Politics

Yoweri Kaguta Museveni is the current president of Uganda. He has been in power since 1986 and is the longest-serving head of state in Africa.

Museveni was born on September 15, 1940, to a poor family in Rukungiri, Uganda. His father, Mzee Amos Kaguta (1916–2013), was a cattle keeper, and his mother, Esteri Kokundeka Nganzi (1918–2001), was a traditional herbalist.

Museveni was born on September 15th, 1944 to cattle-herding parents. His mother died in 2001 and his father died in 2013 at the age of 98. He is a Hima, which is what they call people from Ankole.

Museveni’s father, Amos Kaguta was a soldier in the King’s African Rifles during the Second World War. He was in the 7th battalion. So when Yoweri was born, relatives used to say, “His father was a mu-seven” (meaning “in the seventh”). This is how he got his name.

Museveni’s family toured around for a bit before settling and staying in Ntungamo. He went to Kyamate Elementary School, Mbarara High School, and Ntare School for his primary, secondary education.

M7 studied in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He spent his time there studying economics and political science. At the university at the time, radical pan-African and Marxist views were being bounced around so it was a great place for him to learn about them.

He attended university and formed the University Students’ African Revolutionary Front student activist group. He was also involved with a student delegation that traveled to FRELIMO-held territory in Portuguese Mozambique to receive military training.

He studied under Walter Rodney and other leftist professors. This ultimately led him to write his thesis on the applicability of Fanon’s revolutionary violence ideas to post-colonial Africa.