This is a must-read for anyone interested in learning about the African tribal mind and its interpretation of the world as dominated by Eurocentric ideals.
In a brutally honest and yet reflective writing, Mr. Kirunda offers his critique with a uniquely African perspective. Written in the author's third language, English, this book attempts to use simple yet powerful reasoning to advocate a paradigm shift in the way Ugandans look at their tribal, religious and European/Colonial heritages. In a style rare to many African writings, Mr. Kirunda vividly describes his tribal life and the impact his parents had on his worldview. He then offers an unusually cold and intimate analysis of: the cultural confusion within the Uganda society, his personal hypothesis of why the Americans, Germans and Japanese are economically developed, the hindrances to development in Uganda, and his personal creative proposal of The Fourth Heritage as a way to integrate the triple heritages and also solve the fundamental hindrances to development. In a very intellectually persuasive way, he also generalizes that The Fourth Heritage can lead to a secular morality founded on Kant's philosophy which is in agreement with both the tribal culture and the western world. Lastly, in the appendix, Mr. Kirunda offers a thrilling discussion of the scientific account of humanity's origin in East Africa and what that means for the Ugandan human heritage.
Book 2: THE FOURTH REPUBLIC: A Possible Future for the Uganda Nation
This is a continuation book to The Fourth Heritage
The book attempts to propose an original model for Ugandan nation building and offer each citizen a personal "Ugandan dream". It is divided into eight chapters: 1) The Assumptions:the 10 'ifs' that can render this model a failure or in other words the conditions and circumstances that truthfully can foil the achievement of the much needed nation-building and self realization; 2) The Fundamental Pillars: the five initial conditions that I believe the super majority of citizens can agree upon and which can act as a cornerstone for our national society; 3) The Fourth Republic: the new general framework on how our society and nation could be re-organized; 4) The Non-Political Branches: the two branches of national authority (Human Heritage and Judiciary branches) that should be the pillars for every citizen's embrace of nationhood, theyserve every citizen independent of politics; 5) The Political Branches: the two arms of government (the Legislature and the Executive); 6) Inter-Branch Offices:several impartial national offices that function independent of the four national authority branches; 7) Local Government Administration:the two tier divisions for local administration (Local Councils and Districts); 8) What Next:a generalization on how this Fourth Republic national model could be adopted either in Uganda or in regard to the East African Federation initiative that is being worked on by the five countries of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
