that at one time saves him from being captured by the Ugandan authorities.  He also pours out details of how church organisations, Kenyan intelligence director Joseph Kanyotu and even the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) helped him keep his family safe and comfortable in Nairobi as he operated between Tanzania and Uganda, coordinating his war on Amin’s soldiers.

One of the most interesting features of his story is how he has related with one of Uganda’s key neighbours – Kenya. When Idd Amin staged a coup on January 24, 1971, Museveni reveals the details of his sadness at the fact that Kenya remained ‘lukewarm’ and did not overtly condemn the coup. This seems to form a cloud of suspicion that marks his relations with the country throughout his guerrilla war.

Ever the military man with strong ideological grounding, Museveni seems to take a dim view of the academia in East Africa of his college days. He feels that they were just “careerists”, giving the exception of a few, and here he gives an example of Walter Rodney, a scholar from the Carribean Islands and author of How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, whose depth of conviction impressed the young Museveni.

Of course the title Sowing the Mustard Seed has been around since 1997, when it was first published by Macmillan Publishers Ltd. The difference is that the current edition, published in 2016 by Moran Publishers Ltd, is a first-person account of Museveni’s life. The earlier edition, the author reveals in the preface to the current issue, was produced mainly based on recorded interviews later transcribed and produced with the help of British Historian Kevin Shillington (author of A History of Africa) and Madam Kanyogonya, a member of the Museveni State House team. This strategy was arrived at after it became clear that the demands of the ongoing war back then would not allow the president time off his busy schedule to write and certify the edited proofs.

Another reason that drove the president to burn the midnight oil involved an American military general.  Four-and-a-half years ago, Museveni met the then USA chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey. The president says he was touched when the US army commander thanked him for writing books that gave him (the US military chief) a better understanding of Africa.

“Which book of mine have you read, general?” Museveni asked.

Dempsey said he had read The Mustard Seed, whose epigraph is mined from the parable of the sower, as related in the biblical book of Matthew.

Amused, Museveni went back and reread the story. He wanted to be sure that it had “the best packaging that could inform the people thirsty for information about our epic story.” This left no doubt in his mind that he needed to go back to the writing table.

For the current edition, however, and despite his peripatetic schedule, the president created enough time not only to tell the story himself, but to ensure the final copy did justice to the cultural, social and historical context and the nuances glossed over in the earlier edition. He also reveals that in the latest book, lots of fresh details have been added about his personal life, his family, his guerilla fight and his vision for Uganda.