About Us
Mindset Change for and by Tropical Africans
We offer Mindshift Tools to enable people reclaim personal agency from tribal, religious and colonial conditioning
A 20-year intellectual project
From a single idea in 2003 while our founder was living in the US, to a registered NGO in 2019 and now a global intellectual movement with a UK presence — the Fourth Heritage Initiative has been built book by book, conversation by conversation.
Officially launched at the Uganda National Theatre on September 12, 2022. Now preparing for its 4th year Anniversary — and its most significant year of output including soon-to-come publication of a new book ‘The Book of Muntu: Our Ancestor’s guide to Identity and Mindshift’.
Purpose
Mission
To create the new African who is critical and able to transcend the limiting factors caused by our heritages of birth.
Vision
To be the foremost mindset transformation organisation in Africa.
Motto
— The Board
Meet our Board of Directors
Emmanuel S. Kirunda
Founder and Chairman
Prof. Mercy Mirembe Ntangaare
Director
Mununuzi Timothy Kisakye
Director
Fagil Manday
Board Member Emeritus
— FAQs
Learn More About Us
What are the triple heritages?
This is a term coined by the late Professor Ali Mazrui to refer to the three heritage or ethnicity, religions and colonial influences that we Africans are born into.
What are the six killer mindsets?
These are the six self-defeating mindsets that most of us Africans are groomed with by our societies and educational systems. They play a major role in sabotaging our success in modern civilization. They are:
1. Victimhood mentality: Our people have internalized the belief that we are eternal victims of history. We feel powerless to change our state of affairs. Our instinct is to blame every shortcoming in our society on what the outsiders did.
2. Inferiority complex: Most of our people, whether educated or not, feel inferior to non-Africans (specifically Europeans and Arabs).
3. Self-hate: On a deep psychological level, many of our people grow up thinking that every aspect of us is so backward and ugly that they hate themselves.
4. Eagerness to consume foreign things or “Copycatism”: From the physical things that we import to the religions and languages we speak, it is hard to find much in our societies that is independent of non-African creations. Even “our countries” and politics are copycats from outsiders.
5. Herd mentality: Most of our people exist merely as passive members of a group, who just follow groupthink – they do or believe things just because the group does so.
6. The African Elite Dilemma: The more educated and advanced we get in this modern world, the more we are cut off from our spiritual, emotional, and intellectual traditional roots. This causes cognitive dissonance, a mental paralysis. The more modern we get, the more we get cut off from our roots. However, no tree can stand tall without its roots. No wonder, we end up developing two existential civilisational problems.
What is The Fourth Heritage?
This is the mental framework that uses human sceptical reasoning to guide your embrace of the tribal heritage, to understand your religious faith and to choose the good while discarding the bad within the European and Arab colonial heritages.
Who are Transitional Africans ?
All present Africans who are transitioning beyond the tribal existence to internalize Arab-Islam or Western-Christianity as their dominant identities.
Who are the Fourth Heritage Africans?
Those Africans who have transitioned beyond the limits of the triple heritages to identify with a dominant African collective identity.
Our History
January 2003
Genesis of the first ideas that ended up becoming The Fourth Heritage
This is the final milestone. We are currently hardening the Public Beta, addressing all community feedback, and ensuring a seamless, one-click upgrade from Divi 4. The Official Release will be the stable, polished, and fully-realized version of Divi 5, delivered as a standard update to all users and setting a new foundation for future innovation.
August 2009
Fourth Heritage Book Publication Celebration
Saturday, August 8th, 2009. Birthday and Book Publication Celebration. At Nasty’s Rugby Bar (Guadalupe and 36th Street, Austin, Texas).
September 2009
Book presentation to ‘Ugandans in North America’ Conference – Chicago
Among the notable people I spoke with or gave copies of the book were: Hon. Beti Kamya, Prof. Latigo Ogenga, Speaker Ssekandi, Mr. Opiyo Oloya, Prof. Muyingo, etc.
