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BY GOODLUCK MUSINGUZI
KAMPALA: WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2022
The management of society is becoming complicated every day from internal conflicts and external challenges like the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russian-Ukraine war which are showing the nakedness of Africa in Global Politics.
In response, David Mafabi, the Senior Presidential Advisor on Special Duties and Chairperson Mwangaza Governing Council has started launching African Revolutionary Study Groups in the Major Universities in Uganda.
At Makerere University, David Mafabi said “Ideological Disorientation” has been classified as the first of the 10 strategic bottlenecks bedeviling Africa’s Development by President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.
“President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni says society is like a patient. In order to treat a patient, you must, first of all, carry out diagnosis of what could be the problem of that person. If the diagnosis is wrong, the prescription cannot be right and if the prescription is not right the patient cannot be cured.”
“The tools that help you to understand society, the ideas that help you to understand society correctly, are what constitute ideology. Having understood society well and its problem, you then make a prescription to treat the sickness. This is the strategy,” said President Museveni at Chobe on February 18, 2019.
Mafabi said the “Mwangaza” (Brightness or light) African Revolutionary Study Groups Central Campaign is a very modest but extremely serious effort put together by Pan Africanist Patriots and Volunteers.
“In the process, we have benefitted from the guidance of the leader of the revolution, Comrade Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and others like Gen Dr John Garang de Mabior, Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere, Gen Chris Hani and others,” said Mafabi.
He defined ideological disorientation as the lack of clear ideological principles and asserted that Mwangaza seeks to complement existing ideological work efforts aimed at dealing with the challenge at hand.
He said as the Mwangaza effort sweeps across Uganda several questions have been put to them.
“They include: Why the focus on universities? Why Study Groups?” he disclosed.
“Our answers are Institutions of higher learning and universities have played a central and pivotal role in the transformation of all human societies from antiquity to-date,” Mafabi explained.
He added that no sustainable revolution or national transformation process has occurred without an organic “priesthood” and “discipleship.”
Mafabi said they hope through the Mwangaza effort, they will make a humble contribution towards the building and consolidation of a political priesthood and discipleship for the successful prosecution of the Ugandan and Africa Revolutions.
“We hope the Mwangaza Study Groups can provide space for continuous, systematic and structured multi-disciplinary critical thought about the fundamental challenges of times,” he averred.
Dr Eria Hisali, the Principal of the College of Economics, welcomed the Mwangaza African Revolutionary Study Group at Makerere University and announced that a second one will be hosted in October.
“Such studies will help complement the knowledge our students acquire before they go to the wider society,” Dr Hisali said.
Enid Ahumuza, a student at Makerere University, thanked Mafabi for creating space for guidance as regards ideas that will build Africa, especially post Covid-19 pandemic where the continent and the world are facing the same challenges.
