OBAMA LEADERS COME TOGETHER TO RESPOND TO COVID-19 CRISIS – UGANDA

The Covid – 19 pandemic has brought the world to a standstill. Never did we think that we would experience something of this magnitude in our lifetime. However, all of this was so surreal in Uganda until the first case of Covid – 19 was confirmed in the country. This was further amplified as the government put measures in place that led to a total lockdown in an effort to curb the spread of the virus.

One of the effects of the lockdown is that daily wage earners in the communities we serve, stopped earning and as such families are going without meals. 43% (19.3 million) of Uganda’s population consists of daily wage earners and another 8 million people were already below the poverty line (living under 2 dollars a day) before the pandemic. While the government is doing all it can and has committed to supporting 1.5 million people with food, we can all agree that the need is still great. This challenge is expected to persist even after the lockdown is lifted, because many families will be left without jobs and some will have run through their small business capital to provide for their families. This is why the 2018 Obama Leaders, Robert Katende of Robert Katende Initiative, Amos Kiyingi of Uganda Unites and Manuella Mulondo of the Cradle decided to team up and raise funds to support families with food supplies.

These Obama Leaders have so far supported 940 people representing 188 families and intend to support 1,000 families in total. These leaders believe that partnerships like theirs across the continent would serve our communities well in this time of great need.

Why conflict transformation?

One of the pillars of the Unites movement is conflict transformation. Traditionally the emphasis has been on conflict resolution and conflict management methods, which focus on reducing or defusing outbreaks of hostility. Conflict transformation in contrast, places a greater weight on addressing the underlying conditions which give rise to that conflict, preferably well in advance of any hostility, but also to ensure a sustainable peace. The Unites Movement focus on stopping the generational cycle of conflict within a country and transform hate into hope, peace, and reconciliation.

It is on this basis that we focus on engagement of youth in their formative years, through peace clubs, school relation tours, Future Leaders conference and Champions for change program. These four tools provide a space for youth to freely express themselves about various issues including those that affect them and would otherwise lead them to considering violence.

Most of the issues highlighted by the youth during our engagements with them are issues affecting their communities. In addition, we have found that many of the youth believe that these issues affecting their communities are attributed to a particular ethnic group or religious group because it is in power. This greatly drives the rage and anger they have toward that group and puts the youth in a vulnerable position of radicalization by extremist groups, that offer them a chance to use violence to take power, in promise to better their communities. The spaces we provide, give the youth a chance to interact with other youth from across the country. The spaces provide room for equal representation of all ethnicities and regions. During the engagements the youth are able to build relationships across ethnicities, which allows them to first hand learn from each other about communities and people different from their own. While they share experiences, they are able to break the stereotype and prejudice they had formed against particular groups, because they now understand that they face the same issues and the enemy is not each other but rather the issues they face. We then guided the youth on how to start thinking about solving the issues they face collectively as a team irrespective of ethnicity or religious affiliation.

The collective issue solving is a start to a great friendships and relationships that we believe will for generations stand against prejudice and violence. To build on these relationships and the new beliefs the young people hold, the unites movements encourages the youth that have been engaged and are well on their journey of transform to join peace clubs. The peace clubs provide a space where they can be mentored through a guide book. The guide book contains tools and road maps towards having a deeper knowledge of leadership, reconciliation and conflict transformation.

Once these young people are Inspired, Connected and Equipped, we believe that they will together build a generation of peace builders and will be able to identify issues that could potentially lead to violence and work together to solve the issue to ensure there is peace.

As a movement we have come to learn that once the youth are transformed, they slowly start to change the mindsets of those around them, starting with their homes and the friends they keep and then spread through their communities. When you consider the fact that by 2050 Africa’s young population, i.e., those aged between 0 and 24 years old, will increase by nearly 50 percent. In 2050, the continent will have the largest number of young people, making up nearly twice the young population of South Asia and Southeast Asia, East Asia, and Oceania. As young people are set to represent an important share of the continent’s population it is key that we transform their mindset and break the cycle of violence. This is the reason why as a movement we believe in conflict transformation, and why it is one of our pillars as a movement.

