UGANDA COUNTRY READER TABLE OF CONTENTS Stephen Low 1957-1959 Deputy Chief of Mission, Kampala Hendri k Van Oss 1960-1962 Counsel General, Kampala Mi hael Pistor 1960-1961 Publi Affairs Assistant, US,S, Kampala Herman -. Cohen 1962-1963 Labor Atta h0, Kampala Hora e G. Dawson -r. 1962-1961 Cultural Affairs Offi er, US,A, Kampala Ol ott H. Deming 1962-1966 Ambassador, Uganda Miles 3edeman 1962-1968 Head of Capital Development and 6inan e, Afri a 7ureau, USA,D, 3ashington, DC 7eauveau 7. Nalle 1963-1966 Offi er-,n-Charge of Uganda Affairs, 3ashington, DC Samuel V. Smith 1965-1966 Pea e Corps Volunteer, Mbale 7eauveau 7. Nalle 1967-1970 Politi al Offi er, Kampala Roy Sta ey 1968-1969 Uganda Desk Offi er, USA,D, 3ashington, DC Vernon C. -ohnson 1970-1973 Mission Dire tor, USA,D, Kampala Arthur S. 7erger 1971-1972 Assistant Publi Affairs Offi er, Kampala Robert V. Keeley 1971-1973 Deputy Chief of Mission, Kampala Thomas P. Melady 1972-1973 Ambassador, Uganda Hariadene -ohnson 1977-1982 Offi e Dire tor for East Afri a, USA,D, 3ashington, DC Melissa 6oels h 3ells 1979-1982 United Nations Resident Representative, Uganda Gordon R. 7eyer 1980-1983 Ambassador, Uganda Allen C. Davis 1983-1985 Ambassador, Uganda ,rvin D. Coker 1983-1986 Mission Dire tor, USA,D, Kampala Greta N. Morris 1986-1988 Publi Affairs Offi er, US,S, Kampala Stephen Eisenbraun 1986-1988 Uganda Desk Offi er, State Department, 3ashington, DC Ri hard Podol 1986-1989 Mission Dire tor, USA,D, Kampala Robert E. Gribbin 1988-1991 Deputy Chief of Mission, Kampala ,rvin D. Coker 1989-1991 Commission for the Reform of the Publi Servi e, New York & Uganda A. Ellen Shippy 1991-1991 Deputy Chief of Mission, Kampala E. Mi hael Southwi k 1991-1997 Ambassador, Uganda STEPHEN LOW Deputy Chief of Mission ampala (1957-1959) Ambassador Stephen Low was born in Ohio in 1927. He received his bachelor's degree from ale, and his master's and doctorate from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. In addition to Nigeria, Ambassador Low served in Uganda, Senegal, and Zambia. He was interviewed by Charles Stuart Kennedy in 1997. LO3: ,t proved to be a wonderful learning experien e. Not many people are given the han e to be "DCM" Adeputy hief of missionB in their first overseas assignment - this being a two-man post. Peter, the onsul, said at the beginning, ",Cm going to do the politi al work and you do all the rest." The young staff and , puDDled through the onsular manual and issued immigrant visas, non-immigrant visas, and prote tion, e onomi reporting, and anything else that was needed. , remember one period, when our both our one se retary and Peter were away, Sue, as our interim se retary had to de ode the in oming message using the terribly time- onsuming one-time-pad system for whi h she had been spe ially leared. A little over a year after we arrived, the post re eived its first inspe tion. , remember being enormously impressed by the inspe tion pro ess. The hief inspe tor was Phil Sprouse, an ambassador in Cambodia. His attitude was "Here are people trying to work out how to set up a post as best they an. ,Cll use my experien e to help them." He was great. ,t was one of the most positive experien es of my areer. He and his administrative assistant went through mu h of what we had done pointing where we were right, sometimes suggesting alternatives, and sometimes showing us where we had made mistakes. Their attitude was positive and onstru tive. The experien e gave us a great boost, and , think we ame out of it Euite well. The onsul, Peter Hooper, was one of the best people the 6oreign Servi e produ ed. He was a remarkable man who had the great talent of being able to dis over in everybody he met what it was that they were parti ularly good at, what they parti ularly knew or understood. People would go in to see him and ,Cd think, "How an he possibly spend all that time with that person when he has so mu h else to doF" 7ut when theyCd ome out, Peter would share with me the most remarkable insights that he gained from that onversation. He was an enormously talented person, a great diplomat. He didnCt have his wife with him and he had three hildren. So, we were very busy helping with family matters. ,- ou were in Kampala from when to when. LO3: 1957-1959. ,- Could you give me a little feeling about what you were getting up in the corridors of the State Department in this 1957 period about Africa as a place to go. 0here was a time when this as really 1uite e2citing. LO3: This was before that. 3hen , was in ,8R, the de ision had been taken to open four new posts in 1957G Yaounde, Kampala, 7raDDaville, and AbidHan. 