It’s that time of the decade, kids, and once again the Ugandan electoral spectacle shows how to put the “fun” back into dysfunctional! Here’s a rough guide to the dynamics of central Africa’s most exciting, explosive and explicit post-colonial state.
Dramatis Personae:
Museveni on Twitter
Yoweri Kaguta Museveni • elderly president/autocrat; • has held the presidency since 1986, when he took power in a civil war; • is conservative and reactionary, ruling largely through a deep-rooted form of political patronage; • immensely popular in rural areas and with many people over 30; • may genuinely win the election, but is being so mean and violent in the run-up, we can be forgiven for thinking he actually fears losing this time. • Music Skills: Terrible, with ponderous hit single “Do You Want Another Rap?” • Catchphrase: “I will eat my enemies like samosas”
Bobi on Twitter
Robert Kyagulani, aka Bobi Wine • handsome, young-ish Dancehall superstar (it’s a bit like Shaggy running for the US presidency); • has been MP since 2017, and founder of the immensely popular “People Power” movement in Uganda; • is broadly socialist in his speech, but has yet to articulate a coherent ideological position or set of policies; • immensely popular with the youth and unemployed (which is most Ugandans) and Dancehall fans; • may possibly win more votes than Museveni, and has the incumbent more than a little worried. • Music Skills: One of the best pop artists in Africa, mixing traditional instruments with digital beats and on-point social messages, e.g. “Kyarenga” • Catchphrase: “We are removing a dictator”
This little summary aims not to repeat the details you can find on Wikipedia or in the news. Instead, I wanted to take you on a little trip behind the headlines.
We have now produced a digital version of the current issue datacide eighteen. Its content is identical to the print edition, but some illustrations are in colour and some links are clickable. It’s ideal to read on your tablet or laptop.
If you’re using facebook you may have noticed that this very web site has been blacklisted. It is no longer possible to link to it from facebook, and all existing links have been removed. The Datacide page on fb still exists, so it’s not that Datacide per se has been banned. But when you try to set a link it claims that the site “violates community standards” or that it “includes content that other people on Facebook have reported as abusive” (depending on how you try to set a link you get either of those “error” messages). The latter suggests that it’s the result of a campaign, and not a mistake by fb’s AI as we initially assumed. But this is speculation – no reason or cause has been given by facebook.
Links to datacide-magazine.com on facebook have been blocked for several weeks now – we and a number of people have filed complaints/error reports, but unsurprisingly these have been ignored by facebook. It’s a crass example of an intransparent and unaccountable Behemoth exercising censorship.
Paris, December 5, 2019: Tense moments on the first day of the nationwide strike against the proposed changes of the pension system in France. We’re waiting on Place de la République for the demo to arrive. The demo started at Gare de l’Est (only about 15 minutes walk from République) and is supposed to head south to Nation. Boulevard de Magenta is already full of people, but somehow they’re not getting on to République. Instead objects are set on fire right at the junction of Magenta and République which gives the “forces of order” the pretext to throw teargas grenades into the crowd. Uncut footage from about 3.45pm at Place de la République.
On Monday, November 12th, 2018 the last of three trials against members of the neo-Nazi group National Action ended with convictions of three people, including Daniel Bogunovic and a couple, Claudia Patatas and Adam Thomas. They will be sentenced on December 14th.
National Action was a British openly neo-Nazi group founded in 2013. The group cultivated a militant image and notoriously carried a banner with the slogan “Refugees not welcome” and the hashtag #hitlerwasright at public demonstrations. Since December 2016 the group has been proscribed under the Terrorism Act 2000. Since then, however, they have continued to organise under different covers. They are believed to have prepared for a “race war”, plotted an assassination, and advocated violence against and extermination of Jews and “non-whites”. They also celebrated the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox.Following investigations and arrests, several court cases have led to convictions for membership in a terrorist organisation and other offences. Several members were sentenced to prison terms of up to eight years (various news sources here, here and here)
While the press was very much concerned with the fact that Patatas and Thomas gave their baby son the middle name Adolf, that they had a swastika-shaped cookie cutter and that they were dressing up in Ku Klux Klan outfits, the connection to the far right Neofolk music scene remained overlooked.
For the BBC story providing a more detailed overview of the National Action case click on screenshot:
A tumblr blog called harsherreality has collected evidence that Patatas was a “close associate of Death In June’s Douglas Pearce, Sol Invictus’ Tony Wakeford, Allerseelen’s Gerhard Hallstatt, fascist publishers Michael Moynihan and Troy Southgate and a host of neo-folk musicians and activists – most of whom publicly deny their fascist involvement.” [Read more →]
