The impossibility of a Christian Democracy in Africa? The Uganda Experience

The case of Uganda is emblematic of the rivalry between Catholics and Protestants in innestatasi ripropostasi colonial era and in the process of independence. In particular, the party of Catholic inspiration in Uganda - the Democratic Party, founded in 1956 under the auspices of the Combonian Father Tarcisio Agostoni and the Archbishop of Rubaga, Joseph Kiwanuka - inspired by the model of the Italian and European Christian Democracy, intended to guide the state and society of the post-independence to democracy, to avert a possible authoritarism. Led by secular Benedict Kiwanuka, brother of the bishop, who trained at the Comboni schools, the DP itself as mediating element for the strengthening of a democratic balance, opening up to all religious and ethnic components of the Ugandan society. The success of the elections of '61, granted by the British government on the eve of independence, is strongly opposed by Uganda National Congress of Milton Obote, who collects the components Protestants and non Baganda North. The government of Kiwanuka lasts a few months, until the elections of '62, when the Uganda National Congress, released the majority party, is allied with the 'traditional' Kabbaka Yekka. With the independence of 9 October 1962 and the birth of the Republic of Uganda, of which Mutesa II becomes president, the coalition government ends the brief experience of the DP and paves the way for the authoritarian involution of Obote. The failure of the DP shows the inability to propose a model Christian Democrats in the context of Uganda, where the radicalization of the conflict ethnic-religious prevails on democratic dialogue between different political entities.