7ob 6oulon, the Philippine desk offi er got so mu h involved in ommuni ating between Peter Hooper, who was going to Kampala, and me that he got interested himself and he went out to open Yaounde. 3alt Cutler went out as his deputy. So, we all knew ea h other. There was an interest, but it was still a kind of hypotheti al interest. -oe Palmer was the A ting Assistant Se retary for Afri an Affairs. This was a little before the great ex itement over Afri a showed itself. That was stimulated in large part by the appearan e of the first few Afri an independent ountries, starting with Ghana, whi h began in 1960. So, this was the very, very beginning. One of the interesting moments for me was when Peter went home on home leave and they alled a hief of missions onferen e. So, in my first assignment overseas, , went as Ia ting) hief of mission to LourenDo MarEues, MoDambiEue. ,t was a heady experien e for a young 6oreign Servi e offi er. Along with ea h senior representative to an Afri an ountry , gave a short presentation on Uganda. ,t was a fas inating ountry, distinguished from TanDania and Kenya by the fa t that non-native born persons were not permitted to own land there. As a result, there were fewer ra ial problems than in the other two ountries. On the other hand, in many ways, it was less developed than the other two - wealthier be ause of offee, but less developed. 6or us, it was an absolutely fas inating experien e. The la k of onta t or knowledge between the U.S. and Uganda was profound. , remember a seminar on the U.S. whi h the US,A representative set up in Mbale in eastern Uganda. My wife and , both spoke. Someone in the audien e asked how the people in ,ndiana ommuni ated with the people in Ohio. 3e realiDed that they saw the United States as a number of separate tribal "Red ,ndian" ommunities ruled over by white governors sent out by 3ashington. ,t was just extraordinary how little understanding there was. The man who helped us in the kit hen had to be shown how to use a s rewdriver. On the other hand there were some very sophisti ated Ugandans. One of our very good friends was the first woman Ugandan to graduate from Oxford. She was a member of the legislature and a very apable person. She be ame dire tor of the only girls high s hool in the ountry. She was married to a TanDanian from our house. The diplomati ommunity was small. The "dean" of the orps was a very bright and able Sudanese from the south of his ountry. The only other professional diplomat was the ,ndian. Then the Portuguese and perhaps one other ountry had honorary onsuls. ,t was very friendly and informal. Relations between us and the 7ritish were friendly, but sometimes a little strained. The government and senior offi ers in London understood why we were there - be ause we ould see independen e oming and wanted to begin making onta t, understanding the ountryCs dynami s and establishing friendly relations. Some members of the Colonial Servi e harbored suspi ions that we wanted to repla e them in Afri a. ,t was not always easy to onvin e them that we had no desire to assume responsibility there. Good relations between the 7ritish and independent Afri a were very mu h in our interest. 3e might be able to help that but we hoped they would ontinue to exer ise a supportive relationship. At one point, the 7ritish Chief Se retary Isenior areer offi ial, se ond to the Governor) who was a very tall, gruff man, alled me in to his offi e in Entebbe where the government was and said he had understood that , had been Euoted as being in favor of early Ugandan independen e. This was something that , ertainly never would have said. , have no idea where he got the idea, but , an remember him shaking a bony finger in my fa e and saying, "Young man, this ountry is not going to be independent for at least 25 years." Of ourse, it was independent three years later. Then he added, "3eCre not going to make any on essions by bringing Ugandans into government until they fully merit it." Of ourse, the upshot was that at the time of independen e there were few Afri ans in positions of responsibility.