Mobile Activism in Uganda: Environmental Issue Touches Ethnic Nerve

 In an attempt to increase its sugar production, the Sugar Corporation of Uganda Ltd., which produces Lugazi Sugar, sought government permission to clear and annex about 71,000 square km of the adjacent Mabira forest.  Mabira forest is one of Uganda’s largest natural tropical forests.

There is has been a period of government offering prime pieces of land to investors. This has attracted widespread criticism from the opposition politicians, civil organizations and the media.

The National Association of Professional Environmentalists, under the banner “Save Mabira Crusade”, organized the demonstration in April. The demonstration took place in Kampala, the capital city of Uganda.

Tools: Mobile Phones

How tools were used: Messages were sent to people’s phones. One of the messages read; “Save Mabira. Don’t Buy Lugazi Sugar.”

Outcome: After the protest, their continued tense debates on broadcast stations. The government announced that the proposal had been suspended. Also, the Indian community in Uganda appealed to Mehta Group, the Indian parent company of Sugar Corporation of Uganda Ltd., to drop the request. This was after the local population turned hostile on Indians during the riot.

The organizers were overwhelmed by the numbers that turned up. Wielding banners, posters and tree branches, the demonstrators planned to walk to Parliament to present their petition to the speaker of Parliament. These were ordinary people, most of them casual labourers who joined the National Association of Professional Environmentalists, students and politicians showing their solidarity. The police who had earlier permitted the demonstration tried to stop the protesters from reaching the gates of Parliament. This led to running battles between the protesters and police in the streets. Military police armed with peppered tear gas, water cannons and heavy ammunition were poured onto the streets. Town business was heavily destabilized, traders hurriedly crossed their shops to guard against the looters. But still some shops were vandalized, especially those that belonged to Indians.

The demonstration was successful, despite the violence, as the main cause of saving Mabira was achieved, thanks to the use of digital means – mobile phones. However, the leaders of the crusade were temporarily held by police.  

Sugar Corporation of Uganda had low sales of their Lugazi Sugar in the following months, and the company had to do some re-branding. This further forced Mehta Group to devise other means of increasing their production capacity.

Using the complex configuration and composition of Save Mabira Crusade community Ugandans took advantage of an opportunity in crisis to learn much more about community dynamics in environment and development.

One important lesson was that it is possible to have unity in diversity and diversity in unity and that no power under the sun can crash these dualisms when a people is determined to defend its collective interest. This was a beautiful aspect of the Mabira demonstration.

Exogenous factors beyond crusaders’ control penetrated and marred the demonstration. Until then, the crusaders were in charge of it while government was in charge of security, which unfortunately broke down. Sadly some people died, others got injured and many properties were destroyed. This was the ugly part of the demonstration.

Crusaders, as an emergent, issue-focused community, learnt that, for Mabira, they had to empower themselves to act; that empowerment goes beyond political or legal permission to participate in civic activities; that empowerment includes capacity to do things that citizens want to do or be done; and that community capacity-building and strengthening for action by the community itself work where government has failed to act or discourages such action.

It was a truly socio-environmental movement for sanity in environmental governance. Despite official perception it had nothing direct to do with politics although (i) civic political leaders of diverse political orientations and association participated and may have, as they often do, developed opportunistic tendencies; and (ii) it is difficult to separate civil society work and activism from politics. Indeed civil society (organized or not organized) is part and parcel of a country’s political stream, not only to vote but also to demand good governance -environmental, political or otherwise. The accountability of non-governmental organizations is also linked to and influenced by politics and political processes.

Image Source: ugpulse.com,