-Amos Kiyingi-

Sharing our History

One of things I love the most at Uganda Unites is the youth engagement activities, specifically, the school relation activities. Walking into a school or community center and engaging young people, allowing them to speak unreservedly to express their views and opinions while offering them guidance, leadership development skills and mentorship. It is fascinating to see how they are excited to be in a space where they are not judged by their age but are told that their views matter, that their views and actions will shape the future.

During one of our school visits in Nakaseke, Ssemuto to a public school, as is the norm with most of Uganda Unites school relation visits, the facilitator shares a brief history on the cycle of violence in Uganda post-independence and asks the students questions to gauge their level of understand of the history of Uganda and thus inform how the discussion should be held. On this day in June, I asked the student if any of them knew of the notorious Joseph Kony. A young energetic boy about 12 years old shoots up his hand and boldly states that Joseph Kony is one of the former presidents of Uganda. I honestly wasn’t ready for this response. I was surprised that a man that tormented northern Uganda for 20 years had been elevated to the position of top public office in the land, the fountain of honor. This was shocking! I looked at the young man hoping that this was a joke but nothing on his face portrayed a prank as I hoped it was. He was serious. For anyone who does not know, Joseph Kony is the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) that led a 20-year rebellion in Northern Uganda. By 2004, the LRA had abducted more than 20,000 children, while 1.5 million civilians had been displaced and an estimated 100,000 civilians killed. So you might understand my shock.

I went on to inquire from the rest of the class if any one of them knew who he was, but none of them knew. The students were then asked to name the previous presidents of the country, and only two made the list, the current president Yoweri Kaguta Museveni who has been president since 1985 and Dr. Apollo Milton Obote.

This showed us that we need to engage in a deep conversation on the history of our nation, take the youth through a journey of the ups and downs and rich story and culture of our Uganda, through every step we have been through as a country and people to ensure that they had some knowledge of our where we have been and that way guiding their ideas on going forward. We went on to share with the students the political history of our country, which is also in the middle of the violent history of our nation. As peace builders we cannot speak about conflict transformation without discussing the history of violence in this country.

This highlights the reason why Uganda Unites exists. Majority of Uganda’s’ population is below the age of 15, statistics placing that number at 80% and they have not been adequately educated about the history of our nation and how the conflicts have affected us. Their lack of this knowledge is clearly displayed in how many of them easily speak of violence as an answer to the issues they currently face and how violence is the only way to a change in government, their first response to dissatisfaction is violence making them vulnerable. I then took this a step further and put the same question to a much older generation and I was baffled that of the 30 people engaged only 10 could name our past presidents and how they got into office.

I believe that we cannot have total peace in a country where we have failed to embrace our history of violence and learn from it. We are therefore charged with the responsibility to share our history with the younger generations, if not but to prevent the generations form making the same mistakes leading to violence and uncertainty.

So I say do not shy away from the discussion of your countries political history good or bad.As Terry Pratchett put it,

“It is important that we know where we come from, because if you do not know where you come from, then you don’t know where you are, and if you don’t know where you are, you don’t know where you’re going. And if you don’t know where you’re going, you’re probably going wrong.”

As Uganda Unites we continue to work toward a unified Uganda. We seek to connect youth from different religious and ethnic backgrounds across Uganda, equip and inspire them to be agents of change in their communities through peace building and leadership development skills. We seek to promote a culture of nonviolence, peace and nationalism among the youth, and by sharing we believe that our message will be best understood.

Going into the final, quarter of the year as Uganda Unites, we have engaged more than 2,000 youth and have seen 843 of them sign up to be members of the movement (not NRM), what this means is that they pledge to be bearers of the cause of hope and reconciliation, commit to leading positive changes in their school & community, work with mutual respect for people of all ethnic and religious backgrounds across the country and be a positive example to all youth. They pledge that they will contribute in building their country Uganda, with integrity, value and celebrate the nation’s diversity and unite to create a prosperous country.

