From Africa Recovery, Vol.11#2 (October 1997), page 25

Yoweri Museveni: rebel with a cause

Uganda's President looks back on his life and his years as a guerrilla leader

By Frehiwot Bekele

In his memoir*, President Yoweri Museveni gives a vivid account of his life from early childhood until the presidential elections of 1996, focusing in large part on the tumultuous two-and-a-half decades leading up to his taking power in 1986.

We see Mr. Museveni growing up in the late 1940s as the oldest child of a cattle-raising nomadic family in south-western Uganda, then attending elementary school in Mbarara town (where his biggest challenge was battling hunger, as the school administration did not seem to appreciate the needs of its wards). We follow his progress to high school where the seeds of his political outlook are sown and where he meets like-minded friends, with whom he will later begin a movement to change the political order of Uganda. While at Dar es Salaam University in Tanzania in the late 1960s, he founds and chairs a Pan-Africanist student group, and meets such luminaries as writer and political activist Walter Rodney, Samora Machel, and Julius Nyerere. Graduation in 1970 lands him a job as research assistant in Ugandan President Milton Obote's office, which he holds until Idi Amin takes power in 1971.

The book moves swiftly to Mr. Museveni's political career and his central role in the struggle to oust President Idi Amin Dada's regime (1971-79), and, later, the guerrilla campaign under his leadership (1981-85) to unseat the second Obote regime which, Mr. Museveni says, usurped power by rigging the elections of 1980. Key events chronicled include President Amin's invasion of Tanzania in 1978 and Tanzania's counter-attack; the fall of Kampala to Tanzanian forces in 1979; the creation of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) by Mr. Museveni in 1981 and the ensuing armed struggle; and the brief rule of President Tito Okello.

Although filled with analysis of Uganda's colonial and post-colonial political realities, descriptions of military strategies, and enumerations of the prerequisites for a successful guerrilla campaign, the book, with its steady, no-nonsense, matter-of-fact tone, is not without its flashes of humour. The narrative abounds with descriptions of comic military fiascos, near

disasters and false alarms; and the account of Mr. Museveni's courtship of his future wife, taking up all of two sentences, must be the tersest ever written on such a subject. The segment on his early childhood -- with details on how he deduced the year of his birth, his relationship with his grandmother, his parents' experience with Christianity and his people's affectionate regard for their cattle -- is also full of charm and warmth.

The book concludes with an account of the presidential elections of 1996, an exposition on multi-party politics in the African context, what is needed for Uganda's economic development, and for Africa's economic integration. It also details the challenges faced by the NRM on assuming power. In 1986, infrastructure was in a state of virtual collapse, and there were severe shortages of basic consumer goods. The economic growth rate was 2 per cent; inflation hovered around 240 per cent; and foreign exchange reserves were $254 mn in the red.

The adoption of free-market policies and macroeconomic measures such as the liberalization of prices and the stabilization of exchange and interest rates, says Mr. Museveni, helped raise economic growth to 10 per cent by 1995 and cut inflation to 5 per cent. However, Mr. Museveni admits to the continuing challenges of rural poverty and insurgencies in the north and north-east of the country.

In the final chapter, Mr. Museveni reflects on political power in a developing country, which he sees as an endless personal sacrifice. After reading this narrative of his life, one is easily inclined to agree with his view.

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