Praise for Another Fine Mess
“Epstein forcefully showcases the collateral damage of myopic American foreign policy that obsesses about terrorism everywhere—even in Uganda—to the detriment of all other considerations. Another Fine Mess chronicles how American foreign policy driven by short-term security concerns results in long-term crises and an entrenchment of authoritarian rule in the process. An important and prescient cautionary tale.”
—Brian Klaas
Author of The Despot’s Accomplice
“As her new book reveals, Helen Epstein is an eloquent advocate of human rights and democracy for Africans, as well as a courageous critic of how U.S. aid supports oppressive dictators like Yoweri Museveni in Uganda.”
—William Easterly
Author of The Tyranny of Experts and The White Man’s Burden
“For decades, Western policy-makers have hailed Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni as a benign autocrat, a charming African Bismarck and trusted partner in the fight against Islamic fundamentalism. Another Fine Mess reveals a far darker side to this key African ally, while exposing the cynicism at the heart of American policy in Africa’s Great Lakes region. This gripping, iconoclastic, angry book raises a host of uncomfortable questions.”
—Michela Wrong
Author of Borderlines and It’s Our Turn to Eat
“A sizzling indictment of Uganda’s current strongman and of the American policy in Africa that supports his corrupt regime with generous foreign aid.”
—Kirkus Reviews
Copyright © 2017 by Helen C. Epstein
All rights reserved
Published by Columbia Global Reports
91 Claremont Avenue, Suite 515
New York, NY 10027
facebook.com/columbiaglobalreports
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017945484
ISBN: 978-0997722932
Book design by Strick&Williams
Map design by Jeffrey L. Ward
Author photograph by Petr Petr
Love and gratitude to Pete for bearing with me.
Acknowledgments
Kiwanuka Lawrence Nsereko was born in 1968, a few years after Uganda’s independence, and grew up in a rural village. As in many Ugandan households, children were expected to summarize newspaper stories, church sermons, school lessons and neighborhood goings-on for their elders in the evenings. Lawrence must have excelled at these monologues, because his fine oratory skills made him an invaluable partner in the writing of this book. Every incidental question—Was it 1989 or 1990 when so-and-so happened? What was the name of the village where you were arrested?—elicited a story with details of personalities, motivations, actions, parallel events, background and priceless commentary.
For their courage and insights into Ugandan politics, I particularly wish to thank Kizza Besigye, Winnie Byanyima, David Sejusa, Paul Ssemogerere, Zoe Bakoko Bakuru, the Otunnu brothers—Ochoro, Ogenga, Amii Omara- and Olara—and numerous other Ugandan friends whose names I dare not print.
I also gathered much wisdom from Uganda’s many fine journalists working inside and outside the country, including Daniel Kalinaki, Charles Onyango-Obbo, Eriasa Sserunjogi, Rod Muhumuza and the reporters at the Monitor and Observer newspapers.
American and European diplomats who tried to do the right thing, even when this was not possible, were an inspiration to me.
For discussions, I am extremely grateful to Bill Easterly, Steve Hubbell, John Ryle, Nuruddin Farah, Maria Burnett, Leslie Lefkow, Boniface Musavuli, Remember Miamingi, Pagan Amum, Alex Papachristou, Jesse Ribot and Jean Stein.
Milton Allimadi, Jonathan Fisher, Filip Reyntjens, Peter Rosenblum, Shaka Ssali, Harry Verhoeven and my father Jason kindly commented on an early draft of this manuscript. It is much improved, thanks to their efforts. Any remaining errors are obviously mine.
Uganda is not a country that typically hogs the headlines, and I am extremely grateful to a number of editors for helping me tell its story. Versions of some chapters originally appeared in the New York Review of Books where I had the great luck to work with editor Bob Silvers. He didn’t look like a radical, but working with him sometimes felt less like collaboration than conspiracy. Without ever being partisan or doctrinaire, he was profoundly and instinctively sympathatic to those who were too weak, or too oppressed to speak for themselves. I am also grateful to Hugh Eakin of the New York Review Daily, Vera Titunik of the New Yorker Online, Gemma Sieff of Harpers, and Muhammed Ademo of Al-Jazeera.
This book would not exist had Nick Lemann, Camille McDuffie and Jimmy So of Columbia Global Reports not approached me for a book on public health in early 2015 and then put up with many changes of direction since. My agent Anna Stein of ICM was a patient, wise and generous counselor throughout.
Research for this book was supported by the Open Society Foundations, New York University’s Development Research Institute, the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting and the New York Review Foundation.
Finally, thanks and love to Jake, Dad, Judy, Susie, Sam, Natalie and Thomas.
CONTENTS
Timeline
Introduction
Chapter 1
Uganda’s Origins: From Many, One and From One, Many
Chapter 2
Warlords in Northern Uganda
Chapter 3
A Visit from the U.S. Department of Agriculture
Chapter 4
Prelude to Apocalypse
Chapter 5
A New World Order
Chapter 6
Invasion
Chapter 7
The Old Leopard
Chapter 8
A Sudden Departure
Chapter 9
A Leopard in Winter
Chapter 10
Breeding Ground
Chapter 11
A Good Man in Africa
Chapter 12
Museveni Finds a New Terror Trove