We invite you to share the history of this great nation or your great nation with the next
generation and teach them the route of non-violence.

 

Statistics shared are from: BBC NEWS – Programmes – From Our Own Correspondent – Forgiveness for Uganda’s former rebels. news.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 18 October 2014.

[Part 5] Reflecting on the 2018 Obama Foundation Leaders: Africa Program [Johannesburg, South Africa]

This day by far showed how much the young leaders were willing to sacrifice for a better Africa. As I stepped out of the dormitory complex of the Africa Leadership Academy, with my friend; Enock Nkulanga, we realised that we are not as early as we thought we were for the day, almost 20 other leaders had the same idea as we had, be early to breakfast, and thus be early to the auditorium where the town hall meeting with the 44^th President of the United States of America, Barack Obama would be held for those front row seats. As luck would have it while in the cue waiting for security check, temperatures dropped to 5 degrees, this was the coldest it had been in the past 4 days but the young people stood resolute, as they shared conversations on the things that had captivated them over the past 4 days of the conveying. We were eventually cleared by security and took our seats for the first session of the day.

Are we really importing poverty? That is the question I heard when the session; “Innovating for the Next Generation”  came to a close. Aliko Dangote insisted that if we as Africans continued importing, we are importing poverty and exporting jobs. He urges that the thing that will save Africa is developing local industries. John Collison urged the youth to look at the challenges as an opportunity and use them to transform Africa, as he shared bought starting Stripe and what problems he hoped it would help solve in Africa in the long run.

Beautiful as the session with Aliko Dangote, John Collison, Eleni Glokos and Trevor Manuel was, the biggest anticipation rest with the Town Hall meeting with President Obama. After a 15 mins break, We welcomed Manuela Pacutho a marketing professional and Founder and CEO of The Cradle; Uganda’s first ever 24-hour workplace infant and toddler care centre. Manuel who is one of the Obama Leaders for Africa opened the the town hall session with outstanding opening remarks as she welcomed President Obama to the stage. The President’s arrival had the room on its feet and in a roar. For a moment I was in a trance wondering how this Ugandan boy ended up in the presences of one of the greatest leaders of our time. The 44^thpresident of the US went straight into sharing why the Obama Foundation set up the Africa Leaders Program.

It was clear that he believes that the young people in Africa are the generation that will transform the continent. He entertained questions from the leaders and closed with the message that

“Worry less about what you want to be and worry more about what you want to do” – Barack Obama

We clearly can not focus on only the next position because we then lose sight of the things we are supposed to do and eventually drop the ball because we are more focused on retaining the position and not what we are doing that got us to the position. This really hit home, and as leaders in Africa we ought to focus less of the position we hold and more on the things that we are doing to create a better Africa.

This session was followed by a light moment of a class photo with President Obama and off we went to Far North secondary school in Cosmo City , Randburg, Gauteng Province in South Africa. We joined City Year volunteers and the staff of Far North Secondary School to build materials used by the students in addition to beautifying the school through painting, gardening and making of benches to provide a better learning environment for the students. All this was done in celebration of the Nelson Mandela centenary.  My station had the privilege of being joined by President Obama,  he supported in the building of benches for the school. His ability to join in and support goes to show that great leaders lead by example no matter what office you hold.

President Obama participates in a service project to commemorate Mandela Day with Obama Foundation Leaders in Johannesburg, South Africa on July 18, 2018. Photo credit “The Obama Foundation” 

As we drove back to the Africa Leadership Academy, the realization set in for many that it was the end of a great experience.

A week that started with anticipation of what could be ended with great inspiration of what will be accomplished. Through this process I meet 199 young leaders from 44 countries of Africa and each of them had a deep hunger to make a difference in their communities/country and as I left I draw back to the quote by Thulisile Madonsela that “When spiders combine, they can even tie up a lion” The 200 young leaders are ready to combine and if the lion is the problems faced by Africa, we shall tie them up and put an end to them because..

