Peace Service Ambassador Milton Kambula has appealed to Ugandans to end the politics of radicalisation and extremism if the country is to avoid the killing of innocent people who are ready to die for what they believe in.
This was in his message as the country marks and commemorates the Martyrs’ Day in Namugongo a day dedicated to remember Ugandans who were killed on the orders of King Mwanga II as they kept professing their new religious denominations.
Amb. Kambula a strong Pan- Africanist highlighted that what led to the creation of the martyrs was a clash of two civilisations thriving through radicalisation and extremism that failed to create room for co-existence.
“The leaders all over Africa felt that the African civilisation which is more than 10,000 years ago that was adopted by the rest of the world including Greece and the Middle East was under threat by the other civilisation that came with the foreign religions with the introduction of the bible and the Koran,” Amb. Kambula said.
Amb. Kambula said that there was need for dialogue between the cultural leaders and the religious leaders to find room for co-existence, respecting each other as they deliver religious and cultural freedoms.
“The foreign religious leaders; the missionaries, the sheikhs that came with a strategy of demonizing everything that is African caused kingdoms to radically resist by killing those that believed in foreign religions,” Kambula said.
Kambula noted that the foreign religious missionaries needed to give assurance to the cultural leaders that they were never a threat to their faith, traditions, cultural norms and design a better strategy for co-existence.
Kambula warned that if the country does not harmonize the different lines of belief, we may see more martyrs in the field of politics, business and family among others.
“The way we are building our nation is that we have transferred that mentality of ‘Us versus Them’, killing the potential of nation building. We are developing policies, businesses, government structures that favor one group against the other yet in the modern world we got to have a hybrid of win-win to avoid identity-based conflicts,” Kambula emphasised.
Kambula observed that Ugandans should stop identity-based conflict since this does not take the country anywhere.
“What can take us to another level is building a nation of united people with transformed mindsets and attitudes towards traditional kingdoms and religious systems.”
He added that the youth should grow beyond these mistakes and build a new nation that can become light to the realization of Africa’s integration and prosperity.
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