Uganda: How to Protest an Autocracy

Dear reader, while I claim to be interested in generating political abstractions, that is, some general conclusions about politics - political theory - I have learned to see myself as a 'political folklorist' - the way Austin Bukenya and Jane Nandwa defined the practice of folklore: as involving the three related items of accurate observation, vivid imagination, and ingenious expression.

While I might not claim 'ingenious expression' and 'vivid imagination' as part of my talents, I am a good observer of society. As a chronicler, I closely follow political movements and political struggles.

While in the 1970-1980s dissatisfied activists and fighters picked arms and took to the bush, our era is taking to the streets. Our time - 2010 onwards - which is the era of human rights (not liberation struggles, not coups), protesting in the streets is the way through which we, wananchi, overthrow governments as the search for the soul of our continent continues: The streets of our capital cities, the courtrooms and market- squares, are our bushes for staging our struggle.

Our poetry and slogans, eloquence in courts, often painted on placards, posters and pleadings, and disseminated via social media platforms are the guns and bullets with which we shoot.

Over the past decades, protests have rocked the African continent, and many autocrats have fallen as a result. The Arab Spring led to the collapse of, among others, Egypt's Hosni Mubarak. Successful protests stopped then Senegalese president Macky Sall from extending his leadership, as they also stopped Joseph Kabila in DRC from staying on forever.

In Kenya, protests are changing the political landscape. While in Uganda, we are making baby steps. But there are things we ought to be aware of and work towards. Firstly, there is nothing like "leaderless" protests. Being "leaderless" sounds nice, especially when so-called leaders have been disappointing, but being "leaderless" takes protests nowhere.

What is true is that there are no structures of leadership with chains of command." Neither are there offices for the protest movement. But there will always be a form of leadership: mobilizers, organizers, cheer-leaders, opinion leaders, protests committees, etc. The leaders - often defined by their roles - design posters, craft slogans, push arguments, decide venues for protest and dates.

Because of these roles, they craft a persona, which is then followed by all others. They cannot be explicitly referred to as "leaders," but perhaps icons. Indeed, even if they are killed, exiled or arrested, the dreams of the icons simply leave on and inspire a successful revolution.

The question then becomes: How are icons made? How do they manage to effectively gather large followings (especially the so-called 'silent majority') for extended periods? Because for the success of a protest, it requires that the general public is persuaded, motivated, inspired into this often otherwise heavy mission.

Remember, while the majority tend to be silent victims, once persuaded, inspired into action, they are often ready to embrace the fight.

Tip one: It is easier for already established icons. All they need is to rightly identify a people's struggle and throw their already established clout onto it. But all non-celebrity icons start small, focused on seemingly non-political items, but items that can be defined in concrete terms -- and affect entire communities, including those on the side of the oppressor.

Dr Jimmy Spire Ssentongo has been thus far successful - as an online activist and mobilizer - because, among other reasons, he focused on an item that concerned everybody: potholes. He then, through crowd-thought-funding, moved to health, education, and later parliament. But he, too, came with some celebrity clout as a comedian and cartoonist.

Tip two: It is not often productive to start with an abstract ideas/concepts, which include almost everything. Things such as "shrinking democratic space" "human rights" or "corruption" are difficult to mobilize around. It is possible to mobilize against a specific unscrupulous public official - the way Agarther Atuhaire has gone about the Speaker of Parliament - but not all of parliament.

Going for the entire gang ought to come at a later critical moment of the struggle. Consider the Kenyan protest icon, Hanifa Farfasi, for example. She became an icon by focusing on concrete social issues, and are not directly political ones. There was a broken drainage system in Korogocho slums which was posing a serious health risk to residents.

Hanifa's sustained activism prompted the Nairobi governor Johnson Sakaja to address the matter. And once Sakaja intervened, there was no turning back. By the time she turned her eyes on the Finance Bill, 2024, alongside others, she had already become an icon by her other struggles.

Thus, the activist ought to target a concrete item that directly connects with the people: land grabs, extortionist taxes, dirty streets, open manholes, public health, education, individual thieves in public office, et cetera -- before confronting abstract ideas.

Tip three: Seek not to confront the machine directly; seek to work with wananchi: La-Lucha in DRC used to clean markets, and drainage channels to galvanize and mobilize. Now that our security forces cannot help us with criminal gangs robbing Kampala in broad daylight, folklore has it that police is possibly part of this cartel.

We need a campaign for community vigilance and collective action. The selective wetland evictions, which normally leave rich people in wetlands need a counter- campaign, say exhibiting the rich in wetlands.

The point I am labouring is this: we need more and more icons. There is a problem in every part of our collective existence. We all don't have to access public documents at parliament. But our neighborhoods need campaigns. Once these energies are collected together, then we are unstoppable.

yusufkajura@gmail.com

The author is a political theorist based at Makerere University

Uganda: How to Protest an Autocracy

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