Political History of Uganda

Sources: Google Maps

     The concept of Uganda as we understand it today did not come into existence until 1886. The earliest kingdom in the region was Bunyoro-Kitara, possibly founded towards the end of the thirteenth century. The empire of Bunyoro-Kitara under the Bachwezi rulers had its centre in the western part of Uganda and included, until the fifteenth century, modern Bunyoro, Buganda, Toro, Karagwe, Ankole, Busogaand some parts of mordern Lango. This represented nearly three-quarters of modern Uganda.

The period of mythology in this kingdom is called the reign of the Batembuzi. This period lasted about five reigns roughly from 1250 to 1325 and it was succeeded by the rule of the Bachwezi under Ndahura. The Bachwezi evolved a centralized monarchy which had representatives in different districts and provinces. As a result of this system they administered a large empire which included Buganda, Karagwe, Toro, Ankole and Busoga. Their rule lasted from about 1350 to 1500.

      At the beginning of the sixteenth century, the Luo under Isingoma Mpunga Rukidi superseded the Bachwezi and founded the Babito dynasty. They were initiated into the monarchical ceremonies by the Banyoro people who were connected with the kingly ceremonies of the Bachwezi.

Owing to the Luo migration, into the Bunyoro-Kitara region, the empire of Bunyoro–Kitara broke up. Independent states emerged, the most significant of which were Bunyoro under the Luo Babito, Ankole under the Bagabe, Buganda under the Bakabaka and a number of Busoga chiefdoms.

The Luo migrants set up several related dynasties and sub-dynasties. Of these the dynasty of the Babito of Bunyoro was the most important. Other dynasties were in Bukoli, Bugwere, Bulamogi and Bugabula in the western part of present Eastern Uganda. These dynasties had similar political institutions and royal regalia to the Babito of Bunyoro, but were not under the effective political control of Bunyoro.

Up the end of the seventeenth century Bunyoro still exercised influence, if not control, over Buganda, Ankole, Rwanda and Karagwe, but, from then onwards, the secondary states gradually gained complete independence.

     By the time of colonisation in 1890s (by the British) Uganda as we know it today had two established kingdoms, namely Bunyoro Kitara and Buganda. In 1890 the Imperial British East Africa Company headed by Sir William Mackinnon sent Captain F. D. Lugard to Kampala as its representative. In Captain Lugard's own words: "On October 19^th I received instructions from the Directors to go to Uganda, which by the Anglo-German Agreement of July, 1890, had been definitely placed within the sphere of British influence. To this part of the agreement France had taken no exception (Lugard, 1900, p.106).

 The great object was to obtain a treaty which would give us a right to intervene in the internal affairs of the country (Lugard, 1900, p.108)."

     Captain Lugard arrived in December (1890) and set up his quarters on a Hill known as Lugard Hill in the Old Kampala area. He found king Mwanga newly restored to his throne and made an agreement with him by which Lugard promised to protect king Mwanga and his people. One of the conditions for protection was that all dealings with Europeans should be through the British company and that Buganda should be open to trade with other countries, while European missions should be permitted to teach religion to the people.

Captain Lugard feared that the few soldiers he had at his disposal could not quell any rebellion that might arise in the country. So he decided to go through Ankole, Toro, Bunyoro, Acholi  and Across  Lake Albert and bring back the trained Sudanese forces which Emin Pasha had left behind in the Sudan after Stanley's departure.

When Lugard arrived back in Kampala in 1890, he found two rival kings, Kabarega and Kasagama contesting the throne of Toro. Lugard decided to back Kasagama who was residing in Kampala, having been ousted by Kabarega. Lugard returned to Toro, and restored Kasagama to the throne leaving with him sufficient Sudanese forces to sustain his power.

Lugard's journey to the Sudan also brought friendships with other chiefs in Acholi and Ankole and the presence of Sudanese soldiers in Uganda is recalled by the establishment of small family settlements of Nubians at Bombo , Entebbe and Arua.

     On his return to Kampala from the Sudan, Captain Lugard found considerable disagreement between the Catholics and the Protestants on the question of government appointments.There was also a strong difference of opinion about the seat of the imperial Company's adminstration. Several directors of  the company thought that the headquarters should be in Mombasa, seeing little profit in the considerable expence of maintaining an armed force in Uganda without the prospect of a profitable trade in that country. In January, 1892, the Catholics and Protestants still disagreed over the disposal of offices in the government. King Mwanga was on the side of the Catholics, Captain Lugard supported the protestants. The two sides begun fighting. The protestants won the first battle because of superior weapons. Mwanga and his followers retreated to Bulingugwe island in Lake Victoria, only to be summoned back by Captain Lugard.