“WE ARE THE ONES, WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR”

This is the final part of a 5 part series on my experience as part of the 2018 Obama Foundation Leaders: Africa Program

For Part 1, click here

For Part 2, click here

For Part 3, click here

For Part 4, click here

[Part 4] Reflecting on the 2018 Obama Foundation Leaders: Africa Program [Johannesburg, South Africa]

“One is never too young to lead and we are never too old to learn” – Kofi Annan

This is one of the statements that stood out in the session on The Future of Africa; Elders pass the baton with Kofi Annan (R.I.P) , Lakhdar Brahimi, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf hosted by Patrick Gaspard. It is sad to come to terms with the fact that only a few months later we lost Kofi Annan. I am however comforted with the realisation that he past on the baton to 200 Obama Leaders for Africa that morning in July, as he had do during and after his service as United Nations, Secretary General. The Elders shared their stories and why they believe that elders should always pass on the baton to the next generation.

The elders shared a common understanding that young people should step up and lead, unlike in their time where the society suggested that youth are to be seen and not heard. As much as this seems like something in the past, in my opinion I think it’s still happening in Uganda, where the youth are often dismissed as inexperienced and not ready, despite the fact that the youth make up 80% of the total population. The elders however acknowledged that there will be challenges in the process with a lack of trust or respect. This is one of the issues the young leaders in Uganda grapple with, a lack of respect and support from the leaders when they step up.

The elders emphasised that we need to be prepared for when the opportunity presents its self and insisted that preparation includes stopping to listen, working together and being able to put together a team. They reiterated the message that had been given in previous session, about the importance of unity and team work. It was definitely no mistake that I was in a room with 199 other young leaders passionate about working toward fixing Africa’s issues.

The next session was the IdeaFest session, where I had the privilege of working on a project with 3 incredible Obama Leaders. The leaders were put into 40 teams and we worked on 40 projects to fix 40 community issues.  We worked well together and it was honestly great to see leaders working on projects and ideas that they didn’t develop but grew to love, support and believe in enough that it will make a difference in Africa.

The IdeaFest relates to the champions for change program for Uganda Unites that attracts youth from different parts of the country to work on a project and implement it to solve a social issue in a community in Uganda. This is a great tool for bringing youth together and have them focus on fixing the problem, and as a result, we break stereotypes that have been created by society that suggest that it is impossible for people from different communities to come together and work towards common good. In as much as there was no hate between the leaders it was great to see the Obama Leaders unified and working on these projects.

One of the things that stood out in this exercise is the commonality of the issues that Africa grapples with and how if we are able  to share Ideas on solutions and then implement them in our countries – we would surely overcome a great deal of these problems as opposed to working in isolation in our individual  countries. Even though my group didn’t come out on top, we purposed to build on what was a great idea and implement it in our individual countries. At Uganda Unites we are focused on taking this idea forward and building on our already existing plan to set up reconciliation centres across the country that will empower young people to solve the problems in their communities and the whole country.

The night was then crowned off with a conversation with Ryan Coogler, Director of Marvel’s second highest grossing film, Black Panther (as of 2018) and winner of NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Writing in a Motion Picture and Directing in a Motion Picture. I had meet both him and his family the night before during the leaders meet and greet with delegates and guests, but this was different. We were able to hear  his story and of course ask all the questions we had about Black Panther movie.

The discussion brought me to the realization that Black Panther turns our gaze to some of the social issues happening in communities around us. When we ignore the conflict around us it soon comes to our door step. As leaders we need to step up and start the conversation, get to the action of  resolving/transforming the conflict around us because:

“WE ARE THE ONES, WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR”

 

This is Part 4 of a 5 part series on my experience as part of the 2018 Obama Foundation Leaders: Africa Program

For Part 1, click here

For Part 2, click here

For Part 3, click here

[Part 3] Reflecting on the 2018 Obama Foundation Leaders: Africa Program [Johannesburg, South Africa]

The session on Day 3 was by far my favourite; Leadership in the face of Adversity. The  panel for this session had 3 inspirational and powerful ladies from 3 different generations Graca Machel, Bogolo Kenewando and Thulisile Madonsela.

