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Earlier this month, we took you to the launch of UBAD Conversations - a written account about the rise and demise of the United Black Association for Development.

And last night, the writer, Dr Joseph Iyo, was a guest on Uncut, where he discussed the history behind UBAD. He also explained what inevitably caused it to splinter before it could really get off the ground.

According to him, it had to do, mainly with a lack of transparency, coupled with naivety. Here's how he put it.

Dr Joseph Iyo, Writer, UBAD Oral History Sourcebook
"Because they were not transparent because they did not have a very philosophical underpinning of the movement, they were unable to pivot so it became clandestine. Everything in the movement was clandestine and whenever it came out in the public people felt they were betrayed because if you do not share why we are pivoting towards PAC, why we're pivoting towards UDP or NIP, then people feel betrayed and that is why the political party did not take off very well because it was not transparent. The cultural movement was going on well because it had no agenda that was personal, the political had personal agendas and I don't want to disclose what my hypothesis is but on reading and reflecting on this, I can tell you for a fact, not that they were planted to disrupt UBAD, but they came with an agenda that was not transparent to the rest of the group. And so they were not able to take the group en masse to either PUP or NIP and that was a major friction that made people go their separate ways. So any organization, and it's a cautionary tale, any organization today that is not transparent with their objectives, with their mission, with their vision, will suffer the same consequences."

Jules Vasquez:
"So from the jump, UBAD was doomed?"

Dr Joseph Iyo, Writer, UBAD Oral History Sourcebook
"Yeah, UBAD was doomed because the young people were naive in thinking that because what we are doing is good, people will bite their tongues and continue to fight the good struggle, not realizing there was bread and butter issues involved, there were family interests involved, there were partisan interests involved, there were too many minute differences within the people. There were class issues, there were color issues, there were racial issues because some Hispanics joined, some indigenous people were sympathetic, even people in government, people in the colonial government who are leaking information through Amandala to publish were empathetic but the fact that it was not transparent, it couldn't come out in the open as a grand swell of grassroots support that was going to change the society."