2025/05/05 by Luke Melchiorre · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #African Sexualities and LGBTQ+ Issues #Anthropological Studies and Insights #Political Conflict and Governance
paper · pdf · doi:10.1080/13510347.2025.2494742
openalex publication_date 2025/05/05 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/15
What key ideas animate contemporary political movements in Africa, and how do they challenge—or reproduce—dominant (neo)liberal conceptions of democracy, development, and international relations? This article examines these questions through the political rise of Robert Kyagulanyi, also known as Bobi Wine, in Uganda. Since entering formal politics in 2017, Kyagulanyi's People Power movement has mobilized poor and working-class youth, positioning them at the heart of a broader push for democratic renewal in the face of intense state repression. While the movement adopts anti-establishment rhetoric and revolutionary symbolism, this article argues that its ideological core remains firmly rooted in liberalism—emphasizing electoral democracy, good governance, and broad alignment with a Western foreign policy agenda. At a time when the Museveni regime is drifting from neoliberal orthodoxy, Kyagulanyi's vision reasserts, rather than transcends, liberal principles, advancing a pro-poor discourse without a transformative, leftist programmatic agenda. Drawing on over 85 interviews, the article contends that dismantling the ideological structures entrenched during decades of National Resistance Movement rule may prove more difficult than ousting Museveni himself from power. By foregrounding the ideological commitments of Kyagulanyi and his movement, the article contributes to a growing body of scholarship that centers ideas in contemporary African politics and highlights the continent's growing ideological diversity.