Graca Machel is an African stateswoman whose professional life rooted in international advocacy for women and children’s rights. Machel is a founding member of The Elders. Thulisile Madonsela served as Public Protector of South Africa from 2009 to 2014. At the time of her appointment in October 2009, she was the only full-time commissioner in the South African Law Reform Commission. Bogolo Kenewendo (Hon.) is the youngest member of the 11^thParliament of Botswana and the youngest woman MP in the History of the Parliament of Botswana. She is also the Minister of Investment, trade and Industry, Botswana.

In this plenary, they shared their stories on how they came into position of leadership at a young age, and Bagolo Kenewando insisted that the youth are not the future leaders but the leaders of now. She went on to affirm the fact that we do not need a title to lead. This affirmed the mentorship work we do at Uganda Unites that calls to young people in schools and communities through the peace clubs to actively engage in community, to identify issues and come up with solutions as a measure of their development as a leader.

Graca Machel spoke about imagination, a core value of the Obama Foundation and the Obama Leaders. She spoke to the fact that:

“Your mind should not be of scarcity even when there is scarcity around you. Don’t limit your imagination.” – Graca Machel

This statement was spoke directly to me, because many times I have failed to move forward with a plan because I focused on the scarcity/limitations around me and in the end, I have closed myself out of endless possibilities. She suggested that for  a lot of things, as leaders we need to Redesign; we need to understand what is not working and redesign. Redesign the value system. Redesign the institutions. Redesign the table of decision making, in other words when something is not working think about the endless possibilities in which you can make it work and get to work.

This got me thinking about Uganda Unites and the bold move the team has taken to Redesign the unity and reconciliation process in Uganda by setting up peace clubs in schools. Peace clubs were not welcome at the beginning, many of the people in Uganda believe that the country is not at war and therefore there is no need for a conversation around peace and conflict transformation. Others question our methods of taking the conversation of conflict transformation to youth in schools or community centres and through these clubs start conversations of unity and working together to build the nation together irrespective of tribe & religion affiliation. We do this in an effort to end conflict but also to bring together a new generation of Ugandans united in diversity. A generation that exists in the now and therefore will have an impact derived from working together as opposed to working against each other, but this can only be achieved if we redesign and provide spaces for young people to have open conversations about their issues and about unity.

Both Graca and Thulisile closed off with how much unity in diversity is key for the African continent with Thilisile sharing an African proverb,

“Don’t go at it alone, when spiders combine, they can even tie up a Lion” – Thulisile Madonsela

while Graca left us with one piece of advice that got the room to its feet,

“A profound transformation of the continent will be achieved when young leaders work together to build a wave of transformation” – Graca Machel

So as young people let us dream, let us redesign and let us work towards a united Africa.

“WE ARE THE ONES, WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR”

This is Part 3 of a 5 part series on my experience as part of the 2018 Obama Foundation Leaders: Africa Program

For Part 1, click here

For Part 2, click here

[Part 2] Reflecting on the 2018 Obama Foundation Leaders: Africa Program [Johannesburg, South Africa]

The 1^st session we had was Ethical Leadership in Africa; with Mo Ibrahim hosted by Uzodinma Iweala. There are five key things that Mo Ibrahim mentioned in this session. One is that the young generation of Africans must take ownership of the continent’s development in order to move forward, secondly, that we need to draw on African culture and traditional approaches to harness ethical leadership, third, that leadership means knowing your limitations, realizing and understanding the power of team work, forth, that leadership requires for us to bring our heroes out of the shadows and finally accountability is a key component to leadership.

