Nationalism in Uganda
| Author | R. C. Pratt |
| Date | 01 June 1961 |
| Published date | 01 June 1961 |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1467-9248.1961.tb00826.x |
| Subject Matter | Article |
NATIONALISM IN UGANDA
R.
C.
PRATTl
University
of
Toronto
INTRODUCTION
THE
rapid rise
of
nationalism in the Gold Coast and Southern Nigeria, the
growth of the Tanganyikan African National Union, and the more recent
strength of nationalist movements in Nyasaland and Northern and Southern
Rhodesia suggest certain similarities in the development of nationalism in
these British tropical African territories. In eaGh the introduction
of
British
rule was followed by decades of acquiescence. Then appeared a general
discontent and occasional protests against specific policies.
This
incipient
nationalism next developed into a mature nationalism2
:
political opposition
to colonial rule became widespread, a nationalist movement or several
nationalist parties grew powerful, and the demand for self-government
became the dominant issue.
These second and third stages normally coincided with and were much
stimulated by a simultaneously developing social revolution. Education,
travel, mission training, wage employment, and cash crop farming all
encouraged a growing number of Africans to break free from tribal
discipline and restrictions. Far more than the few well-educated and
thoroughly westernized Africans were involved in this. Many with but
little western education were aroused to new expectations and ambitions
and gravitated to the towns, working intermittently at whatever came their
way, or living by their wits. Nationalist political activity attracted many
of
these. They were sensitive to the slights and minor indignities of the colon-
ial relationship. They saw that politics might bring much greater rewards
and status than could be expected in either private or public employment.
The better educated
or
more experienced had the ambition and
the
ability
to organize supra-tribal nationalist parties, while the larger class
of
partly
educated were often the local activists. As a result,
as
hostility to colonial
rule has become serious, leaders have appeared in most territories whose
1
Assistant Professor
of
Political Science, University of Toronto. The work on this article
was done while the writer was attached to the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, Oxford. He
is
grateful to the Rockefeller Foundation and the Canada Council for
research
grants which
made possible several recent visits to Uganda. This paper was not the main
purpose
of
these
visits, but it would have been impossible
to
write it but for their generous assistance.
Thomas
Hodgkin
uses
the concepts
of
incipient nationalism and mature nationalism in
his
Nationalism in
Colonial
Africa
(London,
1956).
p.
25.
P0lltIc.l Stodlw,
Vol.
lX,
NO.
2
(1961,
167-178).
158
NATIONALISM
IN
UGANDA
political authority is supra-tribal, and
to
whom power can therefore
be transferred with some confidence that the country will not rapidly
disintegrate into competing factions. But this fortunate coincidence of
anti-colonialism and organized nationalism is not inevitable. Hostility to
colonial rule can also be expressed through atavistic gestures of violence,
disorganized political protests, or backward-looking assertions of tribalism.
Uganda's political development illustrates
this
only too well. Many of
the factors that often bedevil colonial politics in the years immediately
preceding self-government are present in Uganda: there is little popular
co-operation with the government, general resentment towards the British
presence is manifest, violence lies close to the surface, and political ambi-
tions and expectations run high. But these discontents have not been
channelled into
a
strong nationalist movement. Uganda moves towards
self-government with neither the leaders nor the sentiments that may well
be essential to her internal stability after independence.
THE
RISE AND THE FAILURE OF NATIONALISM IN BUGANDA
Events in Buganda inevitably dominate any discussion of political
development in Uganda. The Ganda are not only the largest, but also the
wealthiest, the most advanced, and the most strategically placed
of
the
African tribes
of
Uganda,' and the
first
nationalist party,
The
Uganda
National Congress, was a clear outgrowth of their tribal political tensions.
Tribal government in Buganda has been dominated by
a
landowning
oligarchy, whose social and economic power was entrenched by an
Agreement in
1900,8
and whose political power was reinforced by five
decades of secure rule under British Protection.
As
a
result, while there was
a
great deal of political activity in Buganda in the inter-war years, it was
the politics of intrigue and
not
of reform or revolution.
In part, these politics reflected conflicts of ambitions within the estab-
lished oligarchy--conflicts between individuals aspiring to appointments,
lesser chiefs aspiring to promotions, senior chiefs manaeuvring
for
in-
creased power, and rival religious factions. Those involved were thus not
The population of Buganda is over a quarter of the total population of Uganda
(1,835,744
of a total population of
6,436,570
according
to
the
1958
census.
Over
800,000
of
these
are
Africans of other
tribes.
Uganda
Argus,
5
Nov.
1959).
Kampala, the
commercial
and political
capital
of
the Protectorate, is within her boundaries.
*
The Government of Buganda and the relations of the British Protectorate with it were
defined in the Agreement
of
1900
which was accepted by both sides
as
a quasiconstitutional
document. The Buganda Kingdom
is
headed by
a
tribal
ruler,
the Kabaka. Under
him
is
a
hierarchy of appointed officials. At the top
of
this hierarchy
are
the
three
chief ministers,-the
Katikkiro (Prime Minister), the Omuwanika ureasurer), and the
Omulamuzi
(the chief
Judge). There are then twenty
Ssaza
(county) chiefs each with
several
ranks
of subordinate
chiefs under them. The Lukiiko (a tribal council) was advisory
to
the Kabaka
until
1955
and
was normally dominated by the chiefs.
Since
1955
its
powers
have
been
increased
and it
has
been
further democratized. However, the ministers and chiefs
are
stiu
members and
have
as
well an important influence over the indirect
elections
of
the
representative
members.
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