Mamdani: Museveni's reign is 'slow poison,' worse than Amin's brutality

In a significant intervention into Uganda’s political discourse, scholar Mahmood Mamdani has presented a challenging thesis: President Yoweri Museveni’s long tenure has inflicted a more damaging “slow poison” on Uganda than the overt brutality of Idi Amin’s regime. Mamdani articulated these views during the launch of his book, “Slow Poison: Idi Amin, Yoweri Museveni, and the Making of the Ugandan State,” at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London.

Mamdani contends that the common portrayals of both Amin as a ‘buffoon’ and Museveni as a ‘reformist’ oversimplify Uganda’s complex post-independence history. He suggests that both leaders, while starkly different in their methods and legacies, have significantly shaped the Ugandan state through manipulation and the strategic use of violence for political gain. Western powers, he notes, played a role in propping up both regimes.

The “slow poison,” as described by Mamdani, manifests in several ways under Museveni’s rule. He points to the fragmentation of the state through the creation of numerous districts, mirroring and intensifying colonial-era administrative divisions. This, he argues, has fostered internal divisions based on ‘residents’ versus ‘migrants,’ a tactic he likens to a deliberately induced societal illness.

Mamdani also highlights the privatization of state assets as another form of “slow poison,” suggesting it has benefited a select few at the expense of national development. Furthermore, he draws a parallel between the violence of the Amin era, some of which involved British and Israeli complicity, and the “genocidal” acts in Northern Uganda during the Museveni government’s US-backed war on terror, referencing what he terms the reversal of state-building projects and the nation’s militarization.

While acknowledging Amin’s early brutality, Mamdani suggests the former military dictator later engaged in reforms, including land redistribution and the establishment of an early truth commission. In contrast, Museveni, whose political journey began with an embrace of revolutionary thought, is seen by Mamdani as having progressively consolidated power through patronage and violence, leading to a less popular and more fragmented state.