Mo – Ibrahim speaking at the Obama Foundation Leaders: Africa Conveying  

Ethical Leadership is one of the key values that Uganda Unites instills in our young leaders. We do this through the peace clubs that we set up in schools and communities. As you can imagine, I was very kin to hear the thoughts about ethical leadership from the man who set up the Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership. One of the take outs from this conversation was that as Africans we need to take our heroes out of the shadows and share their stories with the next generation so that it may know that good people win too. When we only share stories about failure it has a way of sharping the mind of young people to think that the wrong way is the only way you get ahead in life.

This lead right into our leadership session of “storytelling and leadership” facilitated by Taiye Selasi NAACP Image award for outstanding literary work nominee and author of Ghana Must Go. We started off by answering several questions; Who we are? What we do? Why we do it?

It was in that moment, I realized how terrible of a story teller I am. Story telling can either be captivating and inspiring or forgettable. As leaders, we need to be able to share the stories of who we are, what we do and why we do it. In addition to that we should be able to share these stories from the heart, even if it means sharing something personal.

Our stories are powerful and can inspire young people to go out in the world and make a difference. They can give hope even when there is none.

What is your story? Africa needs your story!

“WE ARE THE ONES, WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR”

This is Part 2 of a 5 part series on my experience as part of the 2018 Obama Foundation Leaders: Africa Program

For Part 1, click here

 

Reflecting on the 2018 Obama Foundation Leaders: Africa Program [Johannesburg, South Africa]

5 years ago, I was sent on a journey to mentor and empower youth in Northern Uganda. Youth that had been affected by the war in Northern Uganda, led by the Joseph Kony and his Lord Resistance Army. Most of the youth were orphaned and left to head households during their early to late teens (13 to 17), a responsibility that no child should be forced to take on. They should have been taken care of and enjoying life as a child in school. Working with them and watching them shape their dreams into reality gave me the belief that everyone can change their destiny once they were given the opportunity this is when my passion for youth mentoring was ignited.

However, mentorship alone can only put a dent into the problem, the challenge lay in the fact that the conflict needed to end.

I was then inspired by the story of Prashan De Visser (Founder – Sri Lanka Unites) to start Uganda Unites, a youth led movement that seeks to connect youth from different religious and ethnic backgrounds across Uganda, equip and inspire them to be agents of change in their communities through peace building and leadership development skills. We seek to promote a culture of nonviolence, peace and nationalism among the youth in a nationally diverse platform. In the long term, Uganda Unites is committed to developing future nationally diverse leaders from the grassroots level.

It is with this background that I felt compelled to apply to the Obama Foundation Africa Leaders Program. In April 2018 I received a communication that I had been selected among the 200 Obama Leaders in Africa. On the 13^thof July I was off to Johannesburg, South Africa. The 5 days of conveying with the leaders were nothing but exceptional.

As I prepared to travel to Jo’burg I was warned of the winter, but I was too excited by the opportunity, that I didn’t pay much attention to it, I paid quite a bit for my luck of winter experience when I got there. I could blame my luck of preparation on the 200 Leaders Videos, prior to the trip a portal was set up by the Obama Foundation where all 200 leaders posted videos about themselves, this was really exciting and pumped up the anticipation of the conference also this was really helpful because it gave me a chance to learn about the different leaders. We didn’t get the program of the conveying earlier, however what gave away the seriousness of the conveying was when we were tasked with designing a program that would address a social issue in our communities. I fell back on the Uganda Unites plan of reconciliation centres that address both the issue of conflict transformation through providing a safe space for youth dialogue and youth unemployment through youth mentorship and skilling. This idea was selected in the top 70 out of 200, and eventually in the top 40 to be used in the idea fest exercise that was done in at the convening. I can tell you that the excitement boiling over that a Uganda Unites idea had been selected way before I even showed up at the conveying. On a Friday afternoon passport and yellow fever card in hand with my mugugu (luganda for luggage), i set off on a trip that would literally change my life.

Over the next few days, I shall be recounting my experience as an Obama Leader, the things that I learned, my experiences as well as my hopes and dreams going forward.

Remember, to solve our problems…

“WE ARE THE ONES, WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR”