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The Bakungu Chiefs of Buganda under British Colonial Rule, 1900–1930

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Michael Twaddle
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Extract

In 1959 C. C. Wrigley published ‘The Christian revolution in Buganda’. an important essay summarizing a decade of intensive research into Buganda politics during the nineteenth century. There he demonstrated how ‘Ganda society had undergone, immediately before the advent of British imperial power, a genuine revolution, which had brought about drastic changes in ideology and in the structure as well as the personnel of government and that as a result of these [and other] changes it was uniquely fitted to cope with the new situation which confronted it in the last years of the nineteenth century’. This essay seeks to reconstruct an intriguing attempt made by the Bakungu client-chiefs who triumphed in that ‘Christian revolution’ to perpetuate their power in the Buganda kingdom by making further institutional changes during the second decade of the twentieth century. But first it is necessary to discuss the general factors shaping political relationships between these client-chiefs and their European rulers during the first and third decades of this century. In this it is possible to take account not only of several secondary sources published since the appearance of Wrigley's article nearly ten years ago, but also of certain primary materials which have recently come to light.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , April 1969 , pp. 309 - 322
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1969

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References

1 Wrigley, C. C., ‘The Christian revolution in Buganda’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 11 (1959), 33–, 33–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 This Paper amplifies part of an earlier one presented to a seminar at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, London, on 3 November 1966. Besides being most grateful to the mimbers of that seminar for their comments, I have special debts to Professor Roland Oliver, Dr. J. A. Rowe and Dr M. S. M. Kiwamka.

3 See Oliver, R., Sir Harry Johnston and the Scramble for Africa (London 1957), 287–337;Google ScholarLow, D. A., ‘The British and Uganda, 1862–1990’, unpublished D.Phil. dissertation (Oxford, 1957),Google Scholar and ‘Uganda: the evolution of the protectorate, 1894–1919’, History of East Africa, II, ed. Harlow, V., Chilver, E. M. and Smith, A. (Oxford, 1965), 57–122;Google Scholar and Rowe, J. A., ‘Land and politics in Buganda, 1875–1955’, Makerere Journal (Kampala 1964), 1–13.Google Scholar

4 Low, D. A. and Pratt, R. C., Buganda and British Overrule, 1900–1955 (London, 1960), 137: to which (esp. pp. 137–159) the rest of this paragraph is also clearly indebted.Google Scholar

5 Whether it was also a victory over the so-called Batongole chiefs as well is rather more questionable. See Faliers, L. A. (ed.), The King's Men (London, 1964), 114,Google Scholar for a query by Southwold, M.; and Rowe, J. A., ‘Revolution in Buganda, 1856–1900,’ unpublished Ph.D. dissertation (Wisconsin 1966), 191, for another negative comment.Google Scholar

6 ‘Memo, by H. H. Johnston on the land settlement in Uganda’, 2 March 1903, Public Record Office, FO/2/741.

7 Many references; but Wamala, Solomon, Obulamu bwa Semei Kakungulu, pp. 19–154, provides the most vivid evidence in documentary sources. (Copy in Makerere College Library.)Google Scholar

8 ‘At present most of the Officials, although they speak Kiswahili, speak that language only’ (Frederick Jackson to Foreign Office, 25 January 1902, P.R.O., FO/2/589).

9 Johnston, , ‘The Uganda protectorate, Ruwenzori, and the Semliki Forest’, Geographical Jl XIX (1902), 21.Google Scholar

10 See Churchill, W. S., My African Journey (London, 1908), 59, for a convenient summary of local British views.Google Scholar

11 See Mukasa, H., Uganda's Kitikiro in England (London, 1904), 237 ff.Google Scholar

12 Kagwa, Paulo, Omukwano gwa Kabaka Mwanga: Ye Lwakirenzi Semei Kakungulu, 22. (Microfilm copy in Makerere College Library.)Google Scholar

13 Walker, to family, 28 07 1895 (Walker papers, C.M.S. Archives).Google Scholar

14 Johnston, H. H., Story of My Life (London, 1923), 366, speaking specifically of the three regents.Google Scholar

15 Zimbe, B. M., Buganda Ne Kabaka (Mengo, 1939), 248;Google Scholar quoting from the English translation by F.Karnoga (p. 349) now retained by Makerere College Library.

