reflections of a an Atesot cultural anthropologist
A deeper analysis of Mr. Museveni's cabinet of six months ago, in fact, reveals that the top five positions in cabinet - President, Vice President, Prime Minister, and the 1st and 2nd Deputy Prime Ministers - were all men, and it continues to be the case even now. Of the full ministers in Mr. Museveni's cabinet of six months ago, 64 percent were men and only 36 percent were women. Of the Ministers of State, 66 percent were men and 34 percent were women.
Hypocrisy of our MPs at its best. But such which is consistent with some institutionalised negative beliefs and practices in our communities in Uganda; including the legacies of negative conservative christian religiosity that was forced down our throats by colonial missionaries. We must detoxify and decolonize our minds so we may shun warped moralists who are vilifying school girls for getting pregnant; and moreover school girls who are likely being impregnated by men of stature and old age.
The first question being, in whose interests does the Office of the Minister of MAAIF work How isn’t it valid for one not to surmise that government’s insistence to label Ugandan smallholder farmers in derogatory terms, such as peasants, when they are not; and subsistence farmers, when they are not; is intended after all. It indeed seems intended, in order that a smokescreen is propagated that allows the Office of the Minister of MAAIF to clandestinely function much like an economic hitman.
It is, in fact, policy of the President Yoweri Kagutta Museveni led National Resistance Movement party, which is the current Administration of the Republic of Uganda, to promote commercialisation of food crops. Promoting the growing of food crops as cash crops. It is thus simply Machiavellian for official government documents and discourse to refer to Ugandan smallholder farmers as peasants and or as subsistence farmers. It is long over due that we detoxify our discourse of culturally imperialistic descriptions that denigrate us.
The only way in which agriculture is a significant contributor to Uganda’s GDP, is if the produce of its smallholder farmers is sold by them and is bought by others who didn’t produce it. Economic exchange must take places and money changes hands, so to speak. This means, de facto, that Ugandan smallholder farmers likely produce for sale in as much as and or even more than they produce for own consumption. And for many that is likely their major source of livelihood.
