122 Political chronicles of the African Great Lakes Region 2019 Chroniques politiques de l’Afrique des grands lacs 2019 Pike, William, Combatants: A memoir of the bush war and the press in Uganda, Independently Published, 2019, 294 pages Combatants begins with the author’s personal life story. William Pike was born in 1952 in Tanganyika, where his father served as Provincial Commissi- oner. He saved up to tour Afghanistan and studied at the University of York, where he wrote an essay on the Yugoslav Partisans resistance group. Little did he know that he would later get involved with another guerrilla struggle. In London, Pike worked as a writer and journalist, and became a political activist for the Labour Party, returning to independent Tanzania as a freelance journa- list in 1982. It was during his time in Swahili classes in Tanzania that he met Cathy Watson. They were married in Kampala on 3 June 1989. Pike was introduced to Uganda by Ben Matogo while studying at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). “The School of Oriental and African Studies coffee bar changed my life for it was there that I met Ben Matogo” (p. 17). While in Tanzania, Pike had received a master’s scholarship to study at SOAS. Matogo introduced Pike to other leading Ugandan figures in exile, including Ruhakana Rugunda and Eriya Kategaya. Thus began Pike’s association with the rebel group that would take power in Uganda. Rugunda had invited the Africa Now magazine editor Richard Carver to visit Luwero and the National Resistance Army (NRA).13 The invitation was turned down and William Pike, in search of a big story that would make his name as a jour- nalist, asked for the opportunity to travel and interview the guerrillas. NRA exiles eventually managed to arrange his travel to witness what was happe- ning in Uganda. When the NRA captured power in 1986, Pike was appointed editor-in-chief of the government newspaper the New Vision, a job he held until 2006, when he left for Kenya. Rather than delving into details of each chapter, in this review I will focus on the defining moments in the book, together with an overall view of the contents of the book, a critique and my personal reflections. One interesting feature of Combatants is Pike’s interaction with NRA historical leaders who lived in exile and those in the bush. Eriya Kategaya is described as ever ca- gey, impressive and sparing with words, charming, reserved, good company and animated when discussing politics. Ruhakana Rugunda is the impressive bearded extrovert who was fluent in revolutionary rhetoric; Kirunda Kivejin- ja is wiry, energetic and full of revolutionary rhetoric. Matayo Kyaligonza is remembered as a jovial, chubby-faced fellow; Kale Kayihura is sensitive looking with a diffident manner; Salim Saleh is a man of few words, char- ming, hospitable, smoker of cigarettes and video watcher; Elly Tumwine is the soft spoken and “thin shy man”; Jim Muhwezi is very shrewd, “relaxed 13 The National Resistance Army (NRA) was the guerilla army that brought Museveni to power in 1986. Book reviews | comptes rendus 123 and charming with a toothy grin” (p. 170). Kizza Besigye meanwhile is des- cribed as a stocky young man with a friendly face; David Tinyefuza as tough, ebullient and eloquent, big with a pop-eyed face and a fluent talker; Kahinda Otafiire is a straight talker; Mugisha Muntu is “boyish but ascetic” (p. 174); Noble Mayombo is “charming, ambitious and ultra-loyalist” (p. 265). One reviewer puts it this way: “The book is strewn with such insights into the ideas and disposition of characters who we have come to know differently”.14 My personal view is that this description of political and military elites before they captured power is crucial in understanding present-day dynamics. This characterization is significant because we can compare the views of NRA elites before capturing power and in the current setting. For example, they despised presidents Amin and Obote for promoting nepotism and favou- ritism of the Langi and Acholi. Analysts would today argue that looking at top army officers, for example, similar issues can be traced. What has changed is the shift of regions from northern to western Uganda. The NRA historical lea- ders Pike interacted with also anticipated and shared with the author ideas on how they would govern Uganda once the NRA captured power. Most of these values, such as eliminating corruption, are captured in the NRA’s 10-point programme. Some in Ugandan circles think the NRA could have done better. It is thus not surprising when Bobi Wine, the popstar musician turned oppo- sition politician claims that he will implement the 10-point programme if he assumes power in 2021.15 The author