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| Muzei Byanyima. FILE PHOTO VIA @winnie_byanyima |
What Uganda’s current and future politicians can learn from
the life and character of Mzee Byanyima
Although I knew he was old (at 96) and was aware of his
declining health I was still shocked when I heard the news of the death of Mzee
Boniface Byanyima. I have since been trying to frame my impressions of this
giant of a man. I knew him very well. I used to visit him at his home in Ruti,
Mbarara, sometimes spending Christmas or Easter holidays there. At other times
I would be driving through Mbarara and pass by him at his home, even spend a
night to talk and listen to his wisdom and experience.
During these visits, I would spend hours with him, asking
questions about Uganda politics and his relations with some of the giants of
our post-independence era – Bendicto Kiwanuka, Milton Obote, Idi Amin, Basil
Bataringaya, Grace Ibingira and Yoweri Museveni – all of whom he knew well and
had related with at close range. Indeed, his daughter, Edith Byanyima, had
severally suggested to me that I should record him and write a book about his
life and views, a job I never did.
Mzee Byanyima was a stubbornly principled person, a factor
everyone who knew him recognised. But I am also aware that some people would
like to use his principled stand in defence of what he believed to draw
conclusions to suit their political agendas. Having spent many hours talking to
him over a long period of time (from the late 1990s and the early 2000s), I
learnt that he never personalised political disagreements.
During the 1960s, he was a Member of Parliament (MP) on the
Democratic Party (DP) ticket. Many DP MPs crossed over to the ruling Uganda
People’s Congress (UPC) led by Milton Obote. Mzee Byanyima remained among the
only four opposition MPs by the time of the January 25, 1971 coup led by Idi
Amin. During this period he put up a spirited fight against what he saw as the
excesses of the UPC government, yet he never held a personal grudge against
Obote, who was president of the country.
During my visits and discussions with him, he was critical
of Obote’s politics and policies but never went personal against the former
president. On the contrary, Byanyima always told me that Obote was a
nationalist who had indulged in wrong politics and pursued bad policies. At a
personal level, Byanyima would tell me that Obote was actually a friend.
Sometimes after a day of acrimonious debate in parliament, they would retire to
Uganda Club where they would sit together to talk – Obote drinking wine,
Byanyima drinking soda. I found this intriguing.
I used to visit Obote during his long exile in Lusaka,
Zambia and we would talk about Mzee Byanyima. Obote confirmed everything
Byanyima had told me about their relationship. Thus, whenever I visited Obote,
he would send greetings to Byanyima and vice versa. On more than one occasion,
I visited Mzee Byanyima and then called Obote in Lusaka and they talked on my
phone. I would sit back and smile in silent wonderment at his expression of
political maturity that is rare today.
I learnt from his relationship with Obote that you could
disagree with a president without being disagreeable
I have almost 36 hours of autobiographical interviews with
Obote and I asked him about Byanyima. An extract of his comments was published
in Daily Monitor just before Obote died in October 2005. “He is a very good
friend,” Obote told me of Mzee Byanyima, “because he is an honest man. I still
wonder why a man of such great principles remained in DP. He really belonged to
UPC. It is in UPC that you find men like Byanyima. He was lost in the DP. He is
a good man.”
Obote’s respect for Mzee Byanyima in spite of their
political and policy differences is illustrated by yet another significant
event. On May 27, 1980, Obote returned from exile in Tanzania, landing at the
airstrip in Mbarara and drove directly to Ishaka, Bushenyi, where he held a
huge welcome rally. After the rally he drove back to Mbarara and spent a night.
And guess whom he invited for dinner that evening? Mzee Byanyima! They ate and
talked, reminiscing about Uganda’s turbulent period under Amin.
That Obote felt it important to invite Byanyima for dinner
on his first day in Uganda after nine years in exile instead of the many UPC
stalwarts from the district speaks volumes about the two men and their mutual
respect in spite of (and may be also because of) their political, policy and
ideological differences. But it is also an indication of how much Uganda has
changed. Today, political differences are seen as personal animosities and
policy disagreements are treated as personal conflicts. Yet if there is a
lesson from the life of Mzee Byanyima, it was the demarcation between the
political and the personal.
In my many and long discussions with him, he would tell me
of how even Amin, while driving to Kabale, would once in a while stop over at
his home for a chat. Given the impression we have of Amin as an evil man, this
came as a surprise to me. Byanyima was very critical of Amin’s government and
its actions. But not once during my many and long discussions with him did he
attack Amin personally. He would criticise his politics and policies and the
actions of the intelligence services and the army but never the man.
It is through these interactions with Mzee Byanyima that I
learnt slowly key principles that I always aspire to uphold. I learnt from his
relationship with Obote that you could disagree with a president without being
disagreeable. You could appreciate positive qualities in a president without
necessarily endorsing his/her rule. It is possible to work with a president for
the good of the nation without working for him. Finally, I learnt that you
could compromise with a president without being compromised by him.
Mzee Byanyima did all this with Obote and set an example
that we have failed to emulate. He was a unique politician who defended his
principles with passion and dedication but did not hold personal grudges
against those he disagreed. He was also unique because he never took a
political position so that he can be loved by the masses or be accepted by
those in power. On the contrary he sought clarity, not reputation and engaged
in politics in pursuit of his values not in a quest for power.
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amwenda@independent.co.ug
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