When they returned he made a new arrangement for sharing offices between Catholics and the Protestants which was accepted as a fair compromise by both sides. So peace was restored.

After settling the matters, Lugard retuned to Britain in August 1892. And as Lugard notes:

"The outlook in Uganda was now fairly reassuring. Peace reigned among all three factions, and the mission work was increasing wonderfully. I left Kampala on June 16^th , and a letter signed by Mwanga and the great chiefs of all parties was sent after me addressed to the Queen , imploring her majesty not to withdraw from the country, and asking for my return. Arriving in England at the end of October, I found that the British Government had finally decided not to come to the assistance of the Company , and that Uganda was to be left to its fate. A short and sharp campaign was at once entered on. The influence of the church missionary society and of other philanthropic societies was invoked, and the pens of a thousand writers in the press warned the government that the feeling in favour of the retention of Uganda was too strong to be disregarded (Lugard, 1900, p.126)."

     In London Captain Lugard told the British government to end the system of rule by the company because the company had insufficient funds to carry out the administration. The C.M.S. in Britain supported him. The British government sent Sir Gerald Portal, who held an important position in Zanzibar, to Uganda to prepare the way for starting a British administration. He arrived in Kampala in March 1893, and signed an agreement with king Mwanga and his chiefs on behalf of the British government.

     Sir Gerald Portal promised that Britain would protect king Mwanga and his people. In return king Mwanga would allow the British government to collect taxes. This was the end of the rule of the Imperial Company and the beginning of the direct responsibility of the British government in Uganda. The formal announcement of a protectorate over Buganda was made in the London Gazette on the 19^th June 1894, and in August of the same year Colonel Colvile, who had succeeded Sir Gerald Portal signed yet another treaty with Mwanga similar to the provisional one Mwanga had made with Portal. On August 27^th, 1894, by order of her Majesty’s Government, Uganda proper was formerly declared a British protectorate, and Portal’s treaty was ratified. Before his departure, Colonel Colvile launched decisive military campaigns against the unyielding ruler of Bunyoro, Kabarega. Colonel Colvile enlisted the help of the Baganda against Omukama Kabarega of Bunyoro , who had strongly resisted the British take-over of Bunyoro.  After Kabarega’s defeat in 1896 the counties of Bugangaizi and Buyaga were given to the Baganda as a reward for co-operation.            

     In the west Major Cunningham made a treaty with the Engazi, the Prime Minister, of the Omugabe’s kingdom of Ankole in 1894 and another treaty was made by Major Owen with the Omukama, ruler of Toro, in the same year. Within one year from 1898 Major Macdonald, intending to expand British influence northwards, made more than thirty treaties with the Chiefs North-East of the Nile. The Protectorate opened up  the territory lying north and east of the Nile—today the Eastern region of Uganda—with the aid of a distinguished warrior and administrator of Buganda, Semei Kakungulu.

 In 1896 he started building a series of military posts in Lango. He extended his scheme all the way to Teso , linking all strategic positions behind him with military posts. In Teso  between 1899 and 1904 he established a well-ordered administration with a hierarchy of chiefs. Indeed the same administration was applied in Lango and later to what came to be the Northern and Eastern regions.

With approval by the British government in 1899, Berkeley despatched Lieutenant Colonel Cyril Marty to the chiefs of the Acholi, the Madi, the Alur, and the Bari. Lieutenant Colonel Cyril Marty renewed contacts with the chiefs and established four permanent posts in the four territories.

It was not until 1910 that the British Colonial Government fully established itself in Acholi, after some application of force to crush the Lamogi rebellion. In 1914, after the adjustment of the boundary with the Sudan, the northern part of Uganda effectively came under British rule.

References:
Ibingira, G. S. K. (1973). The Forging of an African Nation: The Political and Constitutional Evolution of Uganda from Colonial Rule to Independence, 1894-1962. New York / Kampala, Viking Press / Uganda Publishing House.

Lugard, F. L. (1900). The Story of the Uganda Protectorate. London, Horace Marshall & Son.

Ssekamwa, J. C. (1984). A Sketch Map History of East Africa.

Cheltenham, Hulton Educational Publication Ltd.