Uganda

C

British Protectorate

In 1894 Britain declared a protectorate over all of present-day Uganda and began the expansion of its control by invading Bunyoro in 1893 and 1894 and removing its king, Kabarega, whose troops were raiding areas under British control. Several Bunyoro counties were awarded to the Buganda government for its military assistance. These areas became known as the Lost Counties, a hotly contested issue in Ugandan politics until the 1960s. In 1897 Mwanga rebelled, but was defeated and deposed as kabaka in favor of his infant son, Daudi Cwa. Mwanga fled to German East Africa, but soon returned to join Kabarega in guerrilla opposition to British forces. In 1899 both were captured and exiled to the Seychelles.

C

1

Preeminence of Buganda

The consolidation of the protectorate created a preeminent position for Buganda, greater power for Protestants, and allowed for the ascendancy of chiefs, who served as regents for the young Buganda king. Each of these situations contributed to Uganda’s political problems during and after colonial rule. In 1900 all of these issues were formalized in the Buganda Agreement between the British and the chiefs of Buganda, which laid the basis for Buganda’s economic prosperity during British rule. The agreement gave the four-year-old king and his chiefs title to the more productive half of Buganda’s land in return for which they accepted subordination to Britain and the right of the protectorate government to levy taxes. Treaties signed between Britain and the governments of the other kingdoms (Toro in 1900, Ankole in 1901, and Bunyoro in 1933) were much less generous, particularly in grants of land.

The British introduced cotton growing in 1904, and chiefs who had land became wealthy and established the prosperity of the colony through their contributions to exports and taxes. Uganda’s growing population of immigrants from the Indian subcontinent also benefited from the new cotton industry. Indians (as the immigrants were known in Uganda) came to Uganda as laborers and traders in the thousands between the 1890s and the 1920s. By the 1920s Indian entrepreneurs owned a large percentage of Ugandan cotton processing plants and many other businesses. In the 1920s the British encouraged farmers in Buganda to grow coffee, which became increasingly profitable. Consequently, people in Buganda grew wealthy faster, received better education, and obtained more positions in the public service than those from other areas.

In addition, some chiefs from Buganda were given positions as administrators over other parts of Uganda until World War I (1914-1918). The greedy conduct and cultural chauvinism of the chiefs from Buganda caused resentment and a corresponding rise in local ethnic identifications. As a result, many people from other parts of the country feared the domination of Uganda by Buganda, a fear still held by some Ugandans.

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After poor peasants who labored on the lands of chiefs of Buganda protested their living and working conditions, the protectorate government passed legislation in 1927 limiting the peasants’ rents and securing their occupation. Militant nationalism emerged following World War II (1939-1945), marked by an outbreak of urban strikes in 1945 and rural farm protests, primarily in Buganda, in 1949. The colonial government responded by introducing greater African participation in the economy, encouraging African cotton farmers to process their own cotton, and promoting agricultural cooperatives (farms owned by, and operated for the benefit of, multiple African farmers). In addition, the British democratized some local governments. In 1945 the first African representatives were allowed in the colonial legislative council. African representation in the council increased in the late 1940s and early 1950s. At the same time, the government also tried to control reform by regulating the new agricultural cooperatives and supporting moderate African candidates for the council seats. In the 1950s Ugandan prosperity was further strengthened by large state- and foreign-financed infrastructure projects. The most significant was the dam and hydroelectric station on the Nile at Jinja, built in 1954, and the Kilembe copper mine on the western border, which began in 1956.

However, the new governor, Sir Andrew Cohen, caused a crisis in 1953 when he introduced a plan for a unitary Ugandan government, which implied eliminating the government’s special relationship with Buganda. Kabaka Frederick Mutesa II, until then known mostly as a playboy, opposed the plan and gained intense popular support among the Ganda. Cohen exiled him to Britain, bringing such strong demands for his return that Cohen was forced to negotiate a new agreement with the Ganda in 1955 that reaffirmed their privileges and granted additional powers to the kabaka. The kabaka, who returned in triumph, became a central political figure.

C

2

Nationalist Pressure

National demands for independence began with the formation of the Uganda National Congress (UNC) in 1952 by nationalists Ignatius Musazi and Abu Mayanja. Ganda Catholic chiefs and educated urban professionals formed the Democratic Party (DP) in 1954. In 1960 Milton Obote formed the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) by joining northern branches of the UNC and representatives, mainly from western Uganda, who had been elected to the legislative council in 1958. The DP and the UPC became the major national parties, each gaining influence by winning the support of local notable figures with rural ethnic followings in their home areas. Both parties opposed the Protestant Buganda establishment—the DP, because most of its members were Catholic, and the UPC (regarded as predominantly Protestant), because its members feared Buganda’s dominance after independence.

