Hello Dr. Suluma,
I recently listened to your interview with Mr. Kabushenga, which he kindly made available on YouTube. It was truly eye-opening.
Your unwavering contribution to Uganda and Africa, in the face of immense global colonial pressures, is commendable. I was particularly struck by your patriotic resolve in resisting the so-called privatization / liberalization of Uganda’s public assets and trade systems, to be controlled by foreigners from Europe and the west. From your insights on the coffee export process to your previous writings on the Uganda Commercial Bank—now Stanbic Bank, a British Standard Bank disguised as a South African institution—you highlighted the mechanisms of neocolonialism that many of us are only beginning to understand today. Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, who studied in the United States as you, also noted in his groundbreaking book Neocolonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism, a lot of these issues. It is clearly telling that the U.S. was so threatened by this book that they banned it upon its publication in 1965.
Regarding the dissolution of the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA), an organization in whose formation you played a pivotal role, I must say I disagree with the government’s plan to dismantle it entirely. Instead, I believe it should be reformed to address any shortcomings or even be granted more authority if it hasn’t lived up to expectations, with the Ministry of Agriculture maintaining a supervisory role.
Ghana is facing a similar challenge. For over 60 years, an organization COCOBOD has presided over cocoa production without transforming the sector towards value addition. Instead, the focus remains on increasing production. Although Ghana and Ivory Coast are the largest cocoa producers globally, neither country ranks among the world’s top 10 or 20 chocolate producers. Once again, huge amounts of wealth from the crop continue to be extracted by the West, with Germany topping global chocolate production, hence perpetuating an exploitative relationship that must be dismantled. Europe has built its obscene wealth on the back of African labor and resources, and this dynamic will continue until Africa takes decisive action to stop it. This may require institutional alignment, realignment, African integration and with the major global south, because Europe will not stop unless they are forced to by the exploited.
Where I do agree with the Ugandan government is on the importance of value addition. We must place Uganda’s coffee sector within the context of the global supply chain. It’s unacceptable that Uganda, as a major coffee producer, earns only $1 billion and Africa only $2.5 billion, while a non-coffee-growing country like Germany reaps $60 billion, this trend should be infuriating to every African intellectual and scramble to correct this nasty exploitation should follow in haste.
This exploitative relationship with the world must end in our generation, and the solution lies in collaboration within Africa, particularly among coffee growers, to add value to what we produce. I strongly believe that our challenge is not about increasing quantity but enhancing quality and maximizing the value we get from each coffee plant. By focusing on value addition, African farmers can earn more without the sole emphasis on boosting production.
African nations should unite to process and distribute coffee within our own 1.4 billion-strong market, pushing out exploitative foreign companies like Nestlé. Simultaneously, we should leverage our growing relationships with emerging powers in Asia and south America in this new global order.
The traditional exploitation of Africans by Europeans must not continue. If dissolving the UCDA is necessary for this to happen, so be it. However, if the organization can be saved and restructured to meet today’s challenges, it should be done quickly and without delay.
Your voice, Dr. Suluma, is crucial for Uganda and Africa. Now more than ever, Africa needs its best thinking sons and daughters to rise and help rescue the continent from the over 600 years of exploitation by external forces traditionally from Europe and Arabia.
