Museveni Urges Mali War College Officers to Champion Pan-Africanism, Economic Integration

Historical Missions for African Prosperity

Drawing on six decades of experience in continental affairs, President Museveni outlined three historical missions necessary for Africa’s development: creating prosperity, ensuring strategic security, and promoting political unity. He cautioned that Africa’s liberation struggle should not be viewed only through the lens of political independence, but as a path toward economic self-sufficiency.

“I have been involved in African affairs for the last 65 years. I was a follower of Modibo Keita, Kwame Nkrumah and Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, and I am a Pan-Africanist.”

President Yoweri Museveni, speaking to the delegation from the War College of Mali

Instead, he emphasized that wealth must be generated by producing goods and services for wider markets. He used his personal background in cattle keeping to illustrate that local tribes cannot provide the necessary scale for growth, pointing to the broader Ugandan market as the essential engine for his own success in milk and beef production.

Economic Transformation and the Money Economy

He identified four sectors as vital for this transformation: commercial agriculture, manufacturing and artisanship, services, and Information and Communications Technology (ICT).

The President highlighted a stark economic divide, noting that a meaningful share of the population remains outside the formal economy. When we last checked, we had 67 percent in the money economy and 33 percent still working only for the stomach, Museveni noted. He urged the 21 graduates—comprised of 20 senior military officers and one civilian official—to champion policies that move citizens into these four productive sectors to ensure national and continental stability.

Strategic Security and the Need for Continental Integration

Beyond economic growth, Museveni stressed that prosperity is vulnerable if a nation cannot defend itself. As the UPDF reported, the President observed that modern conflict has expanded beyond traditional land, air, and sea domains to include space. He argued that no single African nation has the capacity to dominate these four areas independently, making political integration an economic necessity for collective security.

The President’s vision for integration has faced practical hurdles, including colonial-era borders that leave landlocked nations like Uganda without direct access to the sea or the resources to develop a navy. He suggested that a unified East African Federation would pool resources, allowing for the development of advanced naval and air capabilities similar to those of Russia, China, India, and the United States.

Institutional Expansion and Future Training

To support these goals, the government is investing in the professionalization of its leadership.

The urgency of this training is underscored by the evolving nature of global conflict. With 82 senior officers trained since the college’s inception, the institution aims to fill the gap between tactical battlefield skills and the high-level strategic thinking required for regional stabilization and modern information warfare.

While the President continues to advocate for deeper ties, he acknowledged the geopolitical challenges facing the continent.