Samuel Olara Okello
Ships with their cargo of human misery and desperation may no longer navigate the oceans of the world, but slavery today is subtle than ever.
The change in social attitudes over the past two hundred years has forced governments and the business fraternity to work behind the veil of denial and subterfuge.
It is always the case that wherever there is poverty, desperation or crisis, there are middlemen to negotiate and undercut the victims.
As long as the world market still stalks conflict and runs on the profit principle and the sizeable market niche, the trade in victims and labour, will always be viable.
Now as the situation in the conflict-ridden northern Uganda begins to thaw, The New Vision quoted Richard Orr, the general manager of Kakira Sugar Works, as saying that they were planning to set up a 40,000 hectare sugar plantation in Amuru district, northern Uganda (Kakira Sugar to set up factory in Amuru, June 18, 2007).
You don’t have to be a genius to read the signs. We have a growing “middle class”, reared on a diet of radical and open day theft of public resources and investors who arrive with nothing in their pockets but driven by consumerism and aggressive greed.
Unlike the Westerners, who had colonies from which to plunder resources and generate slave labour to feed their process, this time around, Uganda’s middle class and their investor friends are colonising fellow citizens.
Investor morality is an elusive business in today’s Uganda; their opportunistic behaviour is dominating longer-term considerations and the kind gestures of this country.
The Acholi people have knocked at the door of every peace loving individual/institution in this country and abroad for decades, but have been spurned and humiliated. The so-called investors now rushing to Acholi promising ‘development which will transform the region’s economy’ shunned the people’s death cry in the concentration camps.
They zealously listened but remained numbed, it was “Acholi killing Acholi” after all.
A society whose wealth was looted, social and cultural fabric destroyed, then abjectly marginalised and rendered poor, on return to their ‘villages’ lack sufficient means to livelihood and self-empowerment decision making.
Unable to resume normal agricultural production in the near future, they have little chance of feeding and sustaining themselves for sometime.
In this regard, what better way than to turn such a society used to concentration camp life of imposed idealism and handouts from the World Food Programme (WFP) trucks; into ready cheap labour for the sugar plantations?
If it was bad for Mabira forest, surely it must be bad for the arable land of Amuru. This is not to say that the Acholi people or the people of Amuru are opposed to investment. Investment is a good thing but have the executive leadership of Amuru got the timing for this ‘gold rush’ right? Is it really what Acholi and particularly the people of Amuru want at this critical and uncertain time?
Certainly not! Evidence on the ground shows the opposite. In fact NRM LC 5 chairman Omach Atube is under fire from the lower LCs and the local population over his clandestine deal with the Madhivani Kakira sugar baron.
As I pen this line, there is a large mobilisation initiative by the local people and their leadership to defend their land in Alero Panokrach, if need be with iron and blood against this high handed broad daylight ‘robbery’ and ‘further enslavement’ process by the district leadership and the sugar barons.
During their tour of Kakira recently, the hand picked NRM dominated delegation will have no doubt seen that the once industrious Jinja of today looks like a dusty city from a John Wayne western classic.
If the sugarcane plantations and factory were about investment and empowering the people of Jinja, the town would not be a ghost town and Busoga villages would not be infested with preventable and treatable disease of poverty – like eye trachoma.
Even in the best circumstances, the sugar cane cutters often come from outside Jinja, are underpaid and in most cases unable to provide for their families. These workers have often lived in precarious conditions with regard to housing and food and are at risk of being sacked anytime.
There is no evidence anywhere in the world that sugarcane plantations have lifted the local people and workers out of poverty. To the contrary, it has only helped line the pockets of the sugar barons and their god fathers, destroyed the environment and ruined the lives of the local people. It is therefore doubtful that the people of Amuru, after 21 years of suffering would prefer to cut sugarcane for Kakira and not opt to work their land and rip the rewards for themselves over years to come.
If Kakira and other investors really want to invest in Acholi, they would wait for Acholi to return to their villages while they support the rebuilding of essential economic and social infrastructure; medical centres, dispensaries, schools, community centres and other social amenities which are necessary and essentials for any sustainable development of the communities.
Furthermore, food security must be a priority, not export market oriented crops. For peace and stability to prevail, the needs arising from underdevelopment and huge inequalities must be addressed first. Short of this, the quack investors will only be investing on sand in Acholi.
The author is the son of former army commander Brig. Bazilio Okello
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http://www.ugandaobserver.com/new/oped/oped200708022.php
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