ERIC KASHAMBUZI

Written by Eric Kashambuzi, on 06-09-2009 09:11

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The principal purpose of this autobiography is to dispel – and hopefully forever – the myth that progress – or lack of it – is the result of God’s will. I have heard many lament – especially during my research when I deliberately travelled by bus many times between Kampala and Rukungiri in Uganda in the 1980s – that there isn’t anything that can be done to end their poverty and suffering because they were not born lucky. As a result, instead of making an effort, they flocked to church for consolation hoping that the afterlife would be better. While prayer is necessary, it is not a sufficient condition on earth. My strong belief is that no one is genetically superior to another or born leader. My experience is that the difference is environmental – economic, social, cultural, organizational, etc.

I was born and raised in a relatively poor environment in a remote rural area of south west Uganda and in a large family with many relatives that needed my parents’ help – within the framework of extended family – against meager resources. From grade five through eight, I walked twenty miles daily to school without shoes. We had a rooster that served as an alarm clock. I could go on!

I pulled through school, career, parenting and writing because of a combination of factors – all of them environmental – including my parents’ determination to raise school fees provided I performed extremely well which served as an incentive; my strong conviction that with hard, diligent, persistent and strategic struggle I could go very far in achievements and distance – in the latter case from Uganda to the United Nations in New York City – and I set goals that I had to achieve no matter what.

I had three broad goals – to demonstrate through writing that much of what we were taught especially comparative advantage as raw material producers Africans got a poor deal; to prepare my children to compete with anyone at school or at work; and never to forget my parents and members of the community where I grew up. Read the book and judge for yourself.

Publisher: Jones Harvest Publishing; Pub. Date: 2009; Format: Paperback, 229pp
ISBN: 978-1-60388-270-5
ISBN: 1-60388-270-7