Subculture of Violence
After the steamy week of coup talk, Ugandans appear to have
accepted that this country is deficient in democratic ideals. First, the talk
of coup must have been treated as a case of treason. Nonetheless, we have to be
very critical of the way President Mueveni operates; his craft is the
generation and use of fear. In fear, Museveni finds a tool to cow all the
branches of government and bully just everyone around.
I want to argue and support the simple notion that the
leadership of President Museveni is at a crisis level. Museveni knows that he
is losing command over Uganda’s fragile consciousness because people now fear
him less. But this is the price he has to pay for staying in power for way too
long. The degree to which Ugandans simultaneously respected and feared Museveni
as a war hero has waned significantly. People now see him not in the light of
the revolutionist he was, but a tyrant who presides over an increasingly corrupt
regime; a regime whose interests are mutually exclusive to the aspirations of
Ugandans.
When you speak to many Ugandans, they feel that they have lost
control over everything Ugandan. They no longer have the power ascribed to them
by the constitution, nor common control of the means of production or equal
status in the economy. They feel that both the military and judiciary have
become more or less personalized entities and the police – a predator.
The coup threat therefore is for Museveni to beat in the
increasingly free minded Parliamentarians. But it is also to reinforce the
magnanimity of the NRM subculture of violence.
If Political science is the study of how political power is
attained, used and sustained, then we have to also study violence. Violence
studies would enable us to understand the mechanisms through which violence is
produced and sustained in Uganda and the purpose for which it is produced and
transformed into a culture.
Now, by any means, the NRM is a violent enterprise. Their
proximal location to weapons and their monopoly on who joins or gets promoted
in the army, including membership in other instruments of coercion, makes them
the sole agency of violence in our society.
The renowned American criminologists Dr. Marvin E. Wolfgang
and his colleague Franco Ferracuti published a seminal work in 1967 called The subculture of violence. This
subculture of violence theory holds that overt use of violence generally is a
reflection of basic values that stands apart from the dominant, the central or
the parent culture. Although many studies have refuted the general application
of this theory due to its racist focus on black youths, it appears very
applicable to the NRM mentality.
According to Wolfgang and Ferracuti, a
subculture is considered to be the normative system of some group or groups,
usually smaller than the whole society (1967: 97).
Given that the NRM is not an inclusive party and also given
its history and narratives, their influence over the Ugandan society is
mediated through violence. This is their basic ideological driver and also the
dominant one as such.
This violence manifests and occupies many facets of society;
directly by ostracizing individuals like Kiize Besigye or Tumukunde whom they
considered to have transgressed and deviated from the norms; they assault
Ugandans my dismantling the systems of society that mediate the distribution of
justice and resources; and they launch always the most vicious forms of assault
in our psyche when they threaten coups and return to civil war, even when such
a murderous venture is uncalled for.
Over the years, Ugandans have become smarter and more
communicative among themselves. Ugandans view themselves less in the mirage of
ethnic groupings than oppressed, poor, powerless and dependent people.
Relationships between Ugandans of all walks of life are no longer defined
solely by tribes, language, and education, or past relations but poverty and
uncertainty about the near future.
Museveni and his cahoots have made it obvious that they occupy
every private and personal space of all Ugandans by setting on ground military
boots and the most vicious and yet pathetically corrupt police whose primary
objectives are no longer keeping law and order.
The function of the Uganda Police is blocking peaceful
assemblies, which are provided for in the constitution and conducting political
operations.
It is only in Uganda that the Police never actually respond to
thieves or criminal activities in the neighborhoods, but will respond swiftly
to motions made by any of the opposition leaders.
This wanton act of repression
has diminished public space but has also ordained the Uganda Police with a branding
that many Ugandans will remember this regime with. It is no surprise because
every regime that has desecrated Uganda has left horrifying symbols or memories
etched in our subconscious.
END
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