Peaceful Protest Will Bring Change

George Marenya

26 May 2011

opinion

Nairobi — I happened to be in Kampala during the first week of September, 2009. Usually the city has a rather relaxed atmosphere and an easy halo. All that changed suddenly and dramatically.

As gunshots rent the air and the gingerly gait of the nyabos was replaced with people running for dear life. These disturbances pitted Mengo against the Museveni government. The Kabaka had been barred from visiting a place called Kayunga, which is in his empire.

Fast forward to April, 2011. A good two months after the presidential elections, things are again no longer at ease. This time, perennial Museveni rival Kizza Besigye has organised a long march to work.

The government will have none of it. Lives have been lost, arms broken, and Besigye almost blinded by pepper spray. The entry of civil society means that this story is not ending any time soon.

I will not criticise President Museveni because I do not have certain facts to enable me do so. Instead, I will advise Dr Besigye on the fundamentals of non-violent protest.

Political scientists are agreed that the icon of non-violent protest remains Mahatma Gandhi, who was a student of Jesus Christ. He was particularly impressed by the Sermon on the Mount.

That Jesus could advocate turning the other cheek to respond to a slap intrigued him. He told the then Indian viceroy that if the teachings of Jesus were to be applied, the whole world would be at peace.

So I advise Dr Besigye to first embark on a grand and intense civic education for his followers. Like Gandhi’s followers at the Dharansha Salt Works, they must not respond to a blow with a blow. They must avoid throwing stones at the police.

Asked by a journalist how he intended to win without violence, Gandhi responded, “I intend to be in control.” He explained that as long as he could provoke a reaction, then things would go his way.

We know that at the Dharansha protest, column after column of workers would walk towards the gate, get clubbed senseless, and fall to the ground. This would be repeated until there was no one to hit.

The brutality shocked the world. The shame that the British brought upon themselves left them nowhere to hide. And as Gandhi had predicted, the fall of colonial rule was just a matter of time.

Many years later, these tactics were employed by Martin Luther King Jr. Through rousing speeches and calls for boycott of certain services, Dr King ensured that the civil rights scene would never be the same again.

Don’t forget that the whole process was started by a simple act of defiance. A black woman, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus. Hence began the Montgomery bus boycott, which had few incidents of violence towards police.

The problems of Uganda are less protracted than the independence of India or the rights of American blacks. With good planning, they can be resolved quickly. Ugandans deserve peace. They have worked hard for it.

The price they paid is enshrined in the Luwero Triangle “skull memorials”. It would be galling to go back there. Whether the abolished presidential term limits would have forestalled these problems is a matter of conjecture.

Anyone contemplating regime change in Uganda must go the peaceful route. No stones, no battles with the police, no gun powder. This requires discipline, yet there are few attractive alternatives.

George Marenya is an editor with Community Eye.

AllAfrica – All the Time