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By TheAlexanderVlogs
After nearly three decades in Sweden, former NRA combatant and exiled rebel Col. Samson Mande has returned to Uganda — closing a turbulent chapter in the country’s revolutionary history.
The Final Homecoming of a Rebel Commander
In a move that marks the end of an era in Uganda’s revolutionary saga, former National Resistance Army (NRA) officer Colonel Samson Mande has returned home after nearly thirty years in exile. His quiet return from Sweden was not accompanied by calls for change, but rather by a pledge of allegiance to the same government he once fought to overthrow.
Mande’s return comes months after the death of his comrade Lt. Col. Anthony Kyakabale, who also lived in exile and shared his vision of toppling President Yoweri Museveni’s long-standing regime. Together, they formed one of the most notable yet short-lived anti-Museveni movements of the early 2000s.
From Liberator to Rebel: A Familiar Ugandan Story
Col. Mande’s journey reflects the paradox that has defined Uganda’s post-1986 political landscape — where today’s liberators often become tomorrow’s rebels.
As one of the founding members of the NRA, Mande helped Museveni’s forces seize power in January 1986, ending years of civil unrest. But by the late 1990s, growing disillusionment with corruption, militarization of politics, and shrinking democratic space drove him and several other veterans into dissent.
In 2001, operating from exile, Mande and Kyakabale declared the formation of a new rebellion aimed at ending what they called “the tyranny of Museveni.” Their campaign, however, never gained military traction.
Kyakabale would later return home in 2015 and pass away in 2024 in Sweden — leaving Mande as one of the few surviving figures of that failed insurgency.
Why Now? The Politics of Time and Survival
Observers say Mande’s decision to return is not ideological but deeply personal. Having spent nearly three decades in Europe, often speaking out against the government from exile, age and distance appear to have softened his stance.
Political analyst Dr. Sarah Birete notes, “When the years stretch into decades, the struggle changes shape. For many who fled as revolutionaries, the isolation of exile replaces the fire of rebellion. Mande’s return is less a political statement and more a human reality — the need to come home before the end.”
Lessons for Uganda’s Opposition
To Uganda’s younger opposition leaders, Mande’s return offers a sobering lesson. A senior opposition figure, requesting anonymity, remarked, “This system has perfected patience. It outlasts its challengers — absorbing those it can and waiting out those it can’t. Eventually, time does the work that repression cannot.”
This endurance strategy, analysts argue, has kept the NRM government resilient for nearly four decades — turning dissenters into diplomats, and rebels into returnees.
The End of a Generation
Col. Mande’s return may symbolize reconciliation, but it also marks the sunset of Uganda’s guerrilla generation — those who once believed that liberation could be achieved through the gun.
Today, as Uganda’s political opposition grapples with generational disconnection and limited space for dissent, Mande’s story serves as a mirror of the past — a reminder of how revolution often gives way to reflection.
His journey from the battlefields of Luwero to the quiet suburbs of Sweden and back home again encapsulates the full arc of Uganda’s post-revolutionary politics: liberation, rebellion, and resignation.
By TheAlexanderVlogs