September 2009
Book presentation at Lafayette College, Pennsylvania, U.S.A
I gave a 20 minute power point presentation to a group of students and 6 professors at a lunchtime meeting sponsored by the ACACIA society and the Leonardo Engineering club.
October 2009
Book presentation to Ugandan-American Association of Dallas
On the occasion of celebrating Uganda’s 47 years of Independence, I was invited by the Ugandan-American Association of Greater Dallas to present my book and take part in the celebrations. As one of the 6 invited guests who sat on the ‘high table’ at the Nyaritex Conference Center event, it was a real honour to speak to an audience of hundreds of Ugandans. Besides the opportunity of eating matooke and watching kiganda maggunju dancers, I was delighted to hear from different Ugandans about their progress here in the U.S.A and also about the ‘problems’ that are faced by millions of Ugandans back home.
October 2009
Book signing first edition of The Fourth Heritage, Austin, Texas
I am grateful to MonkeyWrench Bookstore for giving me an opportunity to present my book and hold a book signing event. In a fully packed bookstore setting, I gave a 20-minute presentation of why I wrote the book and the major themes found in the book.
February 2011
The publication of The Fourth Republic, and Second edition of The Fourth Heritage
May 2012
The Fourth Heritage second edition book launch: Makerere University, Senate Conference Hall
The Fourth Heritage second edition book launch: Makerere University, Senate Conference Hall (May 2012). The event was attended by over 30 people, and the chief guest was Professor Patrick Muzaale.
December 2015
Kampala retreat about actualizing The Fourth Heritage
The retreat was used to achieve the following:
1. Understanding the central message that the author wants to convey.
2. Practical ways for each individual to go about actualizing “The Fourth Heritage”
3. Discuss opportunities to disseminate the book to the general public (media, schools, etc).
4. Discuss the idea of an annual Critics Challenge to serve as an incentive for the general public to access the book and actively engage in its ideas.
July 2016
Publication of Beyond the Fourth Heritage
July 2016
BBC Radio Interview about ‘Beyond the Fourth Heritage’
October 2016
London Book Signing
November 2016
The Launch of ‘Beyond the Fourth Heritage’ Kampala, Uganda
June 2017
Retreat about the book ‘Beyond the Fourth Heritage’, Kampala Uganda
December 2017
The launch of the smaller Uganda version of the book ‘Beyond the Fourth Heritage’
The event took place in December 2017 at Golf Hotel, Kampala. The guest of honour was the former Inspector of Education Mr Fagil Mandy. Over 200 people showed up including members of the media. The author attended the event with members of his family.
December 2018
Retreat about the formation of the NGO, Kampala Uganda
January 2021
Publication of The EDISAC Framework
The EDISAC framework is a way of thinking that aims to inspire Africans to consolidate their intelligence and deepen collective memories beyond oral tribal history and the colonial state. We do this by internalizing a line of knowledge that starts from the fact that some problems stem from an Error passed on from our tribal ancestors; one that has left many considering either the tribe, foreign religions or the colonial state as their Dominant identities instead of a continental African identity.
September 2022
Launch of the Organization
Join us as we officially launch the Fourth Heritage Initiative in September 2022
September 2022
Press Feature (NilePost): Batambuze hails Kirunda on publication of Beyond the Fourth Heritage
Charles Batambuze, the executive secretary of the National Book Trust, said Kirunda had performed an important function of educating the public which more writers should endeavour to do.
September 2022
Press Feature (DaParrot): Reading is a Proper Tool for Mindset Change- Leader and Author Emmanuel S. Kirunda
Emmanuel S. Kirunda, the chairman of the Fourth Heritage Initiative recommends that if Ugandans commit to reading, they will discover a lot of proper information thus impacting mindset change.
September 2022
Press Feature (Charmar News): Ugandan UK-based author to launch Fourth Heritage Initiative, a mindset change initiative for Africa
Kirunda has partnered with UNCC for the 4th Heritage Initiative launch. Andrew Ssebaggala, the UNCC Production Manager, said the Initiative is aligned to their mandate which is to preserve, promote and popularize Uganda’s cultural heritage locally and internationally through entertainment and education.