That every country has the right to celebrate its independent day is incontestable. But what is contestable is what the government does during the celebration relative to its responsibilities for serving all citizens equitably. On October 9th, this year, Uganda celebrated its 60th year of independence with pomp and circumstance. One thing struck me among all that happened at the Kololo Hill celebration in Kampala. It was the national Air Force flyover.
Years ago, if you wanted to put a smile on a Ugandan’s face, mention the Pearl of Africa. That was because in 1908, Winston Churchill published a book titled, “My African Journey” in which he called Uganda the Pearl of Africa based on his tour of the country in 1907. Though Churchill was looking at the country through the eyes of a colonialist and a wildlife tourist, Ugandans were happy and proud of the description. They embraced the name knowing that pearls are beautiful and assumed that the description applied to all aspects of life in Uganda. If so, is Uganda still the Pearl of Africa as Churchill called it 114 years ago?
By Professor John Mukum Mbaku, Weber State University
Uganda’s Owen Falls hydropower plant has a rich history that predates the country’s independence in 1962. The plant is located across the White Nile and sits between the towns of Jinja and Njeru on the shores of Lake Victoria. It is about 85 kilometers east of Kampala.
Uganda was a protectorate of the British empire from 1894 to 1962. In 1947, English engineer Charles Redvers Westlake recommended the construction of a hydroelectric dam at Owen Falls that was supposed to be East Africa’s largest power project.
Ethiopians are eager and hopeful that the New Year will usher in durable peace for all. I too am eager to see this happen. Ethiopia’ s young people, Fano, Afar and Amhara Special Forces, Ethiopia’s National Defense Forces are shedding their blood in defense of their country. Girls and women are mobilized in support of their gallant heroes. Their resolve and determination to root out the cancerous Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) is admirable. It is only when they succeed that Ethiopia will enjoy a semblance of human security and peace.
We were standing in Hiroshima looking at a stonewall. All there was to see was a shadow of a man which had been etched into the wall at the moment of his obliteration by the blinding light of the first atomic bomb. Olof Palme, prime minister of Sweden, stared hard at it. An hour later he had to give a speech as head of the Independent Commission on Disarmament of which I was a member. "My fear", he remarked, "is that mankind itself will end up as nothing more than a shadow on a wall."
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