The writer is an assistant professor of African history at Creighton University. He is formerly a journalist from The Gambia, West Africa.
 
There is a growing, almost global movement to capture and try Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony for crimes against humanity.
Indicted by the International Criminal Court in October 2005, Kony has so far evaded capture and continues to terrorize civilians, especially children, in war-ravaged northern Uganda.
Yes, Kony needs to be stopped. But Kony's capture will not end Uganda's political crisis, because Kony is just one side of the Ugandan problem. The other, more insidious side is President Yoweri Museveni.
In power since January 1986, Museveni is Africa's "darling" of the West. He had scored major successes against HIV/AIDS and brought some economic stability to Uganda. His government was touted as one of the most democratic in Africa, even though there were no rival parties to challenge his rule and no limits to how many times he could seek re-election. As long as Museveni kept the Communists out, Uganda was a model of democracy.
It was in appreciation of his sterling democratic credentials that Museveni was welcomed into the Ronald Reagan White House in October 1987. He has since been a regular visitor to the White House. He met with George H.W. Bush in October 1990, with Bill Clinton in June 1994 and with George W. Bush in June 2003, June 2004 and September 2008.
America considers Museveni a paragon of democracy in Africa in spite of his very poor human rights record — well documented in U.S. State Department reports. Periodic multi-party elections in Uganda since 1996 are cited in Western capitals as evidence of Museveni's dedication to democracy.
So why, you may ask, do Ugandans keep re-electing Museveni if they did not like him? Well, here's part of the answer: African presidents win elections not necessarily because people like them but because, among other reasons, Africa's political culture remains largely unchanged from the precolonial days.
Most Africans consider presidents the way their ancestors considered kings and chiefs — as God-ordained and therefore perpetually legitimate rulers. In many African societies, opposition to the president is considered opposition to the divine will.
Indeed, political opposition is believed to have originated in Satan's opposition to God in the Bible and Koran. Because there is no word for "president" in African languages, African presidents are termed kings or chiefs, a misnomer they visibly encourage.
Of course, there's always the tired argument about Africa being different from the West and the dangers of imposing Western democracy on African societies. I contend that democracy does not belong to any particular region of the world.
The rights associated with democratic governance — respect for human rights and the rule of law, the right to frequent and orderly changes of leadership, the right to freedom of expression and association, the right to hold one's government accountable — are human rights, not Western rights. Unless Africans are considered subhuman, they should enjoy all political rights enjoyed by Westerners.
Truth, justice and fair play do not belong solely to the West. The terms of the social contract between rulers and the ruled should be observed in any nation-state — even when, as in Africa, most people are not aware that this social contract exists and that they are the true repositories of political power.
Western republics should be asking the following:
What discontent caused the revolt against the Museveni government by Kony's Lord's Resistance Army?
Why should Museveni repeatedly contest and win elections in Uganda to the exclusion of political opponents as well as members of his own ruling party?
Is Museveni the only person capable of leading Uganda?
Does Uganda qualify as a democracy when it has been ruled by one man for the past 26 years?
Would a regime like Museveni's be called democratic if it existed in the West?
The efforts to end Kony's atrocities are certainly worthwhile, but getting Kony will merely cure the symptoms of a disease whose causes lie in Museveni's one-man rule.
That, too, needs to end.