Uganda is still the same beggar

The Monitor recently published a true gem about where Chinese money in Uganda is going.

I shall break it into five areas; frivolous; human/life investment with long-term economic benefit; infrastructure category; environmental hygiene; political comfort with little or no long-term economic benefit.

•Frivolous: $16,100 donation to Uganda Olympic Committee
•Human/life Investment With Long-term Economic benefit: $133,000 aid to fight Ebola virus; $411,400 construction of malaria treatment/prevention centre; $400,000 donation of anti-malaria drugs; $134,600 Mulago Hospital donation; $750,000 construction of second school; $6.1m construction of hospital. Total: $7.929m.

•Infrastructure related: $5.4m donation of road maintenance vehicles; $5.1m loan for security communications system. Total: $10.5m
•Environmental hygiene: $2.4m donation of garbage trucks; $13.5m grant for refuse collection. Total: $15.9m

•Political comfort with little or no long-term economic benefit: $17.6m expansion of parliamentary chambers; $14.2m construction of building for Foreign Affairs ministry offices; $7.5m construction of State House; $36.3m construction of President’s Office. Total: 75.6m
This is not to criticise anyone.

Rather it is merely to examine the mindset of Ugandan officialdom, what it thinks is important, and to get a glimpse of what the Chinese think is acceptable and prudent in their engagement with Africa.

I think it is telling that the three most expensive items in the China goodies bag are $14.2m for the construction of ministry of Foreign Affairs offices, followed by $17.6m for the parliamentary chambers and; $36.3m for the construction of President’s Office.

President’s Office, notably, took a bigger bite out of Chinese largesse the human/life investment with long-term economic benefit, infrastructure, and environmental hygiene combined.

Of course these buildings will remain for years to come.

Parliamentarians will not take the expanded chambers home with them, nor will President Museveni carry the President’s Office with him to Rwakitura when he retires or is retired.

Therefore, the important thing is that they tell us that our leaders think investing Chinese money in political real estate for their comfort, is more important than sinking it into education, health, and building roads.

There is really nothing new – or indeed surprising – there. The only different thing here is that we have data, bwino (ink) that demonstrates that old fact.

So, the behaviour of the African client (beggar) has not changed despite the arrival of a new patron, China. What about China’s? Is it different from that of the Western patrons who have fallen on hard times, and whom it is replacing in Africa?

Many African politicians and officials say the Chinese are “better”. They don’t impose too many unreasonable conditions on their aid and loans. That they are not too hang up on human rights issues, and don’t meddle in recipient/beggar countries’ politics and so on.

True? One might think that because China has invested most in the Political Comfort market in Uganda, that it is buying the goodwill of politicians.
That would be a wrong conclusion.

When they build a President’s Office, or refurbish parliament, they are not investing in President Museveni or directly buying the MPs.

They are actually investing in the buildings, because they form part of the signposts that shape the story about China in Africa. This is what new powers do when they go into a country and want to replace a legacy power.

The Americans did the same when they came to Uganda at the start of the 1960s and found the Europeans entrenched. They flooded the country with Peace Corps, so that in the end they were perhaps more than European missionaries and British teachers in the country. Then they built, starting more famously with Tororo Girls School.

The Italians cornered the Uganda construction market early, so a whole generation of Ugandans grew up thinking only Italians could build roads. Owen Falls was for electricity to drive British colonial industrial interest, but it worked its way into popular language as a mark of British engineering genius and work ethic.

The idea of exacting “British time” as opposed to undisciplined “Black Man’s Time” was cemented by the clock towers the British built in their empire, derived partly from the Big Ben time showpiece in London.

In 15 years after we have forgotten the cost, the narrative in Uganda will be that if you want to build something serious and finish it on time, China is the place to deliver them.

It is that conversation, the top-of-mind awareness by the wananchi in the market and bars that the Chinese are buying, because ultimately our relationship with China in future will be based on who and what we think they are.

The British, Italians, and Americans all did that by building things. So, it turns out, as the new African benefactor that China is playing by the same old well-tested rules too.