16 But only waging war (okugaba olutabalo) when specifically asked to do so by the British (see Fallers, , The Kings Men, 107–8).Google Scholar

17 See Mulira, E. M. K., Troubled Uganda (London, n.d.), 34.Google Scholar

18 Ibid. 13.

19 See Wrigley, C. C., ‘The changing economic structure of Buganda’, The King's Men, ed. Fallers, L. A., (London, 1964), pp. 42ff.Google Scholar

20 Besides Wrigley (‘Changing economic structure’), see also Low, D. A., ‘The advent of populism in Buganda’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, VI (1964), 425–44.Google Scholar

21 See Rowe, , ‘Land and politics in Buganda’, 9.Google Scholar

22 Thomas, H. B. and Spencer, A. E., A History of Uganda Lands and Surveys (Entebbe 1938), 72.Google Scholar

23 Daudi Chwa to governor, 22 April 1915, E.S.A. C/255/1910.

24 Kagwa, Apolo to governor, 28 04 1915, loc.cit.Google Scholar

25 Minute by Buganda, P.C., 6 05 1915, loc. cit.Google Scholar

26 See Rowe ‘Revolution in Buganda’, chapter 1, for an account of disaffection towards Katikiro Kayira during the early nineteenth century for a similar reason.

27 Sturrock to Ass. Sec. for Native Affairs, 31 July 1922, E.S.A. C/160/A/1910.

28 Mair, L. P., An African People in the Twentieth Century (London 1934), 170.Google Scholar

29 Ibid. 198.

30 Baganda regents to Buganda, P. C., 5 06 1912, in English and Luganda, encl.Google ScholarKnowles, to Entebbe, , 18 06 1912, E.S.A. C/113/1910.Google Scholar

31 Nuhu Mbogo, Yusufu Suna Kiwewa, Joseph Musanje Walugembe, Augustine Tebandeke, and Alimanzani Ndaula.

32 Knowles, to Entebbe, , 18 06 1912, E.S.A. C/113/1910.Google Scholar

33 Minute by Jackson, , 28 06 1912, loc. cit.Google Scholar

34 Minute by Russell, , 26 06 1912, loc. cit.Google Scholar

35 Minute by Wallis, , 3 06 1912, loc. cit.Google Scholar

36 Joswa Kate to Knowles, n.d., loc. cit.

37 Mackenzie, to Kampala, , 21 08 1912, encl.Google ScholarKnowles, to Entebbe, , 31 08 1912, loc. cit.Google Scholar

38 Knowles, to Entebbe, , 2 12 1912, loc. cit.Google Scholar

39 Knowles, to Entebbe, , 11 11 1912, extract copy, loc. cit. Probably the most serious discrepancy was the use of lukiko lwe kyama for ‘committee’ in the Luganda draft, since kakiko seems the most straightforward translation of that word; kyama means ‘secret’.Google Scholar

40 Knowles, to Entebbe, , 2 12 1912, E.S.A. C/113/1910.Google Scholar

41 Minute by Knowles, , 31 01 1913, loc. cit.Google Scholar

42 Knowles, to Buganda, D.C.s, 22 02 1913, copy encl. Knowles to Entebbe on the same day, loc. cit.Google Scholar

43 Minute by Jackson, , 27 02 1913, loc. cit.Google Scholar

44 Minute by Jackson, , 3 03 1913, loc. cit.Google Scholar

45 Knowles, to Entebbe, , 2 12 1912, loc. cit.Google Scholar

46 Cooper, to Entebbe, , 23 03 1913, loc. cit.Google Scholar

47 Ibid.

48 Buganda, Lukiko, Ekitabo kyo Bwami bwabami bomu Buganda (Kampala, 1907).Google Scholar

49 Ibid., p. ii.

50 Cooper, to Entebbe, , 23 03 1913, E.S.A. C/113/1910.Google Scholar

51 Knowles, to Entebbe, , 3 03 1913, loc. cit.Google Scholar

52 Ibid.

53 Minute by Jackson, , 7 03 1913, loc. cit.Google Scholar

54 Knowles, to Entebbe, , 10 03 1913, loc. cit.Google Scholar

55 Browning, to Entebbe, , 13 06 1913, loc. cit.Google Scholar

56 Undated petition, loc. cit.