7 - Urban associations and competition for status

Summary

This chapter attempts to draw together a number of themes. It has been argued that relative status as measured by grade, income, education and occupation provides a framework for interpersonal and intergroup relations and that developments within the industry, which have given opportunities for the achievement of status, mean that interaction takes place in a highly competitive environment. Nowhere is this competition for prestige greater than in the various urban associations which operate both at Nsambya and in Kampala. Personal advancement in these associations, signalled by the achievement of office, brings both standing and power within the urban community. This chapter will illustrate this by way of an extended case study which outlines events surrounding competition for office in one urban association, the Railway African Union, during 1964/5. The material will document a range of themes which have already been noted in previous chapters including the significance of departments and sections as political arenas, and the extent to which ethnic alignments cut across those derived from the industrial framework. For it will be shown that during contests for control of the union claims are made that allegiances among groups of leaders, and between leaders and rank and file members, are determined by tribal identity and interest. This raises the question discussed briefly in Chapters 3 and 5 of the significance of ‘tribalism’ in a modern industrial context.