Helen C. Epstein - Another Fine Mess: America, Uganda, and the War on Terror

Praise for Another Fine Mess

Epstein forcefully showcases the collateral damage of myopic American foreign policy that obsesses about terrorism everywhereeven in Ugandato the detriment of all other considerations. Another Fine Mess chronicles how American foreign policy driven by short-term security concerns results in long-term crises and an entrenchment of authoritarian rule in the process. An important and prescient cautionary tale.

Brian Klaas

Author of The Despots Accomplice

As her new book reveals, Helen Epstein is an eloquent advocate of human rights and democracy for Africans, as well as a courageous critic of how U.S. aid supports oppressive dictators like Yoweri Museveni in Uganda.

William Easterly

Author of The Tyranny of Experts and The White Mans Burden

For decades, Western policy-makers have hailed Ugandas Yoweri Museveni as a benign autocrat, a charming African Bismarck and trusted partner in the fight against Islamic fundamentalism. Another Fine Mess reveals a far darker side to this key African ally, while exposing the cynicism at the heart of American policy in Africas Great Lakes region. This gripping, iconoclastic, angry book raises a host of uncomfortable questions.

Michela Wrong

Author of Borderlines and Its Our Turn to Eat

A sizzling indictment of Ugandas current strongman and of the American policy in Africa that supports his corrupt regime with generous foreign aid.

Kirkus Reviews

Copyright 2017 by Helen C. Epstein

All rights reserved

Published by Columbia Global Reports

91 Claremont Avenue, Suite 515

New York, NY 10027

globalreports.columbia.edu

facebook.com/columbiaglobalreports

@columbiaGR

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017945484

ISBN: 978-0997722932

Book design by Strick&Williams

Map design by Jeffrey L. Ward

Author photograph by Petr Petr

Love and gratitude to Pete for bearing with me.

Acknowledgments

Kiwanuka Lawrence Nsereko was born in 1968, a few years after Ugandas independence, and grew up in a rural village. As in many Ugandan households, children were expected to summarize newspaper stories, church sermons, school lessons and neighborhood goings-on for their elders in the evenings. Lawrence must have excelled at these monologues, because his fine oratory skills made him an invaluable partner in the writing of this book. Every incidental questionWas it 1989 or 1990 when so-and-so happened? What was the name of the village where you were arrested?elicited a story with details of personalities, motivations, actions, parallel events, background and priceless commentary.

For their courage and insights into Ugandan politics, I particularly wish to thank Kizza Besigye, Winnie Byanyima, David Sejusa, Paul Ssemogerere, Zoe Bakoko Bakuru, the Otunnu brothersOchoro, Ogenga, Amii Omara- and Olaraand numerous other Ugandan friends whose names I dare not print.

I also gathered much wisdom from Ugandas many fine journalists working inside and outside the country, including Daniel Kalinaki, Charles Onyango-Obbo, Eriasa Sserunjogi, Rod Muhumuza and the reporters at the Monitor and Observer newspapers.

American and European diplomats who tried to do the right thing, even when this was not possible, were an inspiration to me.

For discussions, I am extremely grateful to Bill Easterly, Steve Hubbell, John Ryle, Nuruddin Farah, Maria Burnett, Leslie Lefkow, Boniface Musavuli, Remember Miamingi, Pagan Amum, Alex Papachristou, Jesse Ribot and Jean Stein.

Milton Allimadi, Jonathan Fisher, Filip Reyntjens, Peter Rosenblum, Shaka Ssali, Harry Verhoeven and my father Jason kindly commented on an early draft of this manuscript. It is much improved, thanks to their efforts. Any remaining errors are obviously mine.

Uganda is not a country that typically hogs the headlines, and I am extremely grateful to a number of editors for helping me tell its story. Versions of some chapters originally appeared in the New York Review of Books where I had the great luck to work with editor Bob Silvers. He didnt look like a radical, but working with him sometimes felt less like collaboration than conspiracy. Without ever being partisan or doctrinaire, he was profoundly and instinctively sympathatic to those who were too weak, or too oppressed to speak for themselves. I am also grateful to Hugh Eakin of the New York Review Daily, Vera Titunik of the New Yorker Online, Gemma Sieff of Harpers, and Muhammed Ademo of Al-Jazeera.

This book would not exist had Nick Lemann, Camille McDuffie and Jimmy So of Columbia Global Reports not approached me for a book on public health in early 2015 and then put up with many changes of direction since. My agent Anna Stein of ICM was a patient, wise and generous counselor throughout.

Research for this book was supported by the Open Society Foundations, New York Universitys Development Research Institute, the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting and the New York Review Foundation.

Finally, thanks and love to Jake, Dad, Judy, Susie, Sam, Natalie and Thomas.

CONTENTS

Table of Contents

UGANDA

300 BC300AD

The territory now known as Uganda settled by various migratory groups from central and eastern Africa.

1300s

Buganda kingdom established.

1840s

Arab traders arrive in Buganda.

1860s-70s

British and French explorers and missionaries arrive in Buganda.

1890s

Baganda Protestants, Catholics and Muslims engage in a series of wars for supremacy.

1894

Uganda formally becomes a British Protectorate.

1962

Uganda granted independence; Milton Obote becomes prime minister.

1966

Obote orders Army Commander Idi Amin to attack Kabaka Mutesa IIs palace. Kingdoms abolished the following year.

1971

Obote toppled by Idi Amin.

1979

Amin toppled by Tanzanian troops.

1979-80

Various governments installed and overthrown.

1980

Obote wins election amid rigging accusations.

1981

Yoweri Museveni and Andrew Lutaakome Kayiira establish rebel groups and declare war on Obotes government.

1985

Obote toppled by army officers Basilio and Tito Okello.

1986

Musevenis National Resistance Army topples the Okellos and takes power in Uganda. A quarter of his army comprises Tutsi Rwandan refugees.

1986

The National Resistance Army commits atrocities against the Acholi and Teso people in northern and eastern Uganda, respectively. Various rebel movements emerge.

1987-9

President Museveni makes three trips to Washington where he meets President Ronald Reagan and H. W. Vice President George Bush.

1988

Joseph Kony establishes the Lords Resistance Army and terrorizes the people of northern Uganda.

1991-4

Uganda funnels clandestine military assistance to both the RPF and John Garangs Sudan Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA).