The Missing Dimension
Episode 8 part 1 traces John De Konink's path from a floating theatre on the rivers of Belgium, to a childhood in the Belgian Congo, to nearly five decades of community development work in Uganda. Known to many as Muchibi, John shares what it was like arriving in Uganda in 1973, teaching at Makerere during Idi Amin's rule, co-founding a university in Juba, surviving deportation, and eventually building one of the country's earliest organisations dedicated to strengthening how NGOs and community groups work.
Long before “localisation” became a buzzword in international development, John was already asking what it means to build an organisation, a curriculum or a culture that actually fits the place it grows in, rather than the place it was imported from. Fifty years on, that question still shapes his work.
Born in Belgium in the 1950s aboard his family's touring theatre boat, John trained as an economist in England before coming to Uganda in 1973. He has spent the decades since teaching, writing, and building institutions rooted in local context rather than imported theory.
“I think the missing dimension was understanding better the local culture.” _ John De Konink
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