COMMENT | ANDREW PI BESI | Lately, I have been reflecting on the Roman Empire and its establishment some 27 or so years before the birth of Christ the Messiah. One of its most enduring political thinkers was Marcus Tullius Cicero. When, like many, I read on social media of Ms. …
Read More »From Liberation Force to National Institution — The real question of Tarehe Sita
COMMENT | ANDREW PI BESI | Today, 6 February, Ugandans once again gather in homes, villages, and public spaces to commemorate Tarehe Sita. This year’s main celebrations are taking place in Kabale, the old main town of what was once Kigyezi District. It was on this day in 1981 that …
Read More »Between Empire and Agency: Africa in a fracturing world order
In the spirit of 1964, Africa must turn indignation into agency and sovereignty into strategy COMMENT | ANDREW PI BESI | I returned from my annual pilgrimage to Rujumbura, undertaken in observance of Christmas, only to be confronted by reports that the United States had, under cover of night, undertaken military …
Read More »When I met Orwell
COMMENT | ANDREW PI BESI | I was fifteen when my father, in a fashion typical of him, bought my brothers and me a book with an oddly unsettling title: 1984. Except for my brother Peter, it lay untouched on our bookshelf for nearly two and a half months — …
Read More »The long echo of Radio Africa
. COMMENT | ANDREW BESI | In 1985, the British band Latin Quarter released their haunting anthem Radio Africa. One of its verses rhymes thus: “ Mozambique and Mugabe Still got FRELIMO I hear them say But exchange means Recession means It all means it’s harder to take Tanzania could be …
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The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price