Welcome to “Jambo Uganda,” a blog I hope you’ll come back to read over the next month or so as I travel to Uganda to report on and write a variety of stories.
For a few weeks, I’ll be roaming through parts of this East African country that has a storied past but an uncertain future. Known as the “Pearl of Africa,” Ugandans are living in a era that is trying hard to hold on to that moniker while it is getting a bit beat up in the international press for its increasingly conservative legislation and because its government is rife with corruption and is constantly stifling dissent.
For some, the actions evoke aspects of the Idi Amin era. Amin was Uganda’s president from 1971 to 1979. In those eight years in office – one in which he came to through the barrel of the gun – his legacy is one of massive human-rights abuses, political repression and corruption – to name just a few. (To get a Hollywood-lensed glimpse of Amin’s rule, watch the acclaimed movie “The Last King of Scotland.”)
Today, the country is led by Yoweri Museveni, who has been in office since 1986. For many, he has overstayed his welcome, despite his success at ushering in democratic rule and fostering strong economic growth. What promises he brought with him in the mid-1980s are now dwindling to the shadows as his autocracy takes center stage. For comparison, Africans say, look to the past to Amin, or look to the present to Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe.
One example of Museveni’s strong arming is intimidation of the country’s media. A couple of months ago, Uganda police raided the office of The Daily Monitor, one of the country’s central newspapers, ransacked files and closed the paper for 11 days. Protests by journalists and residents followed – and so did the tear gas.
The newspaper had published a story based on a letter it said was written by the head of Uganda’s intelligence service, General David Sejusa. The letter, which was leaked to the press, laid out a plot to allegedly assassinate those in the government who don’t support Museveni’s plan to hand the reins to his son when he steps down from office.
The Daily Monitor is where I will spend several days while working with its journalists there. We’ll work side by side to learn about the media landscape in our respective countries. There, I will reunite with Dorothy Nakaweesi, one of the Monitor’s journalists who spent three weeks in April and May working in The Durango Herald’s newsroom.
Nakaweesi came to Durango as part of a program for African journalists (click on the links to the left to read stories she wrote while working here) put together by the International Center for Journalists. ICFJ, based in Washington, D.C., is a nonprofit whose mission is to promote free, independent media around the world. It does that a variety of ways, one of which is to bring foreign journalists to the U.S. to work with their American counterparts. Mentoring is a key part of the programs. (The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs is funding my trip.) To bring Nakaweesi’s education full circle, I’ll be able to work with her at her newspaper, to learn about her challenges in an environment hostile to a free press and to provide guidance on embracing social media strategies, digital tools and diversity.
I hope you’ll stick with me these next few weeks as I share my observations of a country trying to find its voice. I expect stories will go beyond corruption, rigged elections, mysterious killings or the Lord’s Resistance Army (remember the popular “Kony 2012” movement last year?).
You and I, readers, likely will all be surprised at the strength of its people, why it is the “Pearl of Africa” – and the connections that exist between Kampala and Durango.
On the Net
International Center for Journalists: www.icfj.org
U.S. Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs: www.exchanges.state.gov
The Daily Monitor: www.monitor.co.ug
