reflections of a an Atesot cultural anthropologist
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.
The implications of an industrialised economy with a developed service sector, as it is espoused in that vision, implies that smallholder farmers and semi-nomadic pastoralists who live in rural areas of Uganda, necessarily have to cede ownership of their land to others better positioned to use it in “optimal” ways. Those currently mal-described as “peasants” are required to transform into landless labourers and service providers and to be like the majority of the British, who are landless labourers.
It is a good start, but the voice needs to get stronger for detoxification of discourse in key fora and documents of formerly colonized nations. For example, the discourse in such documents as Uganda's national planning instruments - narrative plans and budgets. It does us no good to rename physical assets, while we accept descriptions of us, which falsely denigrate us, to be included in and to form the basis of our nation's official national plans and budgets.
‘Rolex’ cooks, within the central logic of the culture-normal criteria of ‘African-Ugandan’ cultures, are those men who are either culturally dislocated, they are confused or without pride, going onto the streets to cook
“Economic deception” has become routine and has been institutionalised in Uganda; and how such institutionalisation of “economic deception” has normalised and intensified fraud, economic crime and trickery in doing business." My thoughts as I read through the State of The Nation address and the National Budget Speech for the financial year 2018/2019. Read more on the concept of… Continue reading The cause of poverty in Uganda
