In Africa, colonialism went beyond land acquisition; the local mind too was colonized. Various strategies were employed in colonizing the African mind and these included the devaluation of everything in pre-colonial Africa, the belittling of anything African while glorifying everything European, the relegation and confinement of Africans to primary production, promoting contempt of one’s culture among the educated, and so on.

Mental colonization transformed Africans into reliable producers of raw materials on one hand and consumers of finished products from the outside on the other hand. As a result, Africans became dependable in fostering the colonial economic model in the post-independence era. More importantly, mental colonization hindered the African mind from developing the right attitude for growing an economy. The lack of this attitude in the African mindset undermined decision-making at various levels.

In Uganda, native entrepreneurs flocked into non-producing sectors of the economy. Of the few who ventured into production, hardly any went beyond primary production. In the technical sphere, the policies that were embraced and implemented did not industrialize the country. In the policy-making sphere, the country failed to turn the various trade offers from developed and developing countries into golden opportunities for Uganda’s economy to take off. As a result, meaningful opportunities in Uganda’s economy are for a minority few relative to the population and this pattern has changed since independence.