Book Title: Uganda: The Dynamics of Neo-liberal Transformation
Editors: Jörg Wiegratz, Giuliano Martiniello, and Elisa Greco.
Publisher: Zed Books (Zedbooks.net) Year of publication: 2018.
Reviewed by: Godwin Toko (@Godwin-TOKO)
For over 30 years now, Uganda has taken the path of neoliberalism as her national policy.
President Museveni, once a dyed-in-the-wool Marxist-Leninist, made a 180-degree turn and became the high priest of these ideas under the auspices of the Western world chaperoned by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB). One does not have to look far.
Take tertiary education as an example; once a preserve of government with Makerere University as the sole university in the country, the sector now has close to 50 universities across the country, most of them privately owned and run. The financial sector has been so liberalised that most important financial institutions in the in country are privately owned.
From the start, the promise was that neo-liberalisation – the markets taking charge with minimal government interventions – would lead to progress for all. For a nation then reeling from the devastating effects of brutal dictatorship and prolonged wars, the promise was received with enthusiasm and little scientism.
Over three decades later, a lot of dissenting voices have come up against Uganda’s neoliberalisation. In a scathing criticism of neoliberalism in the financial sector, Dr Ezra Suruma, the former minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, warned that “Ugandans will remain poor until they own their bank”.
Despite the vigour with which Uganda embraced neoliberalisation and the period between then and now, there has not been much in terms of literary works, to discuss the outcome of neoliberalisation on the country.
This book, ‘Uganda: The Dynamics of Neoliberal Transformation’ fills the void – in great detail – by giving readers a three-sixty de- gree overview the country’s decades under neoliberalism and allows readers answer the question, ‘What has been the impact of neoliberal transformation on ordinary Ugan- dans away from the World Bank figures?’ for themselves.
The different articles in the book explore a wide range of areas and assess how neo- liberalisation has fared – by weighing the impacts on lives of ordinary Ugandans. These topics range from education to health, to the financial sector, to the decentralisation to access and usage of land, and practice of culture.
With 22 contributors from Uganda, the region, and globe – mostly academics – the book is exhaustive on most of the sectors looked at. Divided into four parts and a total 19 articles, the first part, “The state, donors and development aid” investigates the powerful hands behind Uganda’s path to neoliberalisation, their strong interest in Uganda. As the readers will quickly see, Uganda turned into a poster child for neoliberalisation.
Strong connections between Kampala and the Brenton Woods institutions saw the two sides work hard to see their experi- ment succeed.
The second part, “Economic restructuring and social services” assess Uganda’s neoliberalism journey in so far as it placed financial, educational, and health services majorly in private hands.
Despite the claims of progress, this section of the book shows that a small economy of Uganda’s size with most people engaged in peasant agriculture was never ready for the grand kind of reforms ushered by the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP).
The third part, “Extractivism and enclosures” assesses the outcome of neoliberalisation on nature by looking at forestry, carbon emission, oil development, water as a natural resource, and land reform.
The section reveals that forests, land, and all natural resources have been affected by the characteristic accumulation of wealth that is the drive behind capitalism.
In the end, the results are land conflicts, high levels of deforestation, and land poverty. Part four, “Race, culture and commoditisation” looks at the central place and role of Uganda’s Asian and South Asian community in the country’s neoliberalism.
Also examined in this section is the impact of neoliberalism on the youth and their place in Uganda today, and the role of Uganda’s Pentecostal-Charismatic church in forging a new moral order – a sort of bastion of neoliberalism.
Verdict: The editors of this book did an impeccable job in assessing Uganda as a neoliberal nation for the last three decades. As the readers will see, a lot of the promise has not come to fruition; in fact, several of the political, economic, and social challenges facing Ugandans today have their roots in the neoliberal reforms that started in the late 80s as the different articles in this book show.
If there is one book leaders and ordinary Ugandans ought to read, a book to spark and guide discussions on neoliberalism in the country, it is clearly this one. Great book.
Source: The Observer
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