Uganda: Uganda’s history should not be read in tribal terms

By Ham Mukasawww.hammukasafoundation.co.ugwww.hgmconsult.com 

A Word Or Two 

This article is dedicated to Capt Otim (UPC) – Obote 2 army officer;  Read the article carefully, than publishing uselesss claims. Remember I write HISTORICAL FACTS AND WELL RESEARCHED – you so called educated Officer, “Challenge me instead of insulting”. Being a topic in your meetings should be seen as some positive, it’s my articles which makes you curious. BUT THESE ARE FACTS and I take it positive that I make an impact your reasoning. Enjoy it and am waiting to see you one day as you claim. Democracy has come to Uganda to stay – a point you should jot on a lap and put  your pockets everyday, especially when you are going to your party meetings. I will try to make this article as simple as possible for you and your comrades in UK, Norway, Denmark, US and to mention but a few Sweden – as a response to your critics and telephone harassments of recent . 

 

Uganda’s history should not be read in tribal terms
When one of Ugandas Ex-President(Obote)Officer walked into my office for the first time sometime ago, my mind was very unclear as to how to receive him. Sensing this, the visitor introduced himself by announcing his name and quickly adding that he was a Budonian (College), perhaps to reassure me.

Since our first meeting, apparently precipitated by an article I wrote about the UPC, the former officer has kindly given me some good reading material out of his collection gathered from the library of Princeton University when he lived in the proximity of the famed institution among which was the article entitled “The Politics of Recognition by Charles Taylor” which I found to be most engrossing. Perhaps encouraged by his reading this article, the Lt.Gen himself has contributed on a very long essay on the history of UPC under the title “The Roots, Emergency, and Growth of the Uganda People’s Congress, 1600– 1985” in which he strives to recreate the birth of UPC in events which happened almost four centuries ago the Lt.Gen contributes and writes, “The politics of Uganda since its independence in 1962 has been intertwined with the fortunes of the Uganda People’s Congress that it is impossible to discuss any aspect of the country without UPC being a major factor”.

With this general statement as a backdrop, the Lt.Gen starts to trace what he calls the psychological unity of UPC (which was not evidenced in the recent elections though) to similar experiences which the various nationalities had with the Baganda first in the pre-colonial tribal wars, then in the use colonialism made of the Baganda and lastly in their rabid chauvinism in the period preceding the formation of UPC in 1960.

This is a brave statement considering that the cohesion of UPC was shattered early on by the conflicts which flared between the factions of Grace Ibingira and John Kakonge which reached their climax at the party’s Gulu conference in 1964. Later on in his essay, The Lt. Gen contradicts himself on the issue of UPC’s cohesion when he alludes to the disillusionment of people like Felix Onama over Obote’s status in the party. On the trade boycott of 1959 the Lt.Gen shows a lack of firsthand information on the subject when he writes that some of the principal concerns of UNM were with the prestige and status of the Kabaka.

In fact it is the Mengo government which was concerned with this issue and on numerous occasions the Buganda government condemned the movement. Earlier the Lukiiko had banned political parties in Buganda on the ground that they were anti-Kabaka and this animosity was extended to UNM. The principal aim of UNM, contrary to what the Lt:Gen writes, was to achieve independence for Uganda and one of its early public rallies under the Tree of Liberty on March 8, 1959 attended by thousands of people and as reported in the Uganda Argus of March 9, 1959, the UNM passed a resolution demanding for negotiations to be opened “for bringing into being a free and independent Uganda instead of having the Wild Committee.

Indeed, the Tree of Liberty was so named because nationalist rallies were always held there to demand for UGANDA’S independence, not BUGANDA’S. Later when the police confiscated from the home of Elidadi.Mulira, one of UNM’s leaders a document outlining his political credo in which he vowed to “beat up neo-traditionalists with clenched fists” after we gained our independence, the Attorney General, Mr. Dreschfield, used its contents in a prosecution that followed as evidence of UNM’s communist links. Mulira was convicted and exiled to Gulu as were other leaders including QCGodfrey Binaisa (Ex-President), I. K. Musaazi and Jolly Joe Kiwanuka who were taken to other centres. This is hardly evidence of the neo-traditionalist outlook Lt.Gen paints of UNM. Again the Lt.Gen falls flat when it comes to the formation of UPC. He quotes D. A. Low’s observation that “UPC whose prime function – the opposition to the pretensions of the Baganda, fitted precisely the anti-Baganda feeling in the rest of the country” a function which was based on a misapprehension of the various strands of Buganda’s politics and its history.

Note: In order to understand this phenomenon one has to first appreciate its five branches comprised in the institution of Kabakaship, the Mengo government, the neo-traditionalists, the political parties and the people themselves. Since 1956 the neo-traditionalists have held sway over the affairs of the kingdom by adroitly labelling whoever did not fall in line with them as anti-Kabaka although all the subjects are loyal to the institution. This group has at times overstated Buganda’s interests to the chagrin of other communities.

UPC, like the Lt.Gen, overlooks the positive amity between Buganda and the other areas throughout the period of colonialism which produced many cosmopolitan people both from Buganda and outside.

The tragedy of Uganda is that independence as Low clearly points out, was not entrusted to such people who did not have small wars to fight. The original political parties embraced people of all communities in their parties (Call it a way to federalism – its your call). In this regard it is almost sacrilegious to talk about Obote’s wing of the UNC as the Lt.Gen does in exclusionary terms of Buganda since it was the original UNC leadership composed mostly of Baganda which first introduced Obote to national leadership. UNC leadership first fragmented in 1957 when a group left to form the United Congress Party under David Lubogo, a Musoga. Later in January 1958, it splintered again between Musaazi and Kiwanuka’s factions over the party’s Cairo office. Kiwanuka, a Muganda invited Obote to be president of his faction in order to provide a counter-weight to Musaazi’s support in the north, a fact disregarded by the new revisionists. In 1959, Kiwanuka wound up his faction which he joined with UNM. It is known that Obote’s hang-on with the name together with Abu Mayanja a Muganda and a Secretary General, a fact which demonstrates the fallacy of reading our history in tribal terms which Lt.Gen does.

When John Kakonge joined UNC in April, 1960 as Organising Secretary, Abu Mayanja issued a statement in which he announced that Kakonge’s main duty would be to develop the party and open more branches in addition to the existing two. This is what the Lt.Gen calls a nationwide movement, “the most significant organisation in the country”.

The UNC after Musaazi and Kiwanuka was not significant at all in terms of national following. 

 All in all we need closer interactions so as to remove misconceptions which have led to our apparent disunity. Museveni has done his part and has introduced democracy, i know you will disagree. Like others, he will at one time leave but this time remembered as the father of Ugandas democracy and not to mention his contribution to a far better economy than all his predecessors. Give the gentleman some credit atleast. That will be a historical fact. Hope you have enjoyed the history lesson – facts. 

A Good Muganda With historical facts.Ham Mukasawww.hammukasafoundation.com

www.hgmconsult.com

Published by African Press in Norway, apn, africanpress@chello.no, tel +47 932 99 739 or +47 6300 2525