OPINION – The passing of the anti homosexuality bill by Uganda continues to expose our over dependence on the colonial Bosses with the Sanctions being applied to Ugandan legislators and more sanctions expected.
Last week we received with a lot of “gratitude” the sanctions by the UK government on 3 Ugandan legislators including the Speaker of parliament under the pretext of stolen Iron sheets that had been meant for karamaoja’s poor. While this may resonate well with all of us who stand against corruption and lawlessness, it is in a deeper sense an act of hypocrisy on the side of Britain considering how many corruption scandals and more severe ones at that have passed unpunished and the UK unmoved , not mention instances where the UK has been complicit in the acts.
Why these legislators received the Sanctions is clearly the anti homosexuality bill recently passed . One of the Opposition leaders, Bobi Wine has made good progress identifying the weaknesses of the government and reporting them to Mr Colonial Master in what seems to be a patriotic spirit and we all recall that Bobi Wine himself had for 10 years been banned from traveling to UK over a song he made that called for the killing of gays. That he is now an ally of the West on following and reporting gross human rights violations is after he came out to apologize in what he termed as “ didn’t know better “.
From an African perspective, no human wants to see the killing of another for any reasons but homosexuality is still and will still be something Africans will not accept openly atleast.
It is the clearest indication of people not free to live their lives uninterrupted. The Sanctions ring a bell that Africa is not free and not free Indeed… that you are not allowed to say “ this is not our way” or you will get punished is clear indication that the West still presumes Africa to be the colony that they once had.
It is interesting to think that I am making this commentary in the colonial masters language and as such I can not properly articulate the meaning and truth of our predicament .
Uganda just got kicked out of the AGOA. This means we will not be exporting duty free goods to USA anymore .
Let the weak say I am strong. We do not have to export goods if we understood our power as consumers.
It is not in the lay man’s understanding that our governments put signatures on Unfair trade deals. While these deals are meant to give us mutual benefits , they are also used to exert dominance of developed Nations on our countries.
The AGOA agreement lets USA Second hand clothes industry thrive in Uganda and while Uganda is a big producer of cotton, there is less consumer power for our locally made fabrics.To think that USA will remotely control Uganda using the AGOA agreement would equal the first colonial agreements that were signed with chiefs to enslave our people. You can tell it is tricknology at play and our leaders may not all be aware of the tricksters.
Rwanda is such a country that has also been kicked of AGOA because it increased taxes on imported second hand clothes in an effort to develop local textiles and we will still be here thinking these Agreements serve us any good. A colonial master that only knows how to colonise you and your mind will never have anything to give out for free. It has to be another colonial bait and for this reason, we must wake up to these truths and act.
If the USA is still rolling sanctions let us think of ways to reject unfair trade deals, encourage local consumership, improve local production and seek out partners that will give us a fair share of the deals without conditioning us to ideas we are not well conversant with.
The Need for USA to dominate “weak” nations as it takes from them needs to be met with stringet strategies.
Uganda must assert that we are a sovereign and dignified nation and together we can shape our communities into what we exactly want . Sanctions are not to shake anyone when we can serve the same taste if we wanted.
The Writer is a Pan Afrikanist,Former Media Administrator, Health Promoter, Technology Activist, Social Worker and Politician
@Katushemererwe Brenda (aspirant MP Igara West).
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Well articulated. We must fight for economic freedom as it is the basis of equality in the geopolitics of the world. Down with the bullies, West or East!
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