By Yoga Adhola
Jan 13, 2004
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In his presidential epistle, Kategaya Wrong On Origin Of Third Term, published in The Monitor, December 28-Jan 3, 2004, President Museveni wrote: "Mr. Kategaya would like us believe that the vision for the future of Africa is so abundant and, therefore, it is not an issue. If this is so, why is it that Africa, 40 years after independence, has not had one country transition from Third World to First World? This is not accidental." This statement clearly shows how Mr Museveni has no sense of reality. He is simply delusional. To him it is a matter of having a vision and Africa will shift from a 'Third World' into a 'First World' status. He seems to think that 40 years is more than enough for Africa to have achieved that transition. What he does not seem to know is that there are countries outside Africa, specifically Latin America, which have been independent longer than 100 years and have not yet achieved what he calls 'First World' status. I would like to dispel these delusions but before that, I need to clarify on a few concepts. The 'First World' are the metropolitan countries--the real centres of the capitalist world, the points from which capitalism radiates to the rest of the world. On the other hand, the countries classified as the 'Third World' are the periphery of the capitalist world. These are often former colonies, which as colonies were mere extensions of the metropolitan economies. After independence, these were transformed into neo-colonies. However, whatever the new form, they remain the periphery of the capitalist world. Independent and self-sustaining economies are those economies which initiate economic processes that they need and because they need them. As already stated, these are the countries of the 'First World'. The 'Third World' countries, on the other hand, are those economies, which are peripheral or derivative. They engage in economic processes, not because they need them, but because the economies of the metropolis cause them to. Uganda produces coffee not because it has need for it, but because the metropolitan countries need it. Cotton production was initiated in Uganda, not because Uganda needed cotton, but because the supply of cotton to the Lancashire cotton mills in England had become unreliable. In one word, the Third World economies are dependant. What Museveni is saying here is very similar to that funny story which used to be told about a herdsman who saw a Volkswagen car following a bus. Seeing that the VW was smaller than the bus, he developed the thought that the VW was a baby bus and would some day grow up to be a bus. Like the herdsman who does not know that a VW car cannot grow into a bus, Museveni too does not appreciate the qualitative difference between Third World economies and those of the metropolis. Arising from this failure to appreciate the differences, President Museveni ends up thinking that with just vision it is possible for the economy of a country like Uganda to become like that of Britain. Long before Museveni, a right-wing American professor of Economic History called W.W. Rostow had advanced the theory of stages of growth. Rostow outlined his theory in a book, The Stages of Economic Growth: a Non-communist Manifesto, first published in 1959. According to Rostow, all economies go through a single pattern of five stages of growth. From the stage of being traditional economies, they move to that of pre-condition for take off, followed by take-off, then drive to maturity, and finally that of mass-consumption. While Rotow's schema might reflect what happened before the era of imperialism, it is not representative of situations of Third World countries today. Gunder Frank, whom NRM ideologues are fond of quoting, once said that the so-called 'First World' economies are very different from those of the Third World. While they might have at one time been undeveloped, they were never underdeveloped as the economies of the Third World are. The underdeveloped aspect of the Third World economies makes them simply appendages of the economies of the First World and there is no way they are going to get out of that state of being mere appendages as long as they are within the imperialist network. And so, for President Museveni to think that by simply having vision, an economy like that of Uganda is somehow going to become like that of Germany, is nothing but delusion. The difference between developed capitalist economies when they were still undeveloped and underdeveloped economies like that of Uganda is fundamental. While they may appear similar, they are very different. The difference is as much as that between a calf and a goat, which are juxtaposed to a fully-grown cow. While both may be about the same size and similar in a number other ways, that similarity should not make us believe that both will eventually grow to be the size of the cow nearby. While the economy of Uganda in pre-colonial times looked like the economy in pre-capitalist England, there is a marked difference in context. The economy of England at the time obtained in the era before imperialism; and that of Uganda in that of imperialism. What this means is that, while the economy of England could follow an independent path of development, that of Uganda could not. The economy of Uganda had to become nothing but a mere derivative of the British economy. The derivative character of the Uganda economy means two things. One, the path of independent development is blocked. Secondly, the functioning of the economy is a mere response to the needs of the metropolis. No doubt there is some sort of symbiotic relationship between the Ugandan economy and that of the metropolis. However, in this symbiotic relationship, the determination of the stronger (the metropolitan) is more compelling and overwhelming. For Museveni to think that an underdeveloped economy like that of Uganda can evolve into a developed capitalist economy like that of Britain is not only to imagine that the tail of a dog can also wag the dog; but to go further and imagine that the tail of the dog can become and independent dog. The only way a tail of a dog can become an independent dog is through a cloning process. And even this requires the tail to be cut off from the dog. In the same manner, for the Uganda economy to become "independent and self-sustaining", it will require it to somehow get out of the imperialist world. Not only are specific conditions (which do not obtain at the moment) required for this, but the whole process requires a protracted struggle. And when we talk of protracted struggles we are not talking about running around the Luwero Triangle with guns. We are talking about struggles, which may run for some 70 or so years. |
� 2004 The Monitor Publications
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