1925-2005
Apollo Milton Obote became the first prime minister of Uganda when the country gained independence in 1962. He later served as Uganda’s president from 1966 to 1971 and 1980 to 1985. Obote was born in the village of Akokoro in northern Uganda, and received his education in his home district of Lango, at Gulu High School in Busoga, and at Makerere University College in Kampala. Over time, Obote developed into an astute and progressive Ugandan nationalist. Overthrown by Idi Amin (1925-2003) in a military coup in January 1971, Obote went into exile for eight years in Tanzania. But he returned to Uganda in 1980 and was elected for a second term as president, only to be overthrown in yet another coup staged by Ugandan military officers Tito Okello (1914-1996) and Bazilio Okello (1929-1990) in July 1985. Obote again went into exile, this time in Zambia, where he died in October 2005 at the age of eighty. Obote’s demise brought to an end a long, colorful, and controversial political career spanning nearly half a century.
During his first term as Uganda’s leader, Obote supported domestic nation-building, a concept he understood to include a quickened pace of progress toward national unity in the face of Uganda’s deep social cleavages. Obote also called for economic and social transformation to uproot what he saw as the evil trinity of poverty, ignorance, and disease. On the international scene, Obote stood for East African cooperation, Pan-Africanism, and Uganda’s active participation in world affairs.
Obote managed Uganda’s external relations successfully, with the exception of a falling out with the United Kingdom in 1971 over Britain’s sale of military arms to apartheid-era South Africa. During Obote’s tenure, Uganda became not only a respected, albeit small, member of the community of nations, but the country also benefited from its membership in numerous international institutions and the acquisition of new trade and development partners. But in the domestic sphere, Obote’s performance was mixed. He began well, with a remarkable record of achievements in education, health, agriculture, and the building of infrastructure. In general, government was managed on a pluralist or multiparty basis, with keen constitutional oversight, as evidenced by the numerous challenges to government actions that were presented to the courts.
The situation began to deteriorate with Obote’s handling of the so-called Lost Counties of Bunyoro, a part of Uganda that Britain had handed over to the kingdom of Buganda at the beginning of its period of colonial rule.
Following a referendum, Obote returned these regions to Bunyoro, despite stiff opposition from Edward Mutesa (1924-1969), Uganda’s ceremonial head of state and the kabaka of Buganda. After a furious confrontation that culminated in the Battle of Mengo in May 1966, Mutesa fled into exile in the United Kingdom. Triumphant, Obote moved forward with a radical overhaul of the country’s political system. He abolished monarchism and federalism under his new republican constitution of 1967. Shortly thereafter, he declared what has been called his "move to the Left" by introducing socialist principles and work methods to guide the country’s development. Finally, he declared that his party, the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC), was the only legitimate party. In the course of this overhaul, however, Obote failed to give adequate attention to the army, and in the end it was his military commanders, first Idi Amin and later Tito Okello and Bazilio Okello, who booted him from power.
In his second term as president, Obote was an older and more mellowed politician, made perhaps wiser by the trials and vicissitudes of life in exile. He left behind the political excesses of his first term, including his commitment to socialism and to a one-party system, and he accepted the aid of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund toward the recovery of Uganda’s economy, which was left shattered after the reign of Idi Amin. By the time the two Okello generals staged yet another military coup, positive results had begun to be registered. Nevertheless, during Obote’s second administration, the country’s sharp social cleavages, particularly between the Bantu and Nilotic ethnicities and north/south regionalism, became politically relevant, and led to civil war.
Obote’s management of this conflict has been a major blot on his record, not just for his inability to resolve it quickly but because of the large number of civilian deaths and the human rights abuses that occurred. Rendered helpless as an exile in Zambia, the blame for all of these issues was laid at his feet by his chief antagonist during the conflict, Yoweri Museveni, who became president of Uganda in 1986. Obote died just as he was shaping his response to these accusations. Obote is survived by his political party, the UPC, and a large body of supporters in Uganda and elsewhere, who will, no doubt, contribute to a more profound appreciation or critique of his long political career.
