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Diplomatic Gifts: Rethinking Colonial Politics in Uganda through Objects

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 April 2018

Alison Bennett
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Abstract:

This article examines the material underpinnings of the political diplomacy pursued by Ugandan leaders towards European colonial figures in the late nineteenth century. Imperial historians have traditionally understood the institutional processes of treaty-making, diplomacy and state administration as part of the workings of the European “Official Mind.” As such, analyses have been overwhelmingly based upon written colonial sources such as governmental papers. This article provides an alternative perspective on institutional life in Uganda by demonstrating that material objects also served as sites of political praxis for both the governed and those governing when exchanged in the form of a gift. The products of these exchanges can be found in museums across Uganda, Kenya, and Britain. Their biographies shed important new light on the interactions between the material and political worlds as well as between local leaders and the imperial state, yet they have received little critical attention from historians. This article seeks to reinstate their role into the political process, and in doing so, reconfigures our understanding of these different imperial institutions.

Résumé:

Cet article examine les fondements matériels de la diplomatie politique menée par les dirigeants ougandais à l’égard des figures coloniales européennes à la fin du XIXe siècle. Historiquement, les historiens impériaux ont compris les processus institutionnels de la conclusion des traités, de la diplomatie et de l’administration publique comme faisant partie du fonctionnement de l’“Official Mind” européen. À ce titre, les analyses se fondaient massivement sur des sources coloniales écrites telles que les documents gouvernementaux. Cet article fournit une perspective alternative sur la vie institutionnelle en Ouganda en démontrant que les objets matériels, lorsqu’ils étaient échangés sous la forme d’un don, servaient aussi de sites de pratique politique à la fois pour les gouvernés et les gouvernants. Les produits de ces échanges peuvent être trouvés dans des musées à travers l’Ouganda, le Kenya et la Grande-Bretagne. Leurs biographies apportent un nouvel éclairage important sur les interactions entre les mondes matériel et politique ainsi qu’entre les dirigeants locaux et l’État impérial, mais ils ont reçu peu d’attention critique de la part des historiens. Cet article cherche à réintégrer leur rôle dans le processus politique et, ce faisant, reconfigure notre compréhension de ces différentes institutions impériales.

Type
Institutional Life in Uganda
Information
History in Africa , Volume 45 , June 2018 , pp. 193 - 220
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2018 

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