A Macabre Exhibit: Ugandan President Museveni’s Public Display of the Luwero Triangle War’s Human Remains

Abstract

The public display of human remains has a long history in warfare. Whether for counting enemy losses based on psychological reasoning or demonizing the perpetrators of the violence, exhibiting human remains has potently served a variety of political, educational and propaganda aims. In Uganda, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has exhibited human remains for political and military purposes numerous times. Museveni has frequently displayed the Luwero Triangle War’s human remains to help secure his National Resistance Movement and Army’s (NRM/A) political legitimacy, consolidate an ethnic-centered regime and harness the support of western governments. He has also exploited the exhibition of the Luwero Triangle War’s human remains to stoke ethnic xenophobia and demonization, as well as to stymie the quest for genuine democracy, the rule of law and constitutionalism. The persistent policy of Museveni’s NRM/A regime to exhibit the Luwero Triangle War’s human remains has shocked the conscience of the people of Uganda and scholars alike who express the need to focus on granting dignity and respect to the rights of the dead and to bring perpetrators to justice. The repeated decision of Museveni’s NRM/A regime to exhibit the Luwero Triangle War’s human remains undermines any prospects for building a united Uganda based on genuine truth telling and reconciliation.