recounts Museveni’s vision of fixing Uganda’s economy, for example by discouraging imports and encouraging ex- ports. Many years later, the president is still bargaining with the Kampala City Traders Association (KACITA) to stop the import of basics that can be produ- ced in Uganda. Museveni also criticized African leaders who stayed too long in power. Pike recounts how Museveni for example pleaded with the former Zambian president not to change the constitution and cling on to power. “[…] when Frederick Chiluba was thinking of changing the constitution to stand for a third term as president in Zambia, Museveni sent him a personal message through Zambian journalist Buchizya Mseteka telling him not to make that mistake” (p. 270). Fast forward to 2019, the Ugandan constitution has been changed twice to remove presidential term and age limits, all in favour of one man. My disappointment in reading Combatants stems mainly from Chapter 11(c). The author talks about Rwandan refugees in the NRA but in my view does not further probe this important part of history, namely the treatment of 14 http://angeloizama.com/combatants-a-memoir-of-the-bush-war-and-the-press-in-uganda- by-william-pike-a- review/, last consulted 3 March 2020. 15 “I will implement Museveni’s 10-Point Programme – Bobi Wine”, Daily Monitor, 15 June 2019. 124 Political chronicles of the African Great Lakes Region 2019 Chroniques politiques de l’Afrique des grands lacs 2019 Rwandan refugees who participated in the NRA war, given that the Rwandese were a key part of the manpower that fought the bush war. In a 1990 interview with Museveni, the author raised the issue of the treatment of Rwandan sol- diers in Uganda but fails to go into details. “I asked him if the invasion was due to a failure of the NRA intelligence or to the NRA turning a blind eye to the plans of the Banyarwanda soldiers in the NRA” (p. 203). Still, the treat- ment of Fred Rwigyema, Paul Kagame and the other Rwandan soldiers in the NRA is insufficiently addressed. The author claims, for example, that Rwigye- ma “became the victim of ethnic politics” (p. 206). He recounts a 1990 army reshuffle when army commander Elly Tumwine was removed and replaced with Mugisha Muntu. “Muntu could not leapfrog Rwigyema yet Rwigyema could not be made Army Commander because he was a Rwandese refugee. Rwigyema was retired and made Deputy Minister of Defence” (p. 206). An interview the author had with Kagame also hints at the issue but without del- ving into details. “In Uganda, you can build a life. Then someone comes and says ‘Go, you are not a Ugandan!’. People have the feeling that being outside has not worked”, Kagame noted (p. 213). In his 2005 book Shake Hands with the Devil, Canadian Gen. Romeo Dallaire narrates a visit he paid to Kagame at Mulindi during the RPF’s armed struggle, setting out what the rebel leader told him about his life and lessons learnt as an NRA combatant. Kagame narrated his own experience living in Ugandan refugee camps, as “[…] always the outsider, the minority, tolerated but never really accepted as an equal”.16 Dallaire, who commanded the UN peacekeeping force UNAMIR in Rwanda before and during the genocide, re- ported that Kagame told him “he was never able to rise to his full potential in the NRA because no one ever forgot he was Rwandan”.17 The issue regarding the treatment of Rwandan soldiers in the NRA is relevant at a time when two former comrades, Museveni and Kagame, are locked in a hostile stalemate over the closed border as well as accusations and counter-allegations of espi- onage and destabilisation. For a keen follower of the ongoing dispute between Rwanda and Uganda, and the charged rhetoric coming from RPF historical leaders such as James Kabarebe, the question of how Rwandan refugees were treated during the NRA struggle and after the capture of Kampala has largely been avoided by those with first-hand accounts from the Luwero Triangle. Pike fails to pick up this crucial issue. Can we say that Pike’s assessment of the NRA struggle is objective? He rubbed shoulders with NRA exiles, whom he admits had a tremendous im- pact on his life. Some in Uganda think he helped galvanize support for the rebel outfit by publicizing to the outside world the rebels’ ideals. The author 16 DALLAIRE, R., Shake hands with the devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda, London, Penguin Random House, 2003, p. 155. 17 Idem. Book reviews | comptes rendus 125 acknowledges this. “Extraordinarily, he [Museveni] asked me to convey to the Foreign Office my impressions of the strength of NRA. In particular, I was to inform them that the NRA only needed 1,000,000 rounds of 7.62mm ammunition to finish off the war” (p.