An alternative Uganda: Borrowing a leaf from the Rojava struggle for autonomy and freedom from State oppression and Imperialist Invasion.

by Kemitooma, Ugandan Political Exile.

Sarah is a fighter with the YPJ, the women's protection unit of Rojava’s self-defence forces. Sarah fights on the front line and has defended Rojava with grace and strength. Yet, Sarah is also feminine, beautiful, and graceful. From the start of our interaction, I wanted to know Sarah’s secret and to be like her. Sarah introduced me to the teachings of Abdullah Öcalan, the revolutionary leader affectionately known as Apo. Apo means uncle in Kurdish. He is the leader of the Kurdistan revolution for autonomy and freedom from Turkish oppression and imperialist invasion. Sarah also introduced me to the concept of Jineoloji, the building of society on the foundations of women and their power.

The first time I heard about Kurdistan, I was in high school and only 17 years old. Our history teacher mentioned the Kurdish people as a reference in one of his lessons. He asked if any of us had heard about Kurdistan and its people, but no one had. Our teacher was referring to communities that have sought independence and autonomy from existing states. I promised myself to research more about the region, although I did not. I would hear about Kurdistan again in 2024 when Sarah was guiding me on how to create a video to stand with Apo in demanding his release from Imrali Island in Turkey, where he has been unjustly imprisoned since 1999!

In her words, Sarah kept insisting on the need for our video to be creative and fun. I did not understand why a militant woman would insist on such an absurd and fleeting thing as fun. Why did that matter when we were addressing such a sensitive and sad topic as injustice and unfair incarceration of a revolutionary? That did not sound revolutionary in my ears. Then it hit me that Sarah and I were in the same age bracket. Sarah is a young woman, but with a personality so strong and mighty that being fun and creative did not make her great personality less admirable. So together with Sarah, we created a fun and creative video. The experience would begin to open my eyes to yet another way of fighting injustice.

My generation is the hashtag generation. We know how to run the hashtag, and we can lead successful social media campaigns. My generation knows how to design placards and how to march peacefully as a way to fight injustice and state repression, but when we are pushed to the wall, can we become Sarah? Learning from and observing the Rojava revolution, I came to learn that any people can adopt any means of defense for survival and self-preservation. These fast typing hands we use to push the hashtag can hold a gun, too. I was learning from Sarah’s grace and beauty that when pushed too far, the same hands I use to draw my lip line to gloss up, can still be used to fight for the justice of my people in all ways necessary.

Before colonialism, there was no Uganda. Uganda was a formation of British Imperialism to help keep control of the newly formed state long after independence. My people lived in diverse societies; some stateless, like the Kiga people, while others, like the Ganda society, had organized themselves in highly centralized kingdoms with unique and sophisticated political systems. My people, in their different capacities, put up a great fight to rid themselves of the British, although the damage done was so grave that getting back to their original settings was close to impossible. A thing called Uganda was born, and most of the earlier societies had been weakened so much by the British repression that they had to bend and kneel in front of the new state.

The state called Uganda was adopted by most, and a people called Ugandans were born. I am one of the Ugandans who are still reluctant to adopt the new setting, six decades long after it was formed. I am not alone; the people of the Buganda kingdom, one of the mightiest political societies from which the name Uganda was coined, have had their reservations concerning the new state. The Baganda people, with their reservations against the new state, proposed the idea of a federal system of government, although the idea has fallen on deaf ears for the most part. Among other reasons, the federal system of government was to allow the diverse communities and identities in Uganda the freedom to exist without being assimilated into the state identity and confusion.

When a state has become non-functional, you create an alternative. The people of Rojava created an alternative: the Democratic Autonomous Administration of Northern and Eastern Syria (DAANES). The DAANES rebelled against traditional hierarchical structures to create democratic local councils and representatives to act as both their social and political structure towards self-governance and self-reliance against state repression and imperialist invasion. I am a champion for an alternative Uganda, autonomous of dictator Museveni’s murderous Uganda*.

The young people dream of a culture different from the Musevenism culture that dehumanizes and kills its own citizens. The Musevenism culture of impunity. We, the young people, champion a culture that respects human dignity and human rights. We refuse to be called grandchildren of a broken system. We long for a culture that develops its people and not pushes them away into exile when there are not enough teachers to educate the children and doctors to treat the sick. An alternative culture, an alternative Uganda.

The young people long to be fun and creative like Sarah of the YPJ! The young people want to express themselves on TikTok and not be dumped into prison like Edward Awebwa, a 24-year-old TikToker who is currently serving six years in a Ugandan prison on charges of insulting the person of the president. Edward Awebwa’s crime was to demand an alternative Uganda. The young people want to dance to music and sing songs of freedom and love. The young people don’t want to live in perpetual fear, waiting for the next drone to pick them up because of a fun, entertaining video they posted on social media. The dictator is not capable of humor. The dictator is sadistic, but we are young, we are fun, and we are the future. We refuse to live our lives in fear. We shall carve out an alternative Uganda, and we shall dance and sing to freedom and to peace and to equality and to togetherness.

We understand the heavy burden set upon us, but we are also an expressive generation that refuses to be gagged. For self-preservation, we are ready to employ all means to rid ourselves of a dictator who will not allow us to exercise our freedoms of expression in peace. Abdullah Ocalan once wrote, “A revolutionary that has no hate and anger for the enemy has to be suspicious to us.” The people of Rojava hated oppression and discrimination so much that the hate overpowered their love for comfort. Hate not as an emotional outburst but as a revolutionary tool to bring about change. Can Ugandans hate injustice so much that their hate for injustice overpowers their love for the Ugandan food that exists in plenty?

My plea to the Ugandan young people is for courage. Those who fought the colonialist invasion still had the food. Uganda has not changed much ever since. There was food, and there will be food in our country. Let us have the courage, strength and revolutionary spirit to starve ourselves in favor of a more just society free from impunity. May our love for the homeland overpower our inherent fears. May we believe in her success and development so much that we are willing to sacrifice all that we have in our possession to set her free from a repressive setup that gags our freedom.

We are the fun generation. We are the unruly generation. We are the resistance!

*Yoweri Museveni has been the uninterrupted president of Uganda since 1986.