THE LAST WORD

By Andrew M. Mwenda Why South Korea succeeded where Uganda failed A common argument to explain (the better term would be to “caricature”) post independence failures in Africa is always in comparison to East Asia. It is often argued, for example, that by 1960, Ghana and South Korea had the …

By Andrew M. Mwenda What the leaders of South Sudan need to avoid as they begin the task of building a state and moulding a nation Last week I was in Juba, South Sudan on the invitation by friends from the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM). It is an invitation …

By Andrew M. Mwenda How government politically miscalculated the threat in spite of activists having lost strategic positioning in their struggle for change As fate would have it, last week the Uganda government banned the civil society advocacy group, Activists for Change (or A4C as it is popularly known). Ironically, …

By Andrew M. Mwenda How human rights groups exploit Rwanda’s positive brand to build their own and what can be done about it There has been an intense contest over “Brand Rwanda” in the international sphere. Many visitors to Rwanda are impressed by what they see. Physical observations – clean …

By Andrew M. Mwenda President should not jump from one arbitrary position to another in service of popular sentiment Since The Independent broke the story of businessman Hassan Basajabalaba’s Shs 169 billion “compensation” last year, two ministers have resigned and three members of staff at State House have been fired. …

By Andrew M. Mwenda How the documentary projects a picture of helplessness and how we can use its marketing lessons to portray a better one The dust has now settled on the documentary about Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebel leader, Joseph Kony. I was impressed by Invisible Children (IC’s) marketing …

By Andrew M. Mwenda How post-independence failures have helped the West change an image of who Africa’s heroes are At the time of independence, Africa was basking with self-discovery and self-confidence. There was hope and confidence that Africans would shape their destiny independently. We were supposed to cooperate with others …

By Andrew M. Mwenda How the West covers Africa and how we, African elites, need to expose these stereotypes I argued last week that there is a double standard among institutions – both public and private – in the western world when dealing with an African country like Rwanda or a …

By Andrew M. Mwenda Inside one nation’s struggle against deeply entrenched prejudice Over the last five months, 19 journalists formerly working with News of the World newspaper have been arrested in the United Kingdom for hacking into people’s voicemails for news information. Six top company executives have been forced to …

By Andrew M. Mwenda Trying to overcome a deficient professional class through education and by cultivating a performance-based society Last week, New Vision reported that Rwanda is recruiting teachers from Uganda to teach in its schools. Many Ugandans may have seen this as an opportunity to get a well paying …