Every Ugandan state secondary school has been gifted two copies of President Yoweri Museveni’s autobiography, Sowing the Mustard Seed.
A statement from the ministry of education, which is headed by Mr Museveni’s wife, Janet, says that the book will ‘promote a proper understanding, appreciation and loyalty to Uganda’s national identity in a bid to foster peace and national cohesion for development’.
It says the book should be kept in each school’s library and students should be encouraged to read it.
The book, the statement says, ‘details the causes of our troubled national history, subsequent liberation and path to national recovery’.
However, critics say the move by the Museveni government, which has been in power for 31 years, is aimed at indoctrinating the youth, most of who have not known another President. Further, they claim that the book has since been re-edited, removing some of his former comrades in the five-year bush struggle like the late Sam Kalega Njuba.
‘Sowing the Mustard Seed’ was published in 1997 and it is largely based on a series of interviews Mr Museveni gave to British historian Kevin Shillington.
Mr Museveni, 73, is currently serving his fifth and last constitutional term.
