Katikkiro Mayiga launches One Million Dollar investment campaign in USA, urges youth on culture

For decades, many Ugandans call the state of Massachusetts home having settled there after migrating to the United States. Massachusetts is perhaps the biggest home for Ugandans who live in America.

From here, they work hard to contribute to the wellbeing of the people they left back home in Uganda. Some invest in several businesses including real estate.

On his recent tour to America, Buganda Katikkiro (Prime Minister) Charles Peter Mayiga made a stopover in Waltham near Boston where he attended this year’s Uganda Martyrs Day and like in many parts of the USA he visited, installed the Kabaka’s representative for New England. He had done the same in Seattle and California.

 His trip saw him meet several partners including Wells of Life in San Juan Capistrano who have so far helped the kingdom sink more than 800 boreholes in several parts of Buganda so that people can access clean and safe water. He also met Mark Suzman, the CEO of one of the world’s largest philanthropies — the Gates Foundation, several Rotary clubs and made a stopover at a coffee factory in Seattle.

In Seattle, where he officiated at the biannual Buganda Bumu Convention, he also met the city’s chamber of commerce to forge ways through which they can collaborate with the kingdom and Uganda.

Throughout his trip, he urged Ugandans to collaborate and invest in the USA economy as groups. “Other people from Ethiopia, Somalia and India make group savings and invest here. I urge you to do the same. Collaboratively, you can easily save US$1 million and then invest it in the economy here,” he said.

Most Ugandans are in America to chase the American dream— a better life for themselves and their relatives. One of the best ways to achieve it in the world’s capitalist economy is through investment.  

“The only way you can have a significant footprint in the US is by investing in America and then you can use the return on the investment to do big projects back home in Uganda,” he added to a thunderous applause at events in Seattle, Boston and San Francisco. “This is a campaign dubbed the One Million Dollar Project and we are going to preach it to you the same way we are doing with the Emmwanyi Terimbacampaign in Buganda,” he explained.

Emmwanyi Terimba is Buganda’s signature poverty alleviation campaign that promotes growing coffee in the kingdom. The campaign has seen improved coffee output throughout the kingdom and many households are starting to get themselves out of poverty.

Mayiga hopes that by the time of the next convention in Boston in 2025, the One Million Dollar Project will have been realized. With only 10 people each raising US$10,000 or with 1,000 people each contributing US$1,000, the required initial capital can easily be realized. “In a versatile market like the US, that amount can easily grow leaps and bounds,” he said.

Mayiga thanked his audience for the warm reception he received everywhere he viisted and thanked the people of Buganda in America for their efforts to preserve their culture. “I know that many of you try as much as possible to teach your children Luganda and other aspects of our culture to which we are very grateful,” he added. “Even though you live in America, embracing your heritage is a sign of how important you cherish your culture,” he said.

The Katikkiro urged the youth in the diaspora to change the narrative about Africa. “The depiction of Africa as a land of wild animals is a stereotype intended to stifle African aspirations,” he said. 

He accordingly advised them to learn the history and the heritage of Buganda which will make them realize how civilized their kingdom has been through the centuries.

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