A PROVINCIAL COURSE FOR CHIEFS IN UGANDA
| Published date | 01 April 1953 |
| Date | 01 April 1953 |
| Author | J. C. D. Lawrance |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/j.1099-162X.1953.tb00981.x |
SOIL
CONSERVATION-SOME
IMPLICATIONS
69
There
remains one problem of a very definitely social nature, and
that
is
the
bunding
of land which is in the possession of
the
aged or infirm.
There
are quite
a
number
of
both
who have no near relatives to help
them
in doing this undoubtedly
heavy work.
It
seems
that
the
elderly, if given plenty of time, will usually be able
to do the
bunding
for themselves. Very often they do better work
than
the
younger
people; also they have fewer calls on their time than working men and mothers of
families. One does
run
into trouble when, as sometimes happens, an elderly
person has rights over an abnormally large area. Where this is
the
case, and there
are no near relatives to help, it nearly always appears
that
the landholder is getting
less produce off a poorly cultivated large holding than he or she could get from a
much
smaller holding properly cultivated. Alternatively, the large area is used
purely for
the
production, year after year, of a surplus of the same crop for sale.
In
these cases one can only be hard-hearted and say
again-"
No Cultivation
without Conservation ".
The
elderly person will nearly always be able to protect
enough land to produce his own needs for the coming season and can either protect
the
balance bit by bit, or allocate it, either on loan or permanently, to someone else.
It
is not so easy to deal with
the
problem of
the
infirm. So far, however, these
have presented no great difficulty.
There
have been sufficient fit people who have
culpably neglected to conserve their own land and these have been punished
not
by fine or imprisonment (neither of which would achieve the desired effect)
but
by assignment to periods of penal labour (a
month
on
the
average).
Those
so
punished are formed into gangs who first of all complete the work which they
should have done on their own land and
then
spend the remainder of their sentences
raising
bunds
and otherwise protecting
the
land of those who cannot do this for
themselves.
This
arrangement has not only produced good technical results
but
appears to have had some influence on public opinion.
There
has been no sign
yet of any voluntary communal effort to help the aged or infirm, although it is
the
kind of
job
in which one might expect the churches, schools and youth organizations
to take an interest.
There
seems to be ample evidence
that
the
mere introduction of elementary
forms of soil conservation may have a marked effect on social life as well as on
economic stability and progress.
It
is therefore of great importance
that
when
intensive soil conservation campaigns are being planned
the
matter should
not
be
treated as one of agricultural improvement alone,
but
that
very careful considera-
tion should also be given to all
the
political and social factors involved by varying
local conditions.
It
is not merely a
matter
of saving soil from going down the
drain causing abreak-up of the existing social
pattern;
it may very probably be a
case of taking steps which may lead to
the
emergence of a very different social
pattern, and we
must
be sure
that
that
pattern is one which we want to see.
APROVINCIAL COURSE FOR CHIEFS IN UGANDA
By
J.
C. D. Lawrance, District Commissioner, Uganda.
IN
1948 an administrative officer was seconded by
the
Uganda Government to
run a six weeks course for chiefs! from the whole country at Bukalasa in Buganda
Province.
The
medium of instruction was English.
The
course was repeated
later in the year and in subsequent years, when shorter courses with Swahili as
the medium were added. But when in 1951 the officer in charge left the country,
the courses were discontinued and although a decision was taken shortly afterwards
'Except
in
one
or two cases chiefs in
Uganda
are
not
hereditary:
they
are almost civil
servants
and
are liable to
transfer
within
districts. Several
government
officials have
become
chiefs.
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