Buganda, for its part, felt increasingly threatened by the prospect of losing its special rights in an independent Uganda. In independence negotiations with Britain in 1961 and 1962, the Buganda administration secured further guarantees of its position. Notably, the Protestant-dominated Buganda local council was given the right to indirectly elect Buganda’s representatives to the national parliament, virtually eliminating any chance of the Catholic DP winning any seats in Buganda. Bunyoro, Ankole, and Toro received only ceremonial privileges, but that was still more than the districts that lay outside the four major kingdoms received. Most of these kingdoms and districts had an ethnic identity, so their competition to gain the privileges that Buganda carried into independence guaranteed that ethnicity would be central to postindependence disputes in Uganda.

D

Independence

For Buganda’s protection, the kabaka’s government formed an ethnic party, Kabaka Yekka (KY), in 1961. It made an unexpected alliance with the UPC to win preindependence elections in early 1962. Uganda became independent in October 1962 with UPC leader Milton Obote as prime minister and several KY ministers in his cabinet. A year later Uganda became a republic with the kabaka as ceremonial president. But the UPC/KY coalition split over the UPC’s insistence on holding a referendum to decide whether to return the Lost Counties to Bunyoro.

The UPC used its control over the state bureaucracy to bestow favors to its followers and to lure members of the DP to its side. However, it never consolidated its control over its own factions, and in 1966 UPC cabinet members from southern Uganda tried to force Obote out of office. Obote had the cabinet members arrested and claimed the kabaka was part of the plot. He suspended the 1962 constitution and forced an interim constitution through parliament in which Obote replaced the kabaka as president. The Buganda government responded by threatening to secede. Obote ordered the army, under the command of newly appointed Army Chief of Staff Idi Amin, to take control over the Buganda government. The army defeated the small force defending the kabaka, who fled in disguise into exile. In 1967 Obote’s government adopted a new constitution that abolished all four kingdoms and eliminated federal powers. In a futile effort to expand his support, Obote adopted radical policies that expanded state control over the economy. In 1969, following an assassination attempt on Obote, the DP and other minor parties were banned. The UPC remained the only existing party, though the constitution was not amended to prohibit the formation of other parties.

E

The Amin Years

Obote’s control over the army grew more uncertain as Amin consolidated his power. Obote placed allies in senior military posts in an attempt to diminish Amin’s control over troops. However, Amin overthrew the civilian government in 1971, relying on members of the Nubian ethnic group within the army, who controlled the army’s tank battalion. Though both Amin and Obote were northerners, Amin was a Nubian and a Muslim, while Obote was a Langi and a Protestant. On taking power, Amin ordered the murder of soldiers he regarded as loyal to Obote. He soon also authorized attacks on civilians and ignored killings by his followers. Eventually, he was also responsible for the murder of several of his cabinet ministers, the chief justice, and the Protestant archbishop. Several hundred thousand people may have been killed and thousands more fled the country. No groups were spared, though the educated were singled out by the uneducated ruling group, and the ethnic Acholi and Langi also were singled out, because Obote was thought to have derived support from those groups.

Amin spurred the shift by several African states to align with Islamic nations rather than with the Jewish state of Israel in the Middle East conflict over possession of the historic region of Palestine (see Arab-Israeli Conflict). After receiving aid from Libya in 1972, Amin expelled all Israelis from Uganda. Later that year he also expelled almost all Indians, who had controlled almost the entire commercial sector. At first these bold strokes made Amin popular among Ugandans, especially among those who were given control of the Indian businesses. As the economy contracted, however, shortages occurred, foreign exchange disappeared, and inflation increased, and Amin lost most of his popular support. Though condemned by much of the international community, Amin received military assistance from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and Libya during most of his regime. In addition, both the United States and the British governments facilitated sales of military equipment by private businesses and arranged training for Ugandan “police agents” (even after the United States broke diplomatic relations and closed its embassy in Uganda in 1973). The military aid, business opportunities from the departed Indian communities, and money siphoned from state funds helped Amin buy the loyalty of his military. Nevertheless, he faced several attempted coups.

As a principled opponent of military rule, Julius Nyerere, the president of neighboring Tanzania, denounced Amin’s seizure of power and permitted Obote and other opponents of Amin to reside in Tanzania and, initially, train guerrillas there. In 1978 several divisions of the Ugandan army mutinied against Amin’s rule. To distract the nation’s attention from his weakening grip on power, Amin ordered loyal troops to invade the Kagera region of Tanzania just over Uganda’s southern border. The Tanzanian government equipped a large army that, together with two small Ugandan contingents (one loyal to Obote, the other to guerrilla leader Yoweri Museveni), quickly drove the invaders out of Tanzania. This military force then invaded Uganda and ousted the Amin government, forcing Amin to flee to Libya in 1979. The war lasted less than six months, but the looting by Ugandans and Tanzanians during that period caused as much damage to Uganda’s economy as Amin’s policies had over the preceding eight years.