Early Life and Career (1944–1972)
Born on 15 August 1944 in Ntungamo, Uganda Protectorate, Museveni is a member of the Banyankole ethnic group and his surname, Museveni, means "Son of a man of the Seventh", in honour of the Seventh Battalion of the King's African Rifles, the British colonial army in which many Ugandans served during World War II.
Museveni gets his middle name from his father, Amos Kaguta, a cattle herder. Amos Kaguta is also the father of Museveni's brother Caleb Akandwanaho, popularly known in Uganda as "Salim Saleh", and sister Violet Kajubiri.
Museveni attended Kyamate Elementary School, Mbarara High School, and Ntare School. It was while at high school that he became a born-again Christian. In 1967, he went to the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. There, he studied economics and political science and became a Marxist, involving himself in radical pan-African politics. While at university, he formed the University Students' African Revolutionary Front activist group and led a student delegation to FRELIMO territory in Portuguese Mozambique, where he received guerrilla training. Studying under the leftist Walter Rodney, among others, Museveni wrote a university thesis on the applicability of Frantz Fanon's ideas on revolutionary violence to post-colonial Africa.
In 1970, Museveni joined the intelligence service of Ugandan President Dr. Apolo Milton Obote. When Major General Idi Amin seized power in a January 1971 military coup, Museveni fled to Tanzania with other exiles, including the deposed president. The power bases of Amin and Obote were very different, leading to a significant ethnic and regional aspect to the resulting conflict. Obote was from the Lango ethnic group of the central north, while Amin was a Kakwa from the northwestern corner of the country. The British colonial government had organized the colony's internal politics so that the Lango and Acholi dominated the national military, while people from southern parts of the country were active in business. This situation endured until the coup, when Amin filled the top positions of government with Kakwa and Lugbara and violently repressed the Lango and their Acholi allies.
Read more about this topic: Yoweri Museveni
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