The Deputy Director General of the Internal Security Organisation (ISO), Lt. Col. Emmy Katabazi, has urged the Uganda National Students Association (UNSA) leaders representing several learning institutions across the country to protect African heritage if they are to build a better future.
This was during the 33rd Inter Guild Council 2023 held at the Wakisha Resource Centre in Wakiso District on Hoima Road under the theme “Fostering Youth Leadership and Democratic Engagements,” held on October 20, 2023. The association has been under student leadership since 1988.
He reminded the student leaders why UNSA was formed, reflecting on their spirit and aspirations as student leaders then. They took into account that Africans have been victims of the retrogressive forces in the world, which some youth admire. The Western world has subjected Africans to slavery, colonisation, and neo-colonialism.
“300 million Africans perished across the ocean being carried to slavery in America. The whole of Western Africa, Angola, Namibia, etc. do not have a population. Not that people never wanted to live there. Those places were depopulated. The African people, with their sweat and labour, created a political economy called surplus value, or what you people call capital. That was re-invested and replaced manual labour with machines, and at the discovery of machines, slaves were no longer required in large numbers because those who were not labouring were doing the thinking and they did novations. They discovered machines, an ,machines replaced labour,” Katabazi stated.
He asked them to pursue relevant education that would challenge them to think better than being leaders who are led by others.
UNSA is the umbrella organisation for all students in post-primary institutions in Uganda. Its operations are supported by the Parliamentary Education Act, Part VI, Section 30, which mandates the establishment of UNSA student councils in post-primary institutions.
