Prime
Is Uganda built on cultural resistance?
Mr Patrick Kagaba Kajuma
What you need to know:
Cultural resistance focuses on raising awareness of an issue and calls for justice; it does not exist for the sake of pity or sympathy
Cultural resistance practice is as old as history and it involves the use of meanings and symbols, that is, culture, to contest and combat a dominant power, often constructing a different vision of the world in the process. It aims at fighting unjust or oppressive systems and/or power holders within the context of nonviolent actions, campaigns and movements. At its core, cultural resistance is a way of reclaiming our humanity, and celebrating our work as individuals and communities.
Cultural resistance focuses on raising awareness of an issue and calls for justice; it does not exist for the sake of pity or sympathy.
The modern theory of cultural resistance, is a way to resist and rise above the politics, commerce and machinery of the time, providing a universal standard upon which to base “a principle of authority, to counteract the tendency to anarchy which seems to be threatening humankind”.
Power resides not only in institutions, but also in the ways people make sense of their world. It is a serious underestimation of culture and civil society in any governance. Armed with culture instead of guns, one fights a different type of battle. And whereas traditional battles are “wars of manoeuvre,” cultural battles are “wars of position”.
Mahatma Gandhi organised Indian resistance, fought anti-Indian legislation in the courts and led large protests against the colonial government. Along the way, he developed a public persona and a philosophy of truth-focused, non-violent, non-cooperation which he called Satyagraha. Overall, Gandhi’s non-violent resistance helped end British rule in India and has influenced modern civil disobedience movements across the globe.
In the book Petals of Blood, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o portrayed the economic, social, and other ills of post-independence Kenya, critiqued capitalism, showed disparities in village versus city life, alighted the struggle for self-rule and independence, and preached against oppression. All these evils are apparent in the 21st Uganda.
Today, just like in the past regimes, we have seen ugly scenarios of people being roughly rounded up and imprisoned sometimes incommunicado, without observance of the 48 hour rule of trial in courts but also the captured are culturally too aggressive while being arrested thus “unjustified force’’ is applied by security operatives.
We have unscrupulous land brokers, businessmen or bourgeois who influence every decision to the detriment of the local people, depriving them of every right to live a better life. The encroachments of the rich are more destructive to the Constitution than those of the people. The Bamugemereire land commission exposed a lot of dirt in as far as land matters are concerned.
Today, there is no spiritual standard of perfection and it is as if the future belongs to the “philistines”. We have seen strikes in schools, at universities and eventually in the work force in Uganda, all demanding for fulfilment of their rights. Whereas there is political pluralism, the public order management law does not allow assemblies, so, politicians have resorted to the use of force.
The culture of resistance has become a norm in Uganda across the entire spectrum of security agencies and the local population so much so that the next generation shall be one of recalcitrant and rebellious Ugandans.
But should everything be attained through the use of force? Gandhi clearly demonstrated that change can be inspired without inciting violence. Ngũgĩ suggested to the authorities that there is a deadly power within nature that must be respected and that humans must live harmoniously with it.
Uganda can embrace the alternative dispute resolution mechanisms of conciliatory, negotiation and mediation to enhance sanity in our country, among other initiatives.
Today, there is a renewed understanding by activists, if not yet all academicians that cultural resistance is a necessary, but not a universally accepted sufficient, means of resistance.
But in a world where the image of Che Guevara sells swatch watches, cultural resistance, by itself, is not enough. Just like Gandhi said: “If each of us put the cause first and himself last, the vacuum will to a large extent would be filled.”
Authored by Mr Patrick Kagaba Kajuma
MPA Scholar, UMI
