A Fighting Man - Ogena, Xavier

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Résumé :
Whilst much ink has been spilt on Museveni's Uganda, far too little ink has been spilt on the life of the country's eponymous leader, which is now in its eighth, eventful decade. The little information on Museveni's life that is in the public domain comes mostly from his memoirs, in which he is, in any case, understandably much more engaged in personal justification than an objective and disinterested essay. Hence this volume. This is the first, full, political biography of Museveni. This book also presents that increasingly uncommon commodity in Museveni's Uganda: a balanced assessment of Museveni's abilities and activities. This volume of Xavier Ogena's political biography of President Museveni takes the reader from the birth of its subject in c.1944-through his formal education in Uganda and Tanzania, where he became considerably politically radicalised; his brief employment in a curious capacity in the Obote (First) President's Office; his dogged guerrilla struggle against the Amin military dictatorship; his changing fortunes in the post-Amin, transitional dispensation; his studied reluctance in running, if unsuccessfully, for the Presidency in the rigged general elections of December 1980; and his rebellion against the Obote (Second) and Okello regimes-to his triumphant accession to power in the dry season of 1985-86. This book is an essential reading for anyone who is interested in the history and politics of post-colonial Uganda, even Africa.

Biographie:
Xavier Ogena was born in Uganda in 1968. He was educated in Uganda at St Joseph's College Layibi, City High School (Kampala), and Kololo Senior Secondary School. He was also educated in the United Kingdom at Emile Woolf College of Accountancy, Accountancy Tutors Limited, and the University of London, where he obtained a BA in Politics, Philosophy and History, and an MA in Philosophy. He had been successively employed for about 20 years as a management accountant by various not-for-profit organisations in the UK, and was also an executive member of the UK and Ireland chapter of Museveni's National Resistance Movement (NRM), when he returned permanently to Uganda in 2010. He made, under the banner of the NRM, an unsuccessful bid for the Oyam County North parliamentary seat in the Uganda general elections of 2011, whereupon he became a member of the NRM National Executive Council (NEC) for the next five years, before reverting to rank-and-file membership of the party, which he has maintained to date. This is his first published work. The second volume of his political biography of Museveni is forthcoming. He lives in Oyam, where he divides his time among farming, reading, and writing.