The consummate politician that was Milton Obote
By Prof. ANYANG’ NYONG’O
Dr Milton Obote.The first time I heard of the name of Milton Obote is when I joined the Alliance High School in 1962. Uganda was then just about to get its independence, and Milton Obote, Kabaka Mutesa, Ibingira, Adoko Nekyon, and many others, were becoming familiar names for us in the columns of the Daily Nation and the East African Standard. The radio also boomed with them in the 1 o’clock news.
We also heard of the jostling among political parties and politicians in Uganda. There was the Democratic Party, the Kabaka Yekka (Kabaka only) and the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC). During holidays, as the Luo students at Makerere came home and displayed their smart suits at their annual "League" dance in Kisumu, we heard them talk endlessly about UPC and Obote.
I first saw Obote at the Kenya independence celebrations in December 1963. I was in the joint Alliance High School and Alliance Girls High School choir with people like Victor Ongewe, Richard Baraza, Atieno Odhiambo and 21 others who were the first to sing the Kenya National Anthem.
Tom Mboya was welcoming dignitaries. I remember the Zanzibari Prime Minister arriving late, and Mboya was at pains to find him an appropriate seat. I believe he sat next to Apollo Milton Obote, the young leader with a lot of hair on his head which made him stand out among the dignitaries. When it comes to hair on the head Obote was only rivalled by Kitili Mwendwa, who I later learnt was his friend.
I entered Makerere in July 1968, as a Bachelor of Arts student, studying English, political science and philosophy. Uganda was hot with politics. In 1966, Obote had become President by abrogating the independence constitution, ending the alliance between Kabaka Yekka and the UPC and forcing the Kabaka to go into exile. Juma Odundo, the Nyanza-born musician whose songs were then very popular in Uganda and Kenya, made a record which was like an anthem to Obote fans. It was called UPC na Obote: Obote Ameleta Maendeleo Uganda. On the grounds of Livingston Hall where I stayed, my friend, Daudi Mulabya Taliwaku, loved to sing this song. When we had dances on Saturdays, Obote frequently came as the guest of honour. There was always a table for him and his ministers and friends –Akena Adoko, Picho Ali, Sam Odaka – where they drank beer, met students and talked politics. Obote also smoked heavily. Prof Ali Mazrui would pass by to say hello.
The Uganda Army Band was our favourite. And if Obote was there, they would be playing, ‘Aduong’ ma Uganda, Milton Obote; Tich mae be, Milton Obote. We will never surrender, Obote; Oh we will never surrender Obote!’
0ne of the most powerful speeches I saw Obote give at Makerere’s Main Hall was when he launched his crusade for the "Common Man’s Charter", the document that was to set Uganda on a new path of socialist development to keep up with Tanzania’s "Ujamaa."
The theme of his speech was why this change was necessary after Uganda became more or less a one-party state in the post 1966 period. Obote argued that the old feudal society prevented the birth of this new society. Force was, therefore, a necessary midwife to give birth to this new society. The charter was there to provide Uganda with a revolutionary ideology.
His arguments were powerful, and Prof Mazrui later told us that Obote, like his friend Nkrumah was a ‘Leninist’. I had to read hard to learn who a Leninist was, and I added Valdimir Illych Lenin to my list of fascinating thinkers! There was section in the Common Man’s Charter which fascinated Daudi Mulabya, Joshua Mugyenyi and I. It read: "The Common Man’s Charter is hereby published to guide the misguided and inform the misinformed."
Mazrui also told us that he added the name Milton to his other first name Apollo because of his love of Milton’s Paradise Lost, while he was student at Makerere. After being thrown out of heaven by God as a result of disobedience, Satan remarked: "Though heaven be lost, all is not lost." This sense of defiance and determination fascinated Obote. And as a young man fed up with authoritarian colonial politics, Milton’s poetry gave him inspiration, and he also became a Milton in Ugandan and African politics.
I was elected President of the Makerere Students Guild on October 10, 1969 on my birthday. And Obote died on October 10, 2005 as I was celebrating my birthday in Nairobi. As President of the Guild I dealt mainly with Obote’s close confidantes like Odaka – a charming man – Adonia Tiberondwa, Frank Kalimuzo – later to become the first Vice-Chancellor of Makerere University.
When Edward Heath decided to sell arms to the apartheid regime in South Africa, we decided to hold a demonstration. But Police Commissioner Oryema would not give us a licence to go to Kampala. We thought this was obnoxious as Obote, a member of the Mulungushi Club, was a crusader against apartheid.
We tried to go to Kampala and police tear-gassed and dispersed us. I issued a stern statement that if Heath sold arms to South Africa, then we would not be held responsible for what happened to British citizens in Uganda should these arms be used to oppress and kill our brothers and sisters in South Africa. I was picked up by the Special Branch, charged with "incitement", and remanded at the Luzira Maximum Prison for a couple of days. When I was tried, with a battery of lawyers defending me, the student body flocked to court and sheer political pressure made me be released on condition that I kept peace for one year!
I have never understood why Obote allowed this to happen. But I never felt bitter about the incident. If anything, the President had been grossly misinformed about our intentions. At the inauguration of Makerere University–October 1970–I carried the university mace as the President of the Guild and Obote was immediately behind me. The mace was the symbol of his authority as the Chancellor. Nyerere, Kenyatta and Kaunda walked ahead of us. As the President of the Guild, I felt proud to be walking among my colleagues who were REAL presidents! Obote was very nervous. Nyerere was very relaxed and was whistling all through the walk from the Makerere Main Hall to the Freedom Square. Kenyatta was calm and collected and Kaunda seemed to me to have a halo of serene wisdom around his face.
I heard Obote shout some nervous orders to one of his security details. He was speaking in Lang’i which, with my Luo I could decipher. Later, as Idi Amin arrived at the celebrations without being in the programme, I realised why the President was so nervous. Something was going seriously wrong in the government.
When Obote was overthrown in January 1971, I had ceased being President of the Guild and James Oporia Ekwaro took over. We were upset with his leadership. We wanted to demonstrate and show solidarity with Obote. But VC Kalimuzo advised us not to do so. This was now a military government, and their reaction would be different. We did not hold the demonstration. But what shocked us was when Kalimuzo told us that "Obote also made serious mistakes so the army take over was not surprising."
When I was teaching at the University of Nairobi in late 1970s, I got to know Kitili Mwendwa well through a organisation, the United Nations Association of Kenya (UNAK), which he led with people like Jael Mbogo, Mark Mwithaga and Fitz de Souza. My brother-in-law, G.Z. Owiti, UNAK’s treasurer, introduced me to Kitili. I learnt of how close he and Obote were. Kitili, had many of Obote’s qualities: stubborn, determined, a consummate politician and a man of letters.
The two men with a lot of hair on their heads are now gone. One went much earlier and at a tender age. The other has left us at an advanced age but having not fulfilled all his dreams. But, as Milton would say: Though the earth be lost, all is not lost for Apollo Milton Obote, Aduong’ ma Uganda.
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Prof Anyang' Nyong'o is the Minister for Planning and National Development.