By Charles Ochen Okwir

I have heard the media, friends, and foes alike, persistently using the term “self-imposed exile” when referring to some Ugandans who, for whatever reason, somehow find themselves in exile and unable to return to Uganda.  Examples of such references are plentiful.  When, for example, in 2005 Dr. Kizza Besigye returned from exile in South Africa, most Journalists who covered that great political epoch were quick to declare that Dr. Besigye was returning from, and I quote, “his self-imposed exile”.  Only last week, it was reported that FDC’s International Envoy Anne Mugisha had returned from her “self imposed exile”.  It is one those passively made insinuations that I have never been able to understand.  So let me ask you the esteemed readers of Uganda Correspondent:  In all honesty, is there such a thing as “self-imposed exile”? 

Personally, I consider that sort of reference to be something that is borne of and fuelled by intellectual laziness; no more than that.  English being a foreign language to us Ugandans, I think it would be very interesting to hear what the native English speakers have to say about the use of the term “self-imposed exile”.  For now, it really doesn’t make sense to me at all. 

First of all, by definition, genuine {and I use that word very advisedly} exile is a place you find yourself in involuntarily.  And more often than not, you find yourself in exile for nothing less than the sheer “need” to preserve yourself from political persecution; usually by a paranoid despot who simply cannot stand your political activism or even mere views.  So, can this most instinctive human act of “self-preservation” indeed be the same as this weird term called “self-imposed exile”?  Or is it the irrelevant fact that the exiled person is, in the end, the one who takes the final decision to flee that makes those who use the term use it in reference to an exiled person? 

I think I confuse myself even more with my firm belief that that no one, absolutely no one in fact, would casually want to abandon his or her loved ones and leave his or her motherland without a very compelling “push-factor” bearing heavily on his or her mind.  A place of exile is, in most cases, totally alien to the exiled person.  Surely then, an alien culture, language, way of life, and so forth, can’t make for the most hospitable environment can it?  So why would anyone in his or her right mind want to voluntarily subject him or herself to such discomfort in a foreign land without good reason?  Forgive me for using the tired old cliché, but I think the saying “east or west, home is best” didn’t gain global prominence for nothing.  The fear of persecution, a menacing reality in Uganda today, and in many other parts of the world, is one such push-factor that forces people to flee their countries.  There are other non-political factors too.  In the United Kingdom for example, of late, asylum cases involving Ugandan homosexuals are being heard in immigration tribunals.  This is, of course, a new phenomenon; because for a long time, and some might even argue that traditionally, the fear of homophobic attacks wasn’t one of the reasons recognized by the UN Convention on the Right of Refugees as a valid basis upon which one could seek asylum in a foreign country. 

That notwithstanding, today, the claim by these people is that they are being persecuted for their homosexuality; something they claim again, and quite rightly, is still considered a taboo in African society.  Of course, I am under no illusion whatsoever that there are many bogus cases of asylum being peddled out there.  The FDC United Kingdom Chapter Secretariat in London for example, has, because of these bogus political asylum cases, had to develop a very strict vetting mechanism that involves the approval of FDC HQ in Najjanankumbi in order to sieve the genuine from the bogus. 

So, following on from the fact that there are indeed some bogus political asylum claimants, the other questions I would like to pose are this:  Could it then be that when Journalists and other ordinary individuals say that so and so is in “self-imposed exile”, they actually mean that there was no valid political basis for such a person to flee into exile?  Isn’t the perception of danger to oneself a subjective affair that is informed by individual judgment?  Or is the use of the phrase “self-imposed exile” in reference to an exiled person merely a derogatory euphemism that is deployed to imply that somehow, those who flee into exile in the interest of “self-preservation”, are not strong-willed and or thick-skinned enough; and therefore unfit for the life and death rough and tumble of African politics?  Should African politics be a matter of life and death anyway?  I don’t know about you, but I am signing off still as confused as I was when I started writing this piece.  charlesokwir@yahoo.com

Charles Okwir is an exiled Ugandan Lawyer and Journalist