Issued by: SA Communication Service
ADDRESS BY H.E. YOWERI KAGUTA MUSEVENI PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF UGANDA TO THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA'S PARLIAMENT CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA. 27TH MAY 1997
Your Excellency the President of the Republic of South Africa Madam Speaker Honourable Members of Parliament Ladies and Gentlemen
Africa is the second biggest continent on the globe with 30 million sq km of land area. She is well endowed with natural resources of all types, not least the fact that, in the equitorial area, we can produce two harvests in a year just depending on rain-fed agriculture. This is possible because of the warn climate that our location on the globe blesses us with. Yet, this huge continent is the most backward area of all the continents of the world. How did this come about?
I trace the genesis of Africa's underdevelopment in its very endowment with generous resources by nature. The friendly climate is good for both man and his enemiestoes, the bilharzia agents that shelter in snails and other organisms. The thriving of these parasites to man in the good climate of the tropics meant that, in the past, the population was small.
By 1900, the population of Africa was 140 million, while the one of Europe was 420 million, the fact that Europe is three times smaller than Africa notwithstanding. Even today, the population of the whole of Africa, at 732 million, is still smaller than that of India (which is 952 million), which is ten times smaller than Africa in land area.
Do not get the impression that I am glorifying the phenomenon of large populations. I am only pointing out that a small population in the midst of abundant natural resources will neither build powerful states nor will it be very vigorous in development. This is because of the absence of competition amongst themselves for scarce resources. Competition for scarce natural resources always breeds innovation and discipline.
It is because of these two factors (small pre-colonial states and lack of acute competition over natural resources), all springing from small populations resulting from the haemorrhage occassioned by diseases, that colonialism found it easy to conquer the whole of Africa. It is no accident that, with the exception of Ethiopia, the whole of Africa was under foreign control by 1900. African apologists always try to cite the question of superior technology as being the main reason for the ignominious capitulation by Africa to foreign interests. I do not accept this.
Japan and China were inferior to the West in technology when the two came into contact. However, both of them managed to preserve their sovereignty, their inferiority in technology notwithstanding. The strength of internal organisation and a strong culture that bound the people together compensated for the weaknesses in technology.
Having lost sovereignty, the African societies underwent serious distortions. While by 1500AD, some of the African societies were three-class societies (feudal, artisan and peasant), by 1940 there was only one class surviving - the peasant class. The other two social classes had been eliminated by colonialism. This is why, up to today, Black Africa has not yet developed a propertied middle class. Since independence we have got more and more educated African people. However, many of them are not propertied.
Without a propertied middle class, two distortions take place: productivity and entrepreneurship are low and a cosmopolitan outlook is conspicuous by its absence. Instead of a cosmopolitan outlook, you get a parochial outlook. The error in perception that Africa's problems are caused by tribalism is exposed by the conflict in Somalia. The Somali people are not only one nation who speak one language, but most of them are Moslems. What, then, is the source of the conflict?
My answer is: social and economic under-development. A manufacturer will not be tribalistic because he needs all the available tribes to buy his products. The one who is looking after twenty goats, however, has no big surplus to market and, consequently, he does not worry about the market. Instead, he is incurably parochial in outlook on account of the limited scope of his economic activity.
Since the middle class is the most vigorous innovative group in society that history has ever seen (mostly spurred on by profits), their absence when it comes to Africa, only goes to show the serious distortions Africa suffered at the hands of colonialism. Since Ghana's independence in 1957, the development of the middle class in Africa has been hampered by the policies of nationalisation which have hindered free enterprise.
It is only recently that the process of re-orientation towards understanding of the human being as he is, not as he should be, has started. More and more African leaders are clarifying their views on the individual. Is the individual more self-centred or more altriustic? The obvious answer is that there are, indeed, a few Mother Theresas on this earth. However, the majority of the human beings are self-centred and should be utilised accordingly. Now that more and more African leaders are waking up to this fact, we are beginning to see growth in our societies.
Since 1986, Uganda's average GDP growth rate has been 6,5 per cent. Comparable figures for last year and the year before were 8 per cent and 10 per cent respectively. Owing to the delay in the rains last year, however, our GDP rate of growth this financial year will fall to 6,5 per cent.
While the 1970s and 1980s were referred to as the lost decades for development in Africa, the 1990s may be referred to as the decade of awakening. Now that African economies are beginning to grow, basing themselves on private enterprise, we must think of one additional factor - the size of the market. Our view is that the lifeblood of production is the ability to sell to as many buyers as possible so that we lower production costs per item. This is what will give us competitiveness. The wider the market, the better.
Uganda belongs to COMESA. We have deliberately not yet applied to join SADC. While we would obviouly like to join SADC, we cannot afford to ignore the markets in Congo, Sudan, Kenya and the Horn of Africa. There are 45 million people in Congo; 30 million in Sudan; 28 million in Kenya; and 70 million in the Horn of Africa. That is why we are urging SADC to harmonize their position with COMESA.
Some comrades focus on peripheral issues when it comes to economic integration. Some of them argue that some members fail to pay fees. Accordingly, such members are regarded as unreliable partners. This, however, is missing the point. We did not form a common market in order to collect membership fees. We created a common market for trade. If he cannot pay subscription fees but we trade with his people freely, that is the essence of integration.
May I urge you to use South Africa's unique position to engage in partnership with the rest of Africa in the form of investment, trade and tourism - which I have summarised into the acronym `ITT'. Your country has minerals, good infrastructure and technical know-how. We, on our side, have got 50 000 sq kms of freshwater bodies; we have got equatorial forests and very reliable agriculture. Therefore, a partnership between the peoples of South Africa and Uganda would benefit us all.
May I end by touching on one final issue. Growth and trade issues aside, there are strategic issues of long-term security for the African peoples. Above, I pointed out how micro, pre-colonial states facilitated the usurpation by foreigners of African sovereignty. Colonialism usurped the sovereignty of African people and organized them into slightly less numerous, but still small or medium-scale African states. Even today we do not have an African state comparable to China, Russia, Canada, USA, Brazil or Australia in land area or potential. The majority of other states are small.
I know that the Bible promises us that there will come a time when the lamb will lie in the bosom of the lion. However, that is all in the kingdom of heaven. Here on earth, lions still eat lambs. What is the strategic thinking of the African revolutionaries on this question of ending the political balkanisation of the African peoples in order to guarantee their future?
I thank you for listening to me.